How to Take Care of Your Empty Home
Seller
If you must leave your Ponte Vedra Beach home before it is sold, there are a variety of factors to consider. You must take care of the property and maintain it, and make sure it is secure while vacant.
The following guidelines will help you maintain and care for your empty Ponte Vedra Beach home:
- Keep the lawn cut and the shrubbery trimmed, or hire someone to do this for you. The reason for a well-maintained home is two-fold: first, you want to keep the home attractive to potential buyers; and second, you don’t want to make the home appear vacant to thieves.
- Ask neighbors or close friends to check on the house at least a couple of times per week. Ask them to report anything suspicious to you (or to your real estate agent if you are not in the area) and to collect any newspapers or fliers which may collect on the front porch. In addition, alert the local authorities that the house is vacant.
- Check all window and door locks before leaving. Often times a window or door lock is overlooked, thus providing the perfect opportunity for a thief. Also, consider timer lights and motion detector lights for additional security.
- Pay a visit to the house, at least every two weeks, to dust, vacuum and wipe down all surfaces. Even though your home is vacant, you will want to keep things neat and tidy for visits from potential buyers.
- If possible, leave behind some furniture for staging purposes. It’s been proven that a furnished house sells faster than an empty one, so keep larger, key pieces of furniture behind to create more of a lived-in, homey atmosphere.
- Keep the air conditioner on, but keep the temperature set higher to avoid costly energy bills. Potential buyers will likely be turned off by touring a stifling hot house, so keeping the air conditioning on is usually a good idea.
- Draw your curtains and blinds to save on energy costs while the house is vacant, and to prevent anyone from peering into the house and noticing that it is vacant. Your real estate agent can open all blinds and curtains before a showing.
Date: 2009-03-18 15:58:00
Views: 552