leaving house empty
We will be snowbirding this coming winter for the first time, and I have a concern about leaving the house unoccupied. Our granddaughter was going to live in the house, she is 18, just graduated and w...
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Left mine empty for two years while I lived and worked overseas. I hired someone to watch it, someone else to do maintenance.
My brother is a stick and brick snowbird (many more of those than RV snowbirds). June-August in Michigan, rest of the year in Florida, big houses in each place. At each end, he has someone paid to watch and take care of the house when he is not there. For a number of years, he had a nephew in the house, when not there, boy was going to university. My sisters would also use the house when they needed extra space.
This is house-sitting, sort of, and it works if it works. It didn't work for me, I had a house-sitter fail to take care of the house, then abandon it, except she used it for storage after she moved out. Your mileage may vary, but I will not be doing that again.
My cousin RV snowbirds, about six to seven months in Florida, but his northern property is a cabin on the lake. Everything there gets closed up for the winter, even if the owners don't go south, and there are security services to watch the properties and keep out vandals and squatters.
Arranging for the care of your empty property is just part of the cost of snow-birding, needs to be factored into your decisions whether to do it and how to do it.
FWIW, I left my house climate controlled, as does my brother. My cousin with the lakeside cabin winterizes it, just as you might winterize a RV, and leaves it cold.
There is a certain risk, one of my climate-controlled houses sustained substantial freeze and water damage when an ice storm knocked out power while I was away. If you are not set up with someone to take care of emergencies immediately, you would be better off winterizing.
The first time, at least, you should consult an expert on this, what it takes to winterize a house depends on what are the systems in the house and how they are installed. Summer homes are often engineered to be winterized, just like RVs. Many permanent homes, and complex residential appliances, are not.
My brother is a stick and brick snowbird (many more of those than RV snowbirds). June-August in Michigan, rest of the year in Florida, big houses in each place. At each end, he has someone paid to watch and take care of the house when he is not there. For a number of years, he had a nephew in the house, when not there, boy was going to university. My sisters would also use the house when they needed extra space.
This is house-sitting, sort of, and it works if it works. It didn't work for me, I had a house-sitter fail to take care of the house, then abandon it, except she used it for storage after she moved out. Your mileage may vary, but I will not be doing that again.
My cousin RV snowbirds, about six to seven months in Florida, but his northern property is a cabin on the lake. Everything there gets closed up for the winter, even if the owners don't go south, and there are security services to watch the properties and keep out vandals and squatters.
Arranging for the care of your empty property is just part of the cost of snow-birding, needs to be factored into your decisions whether to do it and how to do it.
FWIW, I left my house climate controlled, as does my brother. My cousin with the lakeside cabin winterizes it, just as you might winterize a RV, and leaves it cold.
There is a certain risk, one of my climate-controlled houses sustained substantial freeze and water damage when an ice storm knocked out power while I was away. If you are not set up with someone to take care of emergencies immediately, you would be better off winterizing.
The first time, at least, you should consult an expert on this, what it takes to winterize a house depends on what are the systems in the house and how they are installed. Summer homes are often engineered to be winterized, just like RVs. Many permanent homes, and complex residential appliances, are not.
