When you plan your summer vacation trip, you are focused on when, where and how long. You can add even more enjoyment to your trip by ensuring your home is safe and secure while you are away.
Here are some suggestions for all homeowners and those with Fairfax Homes for Sale to help put your mind at ease to add to your normal vacation prep checklist:
- Let you neighbors know you are going out of town and ask them to keep an eye out for suspicious activity.
- If your home is listed for sale, let your real estate agent know about your trip so he/she can keep an extra eye on your home. They will be more diligent if they know the owner is out of town and they can notify the showing agents not to mention this to their clients.
- Tell your alarm company.
- Ask a neighbor to pick up your mail or ask the post office to put a temporary hold on your delivery.
- Set up timers for your lights and maybe a few electronics to give the appearance that someone is home.
- Don’t make your home an easy target by telling your social networks that you are leaving. If you have an answering machine or voicemail, don’t indicate any change there either. A lot of the newer phone systems these days allow forwarding of phone numbers. You can forward to your cell phone and then choose which calls to answer.
- Social posting about vacations is best done upon return, then you have great pics.
- Give your hidden spare key to you neighbor instead of leaving it where it could be found.
- Double-check all windows and doors and make sure everything is locked up, then set the alarm.
- Taking pictures of how each room is set up before you leave may help if you need them later.
- Be prepared for unexpected storms or power surges in your area after you leave by disconnecting major electronics (TVs, PCs, CD/Blue Ray Players). These devicess tend to be sensitive to power hits.
- Change the thermostat while you are away. With no one in the home it just doesn’t need to be that cool.
- If going away for longer than a week, you might arrange to have your lawn cut.
- A large entry safety feature might be disconnecting the garage door opener from the door. Then lock it by re-engaging the manual locking feature that was disengaged when you put on the door opener. Remember to reverse this when you get home.
- For the length of your vacay, take your valuables and put them in a bank safety deposit box or a hidden safe in your home. Popular rooms for burglars is the master bedroom/bath.
Heading out of town for your vacation time is great! Give yourself peace of mind and enjoy the trip more knowing that when you return things will be just as when you left. No surprises is the best result of a great trip.