Leaving Home for a While? House Watch Services & Tips to Prepare
Whether you’re leaving your main residence and heading south for the winter, or closing up your summer house for the season, you want to leave your home in good hands. The last thing you want is to leave hope and chance in charge while you’re away. Doing so could mean anything from burst pipes and damaged windows going unnoticed, to regular maintenance getting forgotten.
Today we’re going to talk about tips to prepare your home when you leave town, and what home watch services can offer. There are plenty of gadgets and technologies on the market these days that can help with home monitoring, if you want to go the DIY route. You can also consider using a home maintenance and service provider to handle your house watch services–whether you’re in town, or away for a long stretch of time.
Smart tech is your friend
There are many “smart” tools available to help protect your home and aid house watch services when you’re away. Embrace them! Gone are the days of leaving your home to fend for itself in the chilly winter months.
Pro tip 1
Install a smart thermostat that allows you to monitor the temperature in your home, wherever you are. You can set low temperature push notifications to your phone, alerting you when the temperature in your home drops too low. Getting these alerts when systems go awry enables you to avert disaster before it strikes.
Pro tip 2
Install a water flow monitoring device. This device protects against all leaks, but is an indispensable tool in the prevention of catastrophic water damage. Customizable settings allow you to set allowable water flow parameters for when you’re home — allowing normal water use, for example, to use the shower, washing machine, or dishwasher. But if you’re away, set an alert for, say 30 seconds of water usage. This way, if disaster strikes (think a burst pipe), not only will you be alerted that there’s water running, the app will shut off the water at the main so it won’t run continuously. Crisis averted!
Pro tip 3
Install water bugs and automatic shut-off valves in hard to reach, or hard to access places — these devices alert you if something is wet and will turn off the unit with the problem. Think heating and cooling equipment in attics, or hot water storage tanks.
Pro tip 4
Smart security apps and cameras can also be helpful when you’re away, allowing authorized users to access your home to check on things. If you use a house watch service, that company can monitor all the apps keeping watch over your home, and respond as needed if something looks amiss.
Rely on trusted professionals
We get it. The technology for home watch services can be overwhelming. If you don’t want to invest the time and energy of doing it yourself, consider signing on with a home maintenance service company. That company will sit down with you to create a custom home monitoring plan, taking into consideration best practices and any known issues that may require special attention.
When you sign on with a company for home watch services, they’ll create a customized checklist specific to your home. The company resource who visits your home (weekly, typically) does everything from flushing toilets, checking mechanicals, looking for running water or leaks, seeing if windows and the roof are damaged, and more. The checklist gets more detailed based on exactly what your unique home needs, and if you have issues that have historically cropped up, they will be included as well.
When you use a reliable company, they should document their visits. Which brings us to our next point:
Expect follow-ups and documentation
The benefit of using a home maintenance company is you’ll have the same trusted resource visiting your home each visit. That means he or she will be familiar with your house, and can spot issues or abnormalities from week to week. After each visit, a work order will be created, shared and the visit documented in the customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Over the months and years, you’ll have full transparency about what maintenance and service work has been done seasonally, year to year, and beyond. There shouldn’t be any surprises, deferred maintenance, or leaks that go unnoticed. By tracking your home’s maintenance and repair history, you’ll be equipped to keep your house in tip-top shape.
Cover your bases: historic problems and surprises
Having documentation of all of your service and repairs also gives you a handle on which historic problems to stay on top of, while also reducing the chance of a surprise maintenance or repair issue cropping up.
As a homeowner, you want to stay in front of as many issues as possible. Using smart technology can help you stay on top of issues and reduce the likelihood of major problems. Layering in a home maintenance company to assist with the management of your home takes your care to another level.
If you’re considering a home maintenance and service company to provide home watch services, contact MEC. We’ll be happy to keep your home safe and sound while you’re away for a few months, or watch over your vacation house in the off season.
Get in touch with us today to hear how we can customize your home watch services.