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How to Protect a Home When Away in Winter?
kidMike writes "I have just accepted a new job in another state, requiring me to relocate. I'm going to keep my house in New England. As I watch the winter storm problems and electrical outages across the country, how do Slashdotters protect their houses (or cabins) when they are away in the winter? Is there a device that will call me if the temp in the house drops below a certain level? How about a broken pipe flooding the house? How can I keep advised of problems happening hundreds of miles away? (There will still be broadband at the house.)"
That's one easy step anyway...
Option 1: Set up a web cam pointed in your living room, and put a thermometer in view. Then you'll see if there's a broken pipe, and you can read the thermometer.
Option 2: get to know your neighbor.
Is there a device that will call me if the temp in the house drops below a certain level? How about a broken pipe flooding the house? How can I keep advised of problems happening hundreds of miles away?
Well, you could tell your neighbours that you're going away and ask them to check in on everything every once in a while.
Granted this isn't a high-tech proposal, but it would probably be effective.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
How about a broken pipe flooding the house? ... (There will still be broadband at the house.)
Given the potential for there not to still be broadband at the house should the modem be sitting in a few inches of water/have water run through the closet it's in/etc. you may want to consider having whatever data the house outputs get stored elsewhere.
That way, when you check and get no signal, you can get a pretty good idea of what happened right up to the loss of signal rather than find, "hmm, the house is off the net, I'd better buy a plane ticket to find out nothing more than my ISP sucks."
Similarly, you may want to leave a key with a trusted neighbor who can go in and restart any crappy consumer grade gear that's managed to lock itself up.
In short, broadband's a wonderful thing but it's not as "always on" as you'd want for being able to monitor things from a distance.
I'm sure there are plenty of nerdy tools to monitor temp, humidity, etc., just don't use them in place of human beings. You should still loan a set of keys to someone you trust to check it every few days. Sensors and software don't have intelligence to understand what's happening or anticipate a problem before it happens (such as an ice storm knocking out your power, leading to other failures, etc.)
If all you are worried about is burst pipes, you aren't familiar with the results of leaving a building unoccupied. The only way to be sure it will remain in good condition is to have somebody live there every day. Sure, they won't clean the shower the way you like, and they'll break your toaster oven, but the house won't get robbed by a burglar who targets unoccupied houses (happened to my parents at two different houses), won't get burst pipes, won't have a roof leak that destroys everything because it wasn't fixed, won't get infested with pests, and so on.
If you rent it to somebody, you also get money.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Call a plumber experienced with winterizing vacation homes. Install a monitored alarm and have a friend setup as a contact. Try a construction/home maintenance forum.
they're not amazingly cheap, but they use an ordinary phone line, keep calling til acknowledged, are battery backed... they're only meant to monitor power and temperature, but i'm sure you could interface something else if needed.
Renting, at first blush, seems like a good idea.
However, consider that it really only works that way when there aren't any problems.
There are more than enough horror stories surrounding the "absentee landlord" scenario.
What if there really are major repairs that need to be made?
Or, more to the point, what happens if you get troublesome tenants? What if they don't pay or keep the property in good condition?
It'd be recommended to hire a trustworthy management company to rent/manage the house (but, even then there can be problems: like, reporting the property as vacant while collecting rent on it).
And this is your home, not a "rental property." Would you be comfortable coming back to your place with it requiring work to bring it back to the state you remember? Not that renters are bad people... but, you're more likely to see damage to property when the people residing there don't have an attachment to it (same holds for those facing foreclosure... ever seen a foreclosed property where people have poured cement into the pipes for spite sake? I have.).
Sure... could be an opportunity to make some money while away. If the gig is short-term, I'd look for a good friend to mind the place while you're away or see if you have a friend that wants to live there while you're gone.
If the gig is longer term, sell the house and buy something newer/better when you return.
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
that's what leases are for. the lease should cover a certain period of time and there should be a clause in the lease that says that the tenant agrees to vacate at the end of the lease. there will be no extensions.
people rent out houses all the time for winter or summer use in new england (depending on where the house is located). and they have to cover themselves for when they know they'll be returning.
please me, have no regrets.