Extended house closing
I am looking for advice on closing up the house and property for an extended period. Is there a long-form FAQ on preparing electrical, plumbing, ventilation. refrigeration systems? I'm concerned about water leaks, electrical use, air circulation and mold.
What is the recommendation for vehicles for battery, tires, sun protection?
What do snowbirds do?
Can you better define extended period of time?
They make solar battery tenders for your vehicles if you don’t have access to an outlet. Obviously the best option for a vehicle is to have it garaged and on a battery tender.
If you can’t find or hire someone to check on the residence when you’re gone I’d suggest the following. Close any hurricane shutters, run the A/C at around 82 degrees, get a couple of WiFi based security cameras and put them strategically around the residence so you can see that everything is ok. I believe there are water detectors/sensors as well but I’m not sure how to get notified if there’s a problem.
We’re seasonal residents, so away for months at a time, we have a property manager who walks through our place at least once a week and checks most everything when we’re off island. We also have a house cleaner go through the house shortly before we come back to the island, it gets dusty even if the house is closed up tight.
One of the biggest challenges of seasonal residents is building the network of service providers and trades people. This is where a property manager can be a huge help, even if you don’t rent out the property, which we do not.
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