Everything you need to organize, maintain, improve, and protect one of your biggest investments. Browse the library, print the pages you need, and build a portfolio that grows with your home.
The paperwork from your closing that's worth keeping forever — check off each one as you file it in your Compass Home Portfolio.
The first year sets the tone for everything after. Work through these at your own pace — most take minutes, and all of them make the next decade easier.
Fill this out once, print it, and keep a copy inside a kitchen cabinet door. When water is spraying, nobody wants to search for the shutoff.
Every number your home might need. Fill in your people as you find them — a good contact list is built over years.
| Role | Name / Company | Phone | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Models, serial numbers, and warranty dates — all in one place before something breaks. Snap a photo of each data plate while you're at it.
| Appliance | Brand / Model | Serial # | Purchased | Warranty Expires | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winter is hard on Michigan homes. Spring is when you find the damage early — while it's still small and cheap.
The season for exterior work — everything is easier in good weather, and winter prep starts now.
The most important maintenance season for a Michigan home. Everything on this list is cheaper than the winter damage it prevents.
Winter maintenance is mostly watchfulness — catching small problems while they're still small.
Once-a-year items that don't belong to a season. Pick a month — many homeowners use their closing anniversary — and do them all at once.
Plan one project at a time. Print a fresh copy of this page for each project — the planning is what keeps budgets honest.
A running record of everything you've done to the home. At resale, this log is proof of care — and some improvements may affect your cost basis at tax time.
| Date | Project | Contractor / DIY | Cost | Warranty | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Every color, finish, and material in your home. Future-you, standing in the paint aisle three years from now, will be grateful.
| Room / Surface | Brand | Color Name / Code | Finish | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material / Item | Brand / Source | Style / Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Ten minutes of prep makes your annual review genuinely useful. Fill this out once a year — around your closing anniversary works well.
Bring this worksheet — fifteen minutes, no pressure, no obligation. Just making sure your mortgage still fits your life.
📅 Schedule Your Annual Mortgage ReviewYour home quietly builds wealth while you live in it. Here's how that works — and the tools homeowners use to put equity to work.
Your home's value minus what you owe on it. It grows two ways at once: every payment reduces the loan, and appreciation raises the value. Most homeowners underestimate how quickly it compounds.
Bastien Mortgage clients receive a monthly home value and equity digest through Homebot — a personalized report showing your estimated value, equity position, and opportunities. Watch your email for it.
A flexible line of credit secured by your equity. You borrow only what you use, when you use it — commonly used for renovations and large planned expenses.
A new, larger mortgage that converts equity into cash at closing — often used for major renovations or consolidating higher-interest debt into one lower-rate payment.
A lesser-known option: make a lump-sum payment toward principal and your lender re-amortizes the loan, lowering your monthly payment — without refinancing or changing your rate. Worth asking about after a windfall.
Refinancing replaces your current mortgage with a new one. Sometimes it's a great move. Sometimes it isn't. Here's how to think about it clearly.
Figures and market commentary current as of July 2026 — verify current numbers before acting.
Lower the rate. The classic reason — a meaningfully lower rate reduces your monthly payment and total interest. Shorten the term. Moving from a 30-year to a 15- or 20-year loan builds equity dramatically faster, often with only a modest payment increase. Change the loan type. Moving off an adjustable rate to a fixed one, or removing FHA mortgage insurance once you have enough equity. Access equity. A cash-out refinance for renovations or debt consolidation.
Every refinance has closing costs. The question is the break-even point: divide your closing costs by your monthly savings. If costs are $4,000 and you save $200/month, you break even in 20 months — a great deal if you're staying five more years, a bad one if you're moving next spring.
Also watch the term reset: refinancing a loan you've paid for 7 years into a new 30-year loan restarts the clock. Sometimes the right move is refinancing into a shorter term instead.
You're planning to move before the break-even point. The rate improvement is small after fees. Or you'd be trading a lot of remaining low-rate term for a marginal payment change. A good broker will tell you when the answer is "keep what you have" — that honesty is the whole point of an annual review.
What actually moves your home's value — and how to track it without obsessing over it.
Figures and market commentary current as of July 2026 — verify current numbers before acting.
The market does most of the work. Local supply and demand, interest rates, and neighborhood trajectory move value more than anything you do to the house. Condition protects value. The maintenance pages in this portfolio aren't busywork — deferred maintenance is the fastest way to lose value. Improvements add value unevenly. Kitchens, bathrooms, and curb appeal typically return the most; highly personal improvements return the least. Your Home Improvement Log documents all of it for the eventual appraiser and buyer.
Online estimates (Zillow and similar) are a rough starting point — useful for direction, unreliable for precision. Your monthly Homebot digest from Bastien Mortgage blends valuation models with your actual loan data for a more grounded picture. And the true benchmark is comparable sales — what similar homes near you actually sold for, which is what an appraiser will use.
Check in on your value once or twice a year — your Annual Mortgage Review is the natural moment. Home value matters when you're making a decision: selling, refinancing, removing PMI, or borrowing against equity. Between those moments, the best thing you can do for your home's value is simply take care of it. This portfolio is how.
Why we built this — and who's behind it.
Most closing gifts get thrown away. We wanted to give our clients something they'd still be using ten years later — a system for keeping a home organized, maintained, and understood. The Compass Home Portfolio is that system: a physical portfolio you received at closing, and this library, which lets you print exactly the pages your home needs as it grows and changes.
No logins. No accounts. Nothing you type here ever leaves your own browser. It's simply a well-organized set of tools, from people who think homeownership should feel less overwhelming.
Joe Bastien is the founder of Bastien Mortgage LLC, an independent mortgage brokerage in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After helping more than a thousand families finance their homes, he built Bastien Mortgage around a simple idea: one point of contact, from application to closing and every year after.
Questions about anything in this portfolio? Call or text 616-369-0021 — that's his real number, and he answers it.
Fifteen minutes a year to make sure your mortgage still fits your life. That's the whole relationship — helpful, honest, no pressure.
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