Both as a friend and as a Realtor, I sometimes end up taking care of vacant homes for people. Often I get asked for my “checklist” of what to look for and how to take care of a home. When someone is asked to care for a home, it’s often a simple, “will you watch over my home for me” with no real guidance or instructions, and while that works for a short vacation trip, it doesn’t work when the homeowner is gone for a much longer time period. As a result, I’ve written out these instructions to help the many people who ask me for help.

One thing I would suggest is up front, determine how the person taking care of the home is going to be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses. There will be some things that regardless of how much “stuff” the homeowner leaves behind, he won’t have left enough or the right things and the person caring for the home will have to go buy – whether it’s light bulbs or insect spray or leaf bags. Does the homeowner leave $100 with the person taking care of the home and then send more money as needed? Does the person caring for the home keep receipts and then settle up at a set time? It’s up to you, but it needs to be decided in advance.

When it comes to caring for a vacant home, there are differences based on location – the issues you will face in a southern climate are different then those you will face in a northern climate, but there are some very basic starting points. First is to define why you are taking care of it. Watching a home for someone who is away on vacation is different than watching a home for someone who is deployed in the military for an extended time period and will be coming back to their own home in several months, or even a year or two later.  You want to make sure that the home isn’t ticketed by the local municipality for not having mowed the yard, that it doesn’t get damaged from a storm or a sewer backup that no one catches until it’s a big problem or you definitely want t make sure the home isn’t marked as “empty” by thieves.  All of which are totally different than keeping a home in a show-ready state when it’s on the market to be sold. As you go through my list, please keep that in mind.

Take care of the exterior – make sure the yard is watered and mowed and weeds trimmed (and that included not just flower beds but the cracks between the sidewalks and driveways). Keep vines under control as they can grow up and force their way into a home through windows and cracks. In the fall, rake the leaves. In the winter, at the minimum if the home is not being shown, open the garage door and drive a car through the snow from the street to the garage and out to make it look like the home is being used and shovel the walk. If the home is for sale, then shovel the drive and the walks (this helps to prevent a buyer from slipping and falling on the snow as well). If you have an exterior storm drain close to a door (in St Louis, we have a tendency to have them close to exterior  basement doors), keep them clear of leaves and debris – if they get covered and the rain water can’t go down the drain, it will go back into the home. Keep downed branches and brush picked up and take out any dead bushes.

Pick up the free newspapers, phonebooks and marketing materials that are left on the doorstep and on the door handles and in the mailbox. Even when the mail is stopped, you will periodically have a temporary mailperson assigned to the route who will deliver the junk mail without paying attention to the fact that it is an empty house, so check the mailbox periodically.

When the seasons change and it gets cold, make sure that hoses are disconnected and taken inside, and that outside faucets are turned off from inside the home if at all possible. If there is a sprinkler system, disconnect it and take off the multi-hose connections at the faucets. Sometimes I invest a little bit of money (a couple of dollars) in putting the Styrofoam covers over outside faucets if I can’t find the inside faucet shutoffs. Make sure that all water is allowed to run out of sprinkler hoses and the end caps are taken off as well. If you are in an area where children may turn on the faucets to play with the water or neighbors may help themselves to watering the yard or washing the car with your water, you may want to disconnect the outside faucets (just put a note in your files so you remember that they are shut off or put a note at the shut off valves inside the home) If a home is really vacant and no one is going to be there, then the utilities may be turned off and the water shut off and antifreeze put in the system (toilets and water heater will be drained then) but a sign goes up warning people or someone WILL use the toilet and then it is a mess (in which case you have to carry bottles of water to the home and manually flush it)

After any large storm, someone should walk around the outside of the home and check it for damage and walk around the inside of the home and check for broken windows, damaged roof, leaks, water coming UP drains, etc. Any damages should be taken care of right away. If a hurricane is coming, put up the shutters and boards.

Bugs are a way of life, but spiders will take over a vacant home in a heart beat. Spray the interior and the exterior periodically, especially around exterior lights, exterior doors and windows – inside and outside. Take a stick and knock down the cobwebs even if it is close to Halloween, you don’t want spider eggs hatching and the more webs you have, the more neglected the home looks. In some areas, you may want to put out mouse traps, bug glue traps (both those that go on the floor and those that hang down from the ceiling) and cockroach motels.

Water – Run water down the sinks and tubs/showers periodically to prevent the pipes from getting dry enough that sewer gases come back up (I do it at least once a month). Flush the toilets periodically – water will evaporate from the toilets leaving nasty rings – MAKE SURE when you flush that you stay around long enough to make sure that they stop flushing since the seals can dry up, chains can get hooked up, etc and the water can continue to run indefinitely with no one in the house to catch it (again at least once a month). Gaskets dry out. Both laundry and dishwashers need to be run every few months to ensure that the gaskets and hoses don’t dry out too much or they will leak when they are run. Also the garbage disposal should be cleaned before the home owner leaves or accumulated soap, food particles, etc can essentially gum it up to the point that it will freeze and become inoperable.

My parents once had the water supply line to the ice maker for their refrigerator go haywire while they were out of town on a long trip.  They came back to find their entire house flooded. After that they turned the water off to their home whenever they left town for more than a day or two and they would have to turn it back on when they got home again before they could get a glass of water, for many that would be overkill, but after having the water flood their kitchen, and then be absorbed by the carpet in the dining room, family room and living room and then seep into the basement and flood the basement and have to deal with the mold and mildew for years (and the collateral damage of not only the floors and walls that were ruined but cleaning and reupholstering the furniture, paintings were ruined , boxes of things stored in the basement were ruined, etc) they took no chances.

Electricity – If the utilities are on, the home owner may want to invest in motion detector lights or lights on timers that will come on periodically to give an illusion that the home is occupied. You may want to unplug the garage door opener. And turn off all the big appliances at the breaker box (just put a note that they are turned off). If there are outside electrical outlets, and the home is in an area where someone might “help themselves” by using the home’s electricity, shut them off at the circuit breaker box.

Likewise, if possible shut off any outside phone jacks so no one runs up a phone bill.

Periodically check the thermostat – if it’s newer and has a battery, make sure the battery doesn’t go out, in which case the thermostat won’t work. When the seasons change, someone has to reset from one season to the next – turn off the a/c and turn on the furnace, turn on and off humidifiers, etc. In a hot, humid climate, the a/c may be left on just to keep the moisture down in the house to keep the mold and mildew from growing

Water heaters can be turned to vacation settings to keep utility bills lower.

Any refrigerators left in the home can be turned to their lowest setting (freezer and refrig)

Light bulbs and toilet paper and some hand soap (and if you’re really nice some paper towels or a small hand towel) should be in the homes as people looking at the homes (and those taking care of the home) do need to use the facilities). (I have small garbage cans under the bathroom sinks and kitchen sink (or plastic garbage sacks) that I periodically take home and empty (empty homes don’t have trash pickup).

If a home is being shown for sale, someone needs to check on the “nice cleaning”. Sometimes it’s a matter of dusting as well, or cleaning the windows (inside may stay clean but outside won’t). Periodically the floors need to be swept if people have tracked in leaves etc (you can ask the agent for shoe covers if the floors are carpeted to keep the carpets clean).

If there is a pool or hot tub, it may need to have the chemical balance checked periodically, so instructions and chemicals may need to be left by the homeowner.

Check the refrigerator, they do go out while they are running. If you stop using the refrig, make sure to unplug it and block the door open so you get enough air circulation inside so it does not develop mold and mildew inside.

Believe it or not, things that aren’t being used break. I walk through a home and look for “odd” things – is there a leak that has developed somewhere, is there a doorknob that is loose, is there a window that isn’t closed properly or that has cracked from a tree branch hitting it in a storm, a door that isn’t locking easily – I look for security issues as well as preventative maintenance as well as things that make a home look nice. I also try to keep air fresheners in the home and if the home has ceiling fans I’ll keep them on low so the air continues to circulate regardless of temp, to keep the house from smelling stale. Herbal tea bags can help keep drawers and cabinets smelling nice.

I sincerely hope that this helps you as you care for a vacant home. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know. I’m always looking to improve this list.

All over the US there are empty houses at the moment. Some are foreclosure and pre-foreclosure homes, some are empty because the homeowners relocated for a new job and haven’t been able to sell. Who’s taking care of them? Some things you can just turn off and leave, but other things need to be maintained and checked periodically. I went to preview one home the other day where the grass and weeds were taller than I am (I’m 5’1″ tall). I’ve gone into homes where the basements were so full of spider webs that I walked out feeling like I needed to go spray myself with insecticide and hope my hair wasn’t full of spiders. I’ve seen some where the bathroom pipes had burst and 2 rooms were flooded. One had broken glass throughout the home. Another had a tree branch sticking through the garage wall and the garage roof was covered with huge tree limbs from a storm. I’ve gone into homes that have doors left unlocked by a previous showing agent and have sat that way no one knows how long. The list goes on and on. All lovely homes, all on the market, but being neglected. The listing agents hadn’t been by to check them out in a very long time and the home owners weren’t in the local area.

If the property is Bank owned, the bank may not actually send anyone to visit the property for several weeks after the foreclosure. The people who come then are basically changing the locks and securing the property. They aren’t there to deal with stuff left behind (especially when its pets that were abandoned). In some cases, but not always, the bank will send a contractor to clean out abandoned property. They will typically shut off the utilities and winterize the plumbing (ie shut off the water to the house, drain water out of the pupes and water heater, then put antifreeze in the system to prevent frozen pipes). Then they will have a contractor periodically check the house.  If you are lucky, they come quarterly. If you are unlucky, they come 2x a year or less. A lot can go wrong in a house in 6 months.

If the property is owned by a person, they are still responsible for its upkeep, even if they are no longer living there.

Grass needs to be mowed, weeds & vines pulled in flower beds, light bulbs need to be replaced, batteries in thermostats and smoke detectors need to be changed, furnace filters need to be changed. When the temperature changes, someone has to reset the thermostat and change it from heat to cool or cool to heat or you can destroy the system. If water isn’t run through the drains periodically, sewer gasses can build up and back into the house. The water in the toilet bowls will evaporate leaving nasty rings unless someone periodically flushes the toilet. Gaskets will dry out on the dishwasher if it’s not run once in awhile. The spiders and other insects will take over quickly if no one is there to spray and maintain control. Checking for backed up floor drains, water seeping into basements, ceiling leaks, storm damage – who’s doing it? In winter, who is checking for burst pipes? Did a mouse get in? Or a bigger creature? Has anyone broken into the home or left it unsecured? The list goes on and on.

If the homeowner is lucky, a good neighbor, friend or relative is stopping in and checking on the home, but if the home is empty for long, that gets old and the neighbor, friend or relative gets busy with their own life and slowly doesn’t come around as often. After a storm, the empty house doesn’t have the priority of their own home. There’s no checklist for them to work off of, so it’s kind of hit and miss what they think to do or not do. They don’t carry things in their car with them when they come over, so they try to remember the next time they come over what it was that they meant to bring, but often it gets forgotten.

The person who ends up taking care of it, is often the Realtor. They don’t get paid for checking on the home, property management is not in most of their job descriptions, it’s the home owner’s responsibility to have someone take care of the home. But in most areas, there is no “company” to hire to stop in and check on a home, and where there are, they are expensive enough that they are only used for very expensive homes or for rentals. The Realtors have enough to do without adding that to their job description, but they know that if they want to get the home sold, they need to make sure that the vacant homes get checked periodically and if something is wrong they let the owner know and arrange to have someone come fix it, because if not taken care of the small problem may become a big problem before it’s dealt with and at that point it will cost the home owner most money and could end up costing a sale. Sometimes the Realtors will discuss with the owners in advance having a handyman on call for minor repairs that come up, or having $XX on hand to buy furnace filters, lightbulbs, etc with, but often the Realtors just take care of it. Some bill their clients at the end, some just eat the cost, some call their clients and get permission first and have their clients reimburse them right away, but it’s still their time, their energy and their effort that keeps it going even if the light bulb got paid for.

But as Realtors we have a responsibility also, to let the listing agent know if there is something wrong when we visit a property. I checked on one of mine recently and the doorknob to the basement was off. Since there had only been a couple showings since I had last been to the house, it was fairly easy to find out who was responsible, but it was irritating to have the other agent tell me the door knob had been “loose” when I know if wasn’t. Someone had tried to force the door open using the doorknob without unlocking the upper lock on the door first – it’s the only way it could have happened. How much simpler it would have been to have called me right away and told me, and let me know so I could have had the neighbor come over and fix it that day rather than my finding it a few days later and then having to call the owner and ask if he knew anything about and track down the neighbor and ask him then track down the Realtors who had shown to talk to them. All it took to fix it was a screwdriver.

It’s time for a few fall musings as I look out over the falling leaves, just a week ago they were such glorious color filling the sky – one of the loveliest falls I can remember. Now they lay trodden on the ground. Tomorrow to be sucked up by the municipal vaucumns or in compost piles or picked up by the trashmen. Our lives move on, just as the leaves do, and we prepare for the winter to come. here are a few reminders of things to take care of as we move into the winter months. Best to do when the weather is still this wonderful mild temperature and the days once more are dry.

Picking up leaves? Many of the municipalities will pick them up if you rake them to the curb, in others you will need to bag them for the trash pickup. My husband and I prefer to put ours in a compost pile, turn them in a year and then put them on the garden beds. Don’t forget to check the gutters and clear them and get any leaves that you can off the roofs and out of the areas where they will rot and cause issues with people slipping.

With all the rain, don’t forget to pick up the fallen brush in the yard. During the winter it can be used as tinder for your fireplace, but a brush pile makes a wonderful shelter for birds and small woodland creatures, then in the spring when the municipal brush pickups are scheduled set it out for pickup rather than now.

It’s time to check your furnace and make sure it’s ready for the winter months, if you haven’t done so already. Change the filter, check the humidifier, reset the thermostat from cool to heat, change the batteries in the smoke detectors, make sure that the furnace has space around it to pull air from.

Don’t forget to disconnect your hoses once you have finished cleaning up everything for the winter. Stretch them out & leave them in the sun to get the kinks out, then roll them up and put them away. If you have “extensions” on your faucets take them off as well. Then turn off the outside faucets from inside your home to help prevent freezing problems when winter really sets in.

Your gas furnace & water heater may not be getting enough air. You can add air to the room by putting in a louvered door, or by adding vents in the wall between that room & the rooms next to it. Typically it only takes 2 large return air duct size vents to be cut in the wall then having a return air duct cover put on them to vent the room into the next room& provide adequate oxygen to the gas equipment.

Clean your bird feeders, bird baths and bird houses. Don’t have any? I made a very simple bird bath out of the tray that went under one of my plants, put a few large rocks in it for the birds to sit on and set it out. In the winter I put a small warmer in it to keep the water from freezing. I use the WildBird Store at Manchester and Baxter in the Lafayette Center for all my birding needs. Doyle and Rebecca have a wonderful supply and are always there to answer my questions about the birds. Make sure to keep your seed in a dry place that is safe from marauding squirrels and other creatures (I have raccoons) – I use a metal garbage can with bricks on the lid.

Now while the ground is wet it is easier to pull the last of those weeds that you don’t want to come back in the fall. These need to really go away, not go in the compost pile if you don’t want them back.

If you want to feed the birds over the winter, you may chose to leave the seed heads on your spent flowers as I do, other wise, now is the time to clean up your garden for the winter.

If you have a fireplace and like to burn wood in the winter, make sure to have the fireplace checked and the chimney cleaned every few years to help ensure that you don’t have a fire. The firebox needs to be checked periodically as well to ensure that there are no cracks in it that would allow flames to escape into the wall behind the firebox and cause a fire in the wall of your home.

Now is the time to plant your spring bulbs! If you have squirrels and chipmunks that like to feast on the bulbs, try cutting pieces of chicken wire to place on top of the bulbs when you plant them. Note that daffodils are toxic so they won’t eat those, but they do love the tulips.

Have a GREAT FALL!! If you need any other contractors to help with minor repairs, let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
Dale