Prep Your Home for Vacation

Hello Yoon Law Firm Family,

I uncovered a blog post by a friend and excellent realtor in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Her name is Wendy Benvenga and she is a class A realtor and a professional who always strives to achieve her client’s goals.

I subscribe to her blog and a couple of years ago she blogged on How to Prep Your Hour Home for Vacation. It’s super informative and I hope you will find it helpful too!

How to Prep Your Home for Vacation

Completing a few simple tasks before you go away can ensure that you return to your home in the same condition in which you left it.

Foil Burglars

You can easily discourage burglars from staking out your house as a potential target. Making your house look occupied is the number one way to accomplish this.

Put lights on timers to prevent your house from sitting dark.
Ensure that doors and windows are locked.
Put mail and newspapers on hold or ask a trusted neighbor to bring them into the house.
Park your car inside the garage.
Don’t leave a phone message saying you are out of town.
Leave automatic sprinklers on to create activity at your house and keep your lawn green.
Continue to run the pump in your pool to prevent algae formation and get a neighbor to check in if you’re gone for a long time.
Trim your lawn before you leave so it doesn’t get overgrown in your absence, or schedule a mowing service to come during an extended trip.
Catch burglars with a motion-sensor light outdoors.

Give Your House a Vacation, Too

Setting plumbing and electricity to appropriate modes saves money and energy.

Unplug electronics, small appliances and other cords.
Put your water heater on vacation mode.
Set the thermostat to a temperature closer to that of the outdoors (85 degrees in the summer works well) but that still protects your pets, plants and furniture.
Unplug your refrigerator and leave the door open if you’ll be gone for a long time or have no food to keep.

Keep Things Orderly

Schedule your pet’s care, whether they stay with a boarder or have a pet sitter.
Tell your security companies you’re going away.
Ask a neighbor to care for your plants or use a self-watering stick.
Take out the trash.
Check your smoke detectors to make sure they work.
Throw out or give away food that will spoil during your trip and seal open packages with plastic bags.
Run the garbage disposal with half a cup of vinegar and some water.
Put a half-cup of chlorine in the toilet bowl to prevent bacteria and stains.
Be sure to dry wet laundry so that it doesn’t sit wet while you’re gone.
Give emergency contact information to a neighbor.

Remote system monitoring is another option to ensure that your home will remain in good condition while you’re gone. If anything goes wrong, these systems can send you a notification, so that you can address problems while you’re away.

Being a homeowner away from home can be stressful, so create peace of mind on your next vacation by setting up your home before you go. Contact us today for more tips to secure your home in your absence.

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Be safe and take care!

Best,
Joseph