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I have home in Vernon Ct,now for sale.I capped oil in July,left thermostat at 68.Paid neighbor to keep snow shoveled for oil delivery and front door.Thru winter had separate thermostat plugged into outlet set for 55 in window toward neighbor in case furnace quit,red lite,it didn't.Water on,water heater on and refrig on.,no problems,he checked weekly.Electric bill $16,oil used Dec 31 96 gal.,Feb 10 104 gal.,haven't seen another delivery.Will be returning April to spend some time.
When we leave for extended period, we do the obvious i.e. forward mail, stop newspaper, cancel cable/internet, unplug all appliances, shut down desktop.
Shut off water in toilets, washing machine, and leave heat at 50 degrees (live in northeast).
We have great neighbors, who all have the code to our garage, and will call if there is a problem. They plowed our 325+ driveway several times this winter and when they knew we were coming home, turned the heat up.
All good advice given. Possibly the only thing I would add is to leave the a/c set on 80 or so if you are in an area where the temps get pretty warm.
Here is the hot humid south, it would be a kiss of death to leave a house with everything off in the summer.
Thanks for all the good advice everyone! Lots of useful info for things I hadn't thought about!!!
I did think about renting the house out, but since I'm coming back and the house is paid off and taxes & insurance are paid (so I don't have any house expenses beyond utilities), renting a storage place and moving my things back and forth to it seems like a waste of time & money. And I know I could rent the house furnished, but it creeps me out to think of a stranger touchin' my stuff!
Keep the good advice coming, if there's more to be had!
We left one time for two months and didn't know any of our neighbors very well nor did we have family nearby. We did give our cell phone numbers to one neighbor and told him to call us if he felt there was something we should know about. If he had called and we felt he needed to investigate further, we then would give him code to garage door opener and location of house key in the garage. Not as good as having a walk-through each day, but better than giving open access to someone you really don't know too well.
The person you choose as your "caretaker" can be anyone you trust from a neighbor to a close friend or relative. As you agreed a walk though is the way to best protect your property even if you have to pay a per day cost to do it.
As an example....
We pay a close friend $7 a day (or whatever you choose) to walk through our house and feed/care for our two cats. Our caretaker also has a letter giving her the right to call police & fire should bad things happen and to explain why she was in our home. The payment is necessary to keep all on a business level for our insurance.
For the following reasons, I don't agree with the suggestion of notifying the Sherrif's department.
1) Having the police stop by and check your doors and windows draws way more attention to the fact your house is empty than your neighbors checking on your house.
2) The least number of people who know your house is vacant, the better. Your trusted neighbors can call the police if/when necessary.
For the same reason, I wouldn't hire a plumber to drain the pipes. You can drain your own pipes. There's no reason to drag yet another person into knowing your house is vacant.
For the following reasons, I don't agree with the suggestion of notifying the Sherrif's department.
1) Having the police stop by and check your doors and windows draws way more attention to the fact your house is empty than your neighbors checking on your house.
2) The least number of people who know your house is vacant, the better. Your trusted neighbors can call the police if/when necessary.
I was going to say the EXACT same thing, but Hopes beat me to it.
When you request the police check, you're essentially creating a record saying you're gone. BAD idea. As much as we want to think the police are honest (I believe most are), they are still strangers and should be treated as such.
Another thing would be to secure any sensitive documents you have. (car titles, bank statements, credit card info, etc.).
Set a big pair of workboots next to the front door.
Even though you will have your mail forwarded, I would still have someone check your box. We get a ton of junk that is just addressed to the address, not to a person. They put them in all the mail boxes. A build up of that kind of mail would make it obvious you were not there.
Also would need to watch for any thing haning on doorknobs. When I lived in an apartment complex, it was obvious which apartments were vacant by the ones that had the pizza ad flyer things still hanging from their doorknob after a few days.
In addition to mowing the yard, remember to water it if needed or any other plants around the property.
Consider timers - one in the evening in the living area that would come on and then go off around bedtime when one in the bedroom would come on for half an hour or so and then go off. Some even say to have a tv or radio come on like that for noise.
Do you have trash pickup? Is that something that will be cancelled? If not, is there a neighbor that would like an extra can and also make it less noticeable that no one is living there?
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