Second home tips

[VTrunner]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.

[dewilson58]

Our biggest concerns were fire, water and crime.

Cameras help a lot.

We did get a wifi connected water meter.
Flume. Sends messages when it detects water flow.

We also installed a couple (no need to over do it) smart smoke alarms.

Smart thermostats are nice.
Or Govee to monitor house/garage temps.

We already had a house alarm, but there are a number of easy add-ons.

[UpNorth]

Our biggest concerns were fire, water and crime.

Cameras help a lot.

We did get a wifi connected water meter.
Flume. Sends messages when it detects water flow.

We also installed a couple (no need to over do it) smart smoke alarms.

Smart thermostats are nice.
Or Govee to monitor house/garage temps.

We already had a house alarm, but there are a number of easy add-ons.


All the above.
Cameras are the best devices you can add. The next best thing to "being there". You will have to keep your internet service active, but it is well worth it. Set your heating temperature down to 55 degrees, unplug everything that's not needed, and turn the water off at the sinks and bathrooms. Make sure your driveway gets plowed and your mail is forwarded. And have a neighbor or relative come in and check around at least once a month. It will take a year or two for you to feel comfortable being a snowbird.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Congratulations for moving out of New England, I just flew back yesterday for a family issue, and the house heating had been turned off, so upon arrival, i turned on the oil burner, the gas fireplace and put the electric blanket on the bed and turned it on high! :cus:

Google winterizing a house, and read many of the pages to get all the different issues to consider.

Have copies of all important legal and medical documents in both houses.
Have scanned copies of all of the above documents saved in both houses or in the cloud with long passwords, and a non personal generic user names. .

Draining water lines from houses, if left unheated the first time, usually finds undrainable locations and burst pipes in hard to reach places (of course) after the first winter. Always has happened to me.

For the TV house, search this forum and you will find many detailed posts about the issues to consider here.

[dewilson58]

Agree with North.

The only thing I would add to North............Consider the age of your house and wall insulation.
Outside walls with water pipes could freeze.
Leaving doors open under sinks help with circulation.

There are a number of "shut-down" threads on this site.

:clap2:

[BrianL99]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.

I'm in NH. No worries.

Turn off your water, flush your toilets. Empty your freezer & most of your refrigerator.

Use a Remote Thermostat, with a remote temp sensor for each floor. Set it at 50. Set your Thermostat App to give you a warning if it drops below 45.

Lock your house. Make sure your camera sees your driveway and perhaps the back of your house.

Forward your mail.

Tell your local PD, you'll be gone for the winter.

Have someone you can call, if your inside temp sensors approach 30 degrees.

Stop worrying, nothing to it.

[Stu from NYC]

Makes life to complicated for us. Told wife ok to move but we own one home.

Travel north during the summer.

[tophcfa]

Our biggest and only real concern is freezing pipes. Although our northern home is in a very rural area, we are extremely lucky to have a great neighbor who watches over things for us closely. When at our home we heat with a wood and pellet stove, but when gone we rely on our back up heat, which is oil and forced hot water. We have our oil burner tuned up every fall and leave for Florida with a full 330 gallons of oil in the tank and the heat turned down to 55 degrees. I have a temp stick, which reads our humidity and temperature every hour and sends a notification text to me if the house temperature falls below 50 degrees. If it’s been below zero overnight sometimes that happens with no problems, the heating system just can’t keep up overnight, the temperature recovers during the daylight. One time our oil burner failed (I knew because the house temperature fell below 50 degrees and it was only about 20 degrees outside) and I called our oil burner servive guy and he came and fixed the problem (I showed him where we hid a key to the house). In the mean time, my neighbor fired up the pellet stove and filled the hopper the next day to heat the house until the oil burner was fixed. Another time we lost power for a couple days during an ice storm and my neighbor fired up our generator and flipped the switch’s on our transfer panel to power our oil burner and freezer so we had heat and didn’t lose any food (most falls I manage to fill the freezer with deer meat). Our forced hot water heating system is sealed, so I turn off the breaker to our well when away as insurance just in case we have a water leak. Our house is plumed with pex tubing, which unlike copper, can expand a little bit if frozen so a burst pipe is highly unlikely. Our neighbor uses my tractor to plow out both his and our home and we don’t worry about crime. We don’t have a lot of valuables and what we don’t want stolen is locked in a very secure bolted down safe. Plus, if my neighbor sees a vehicle going up our driveway that he doesn’t recognize, he’ll show up with a shotgun.

[JP]

Just sell your place up north, its not worth the effort and you will sell it eventually. I've played this game now for 10 years and looking back on it I wish I didn't.

[tophcfa]

Just sell your place up north, its not worth the effort and you will sell it eventually. I've played this game now for 10 years and looking back on it I wish I didn't.

Can you tell that to my wife, she doesn’t seem to get it when she hears it from me?

[Stu from NYC]

Can you tell that to my wife, she doesn’t seem to get it when she hears it from me?

Remind her who is king of your ca:crap2:stle.

[asianthree]

Have the lake house, and our regular home up north. Lake house simple to shut down, have been doing it for generations.

We will put our 5 bed 4 bath for sale in couple years. Until then, have smart thermostats, cameras, locks, garage door. We also live in an extremely safe neighborhood, with neighbors that text us even if our daughter, or grandchildren stop at the house. So we really have no worries.

We have a home watch in TV, along with smart everything as up north. After the hot as hell summer in TV, so glad we have multiple homes to escape next summer

Multiple homes is a different lifestyle, some have issues just handling one home, for us multiple homes, just uneventful daily life.

[MX rider]

Can you tell that to my wife, she doesn’t seem to get it when she hears it from me?

We're in the same boat as you. We both just retired, 67 and 66. This will be our first snowbird winter. We kept our home in SW Indiana because my wife isn't ready to leave the grandkids. They're 7 and 9. She wants to wait a few years.

We did plan for this but It's not a longterm plan. I would sell our home here tomorrow if it was only up to me.
Fortunately she knows we can't do this for too long and is already talking about when we should sell. So for now we'll enjoy the best of both places.

[VTrunner]

Thanks for the great tips. I feel much better now about closing up our current house for the winter and still hope to convince my wife to sell and only have TV house.

[Velvet]

When I leave my northern home, I put all really expensive stuff in a bank safe box. Drain the outside pipes and turn the water off to the house. Put water heater on vac mode. Unplug everything except the security cameras, inside and outside the house, and one fridge. I have a standby generator. The smart thermostat tells me the indoor temperature and I can change it. I have a friend who is also a home property manager check on the house once a week, I pay him. He turns the water on, waters the plants, turns each tap on and flushes the toilets. Then turns the water off again, reads the gas meter (as the gas people have been playing games with me) and emails everything to me. The snow is shoveled by the city as I am a senior and if the grass gets too long before I return, my neighbor cuts it for me. And I have excellent property insurance.

I forgot, I have a master box for keys outside, not very visible, like real estate agents. In an emergency I can get anyone I want to go inside (including me if I can’t find the keys).

[Papa_lecki]

We keep the cleaning lady coming to the house up north. She does light cleaning, water plants, etc - may not be necessary every week, but every 2 or 3.

In FLA, home watch. Need someone you trust.

[Smalley]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.

We tried to be snowbirds and gave up after less than one year. It was the worrying and the details and the trips back and forth that convinced us to sell up north and buy here. For us, a great decision. We didn't have family to call upon and we didn't want to take advantage of neighbors. The burglar alarm was a pain up north. There were 2 false alarms. Maybe getting rid of the alarm system would be a good idea if you live in a low crime area. Maybe the cameras are all you need.

[daca55]

I live in southern NH and own a home in the Villages. I downsized from a house to a condo in NH. Leaving the condo is easy as I don’t have to worry about snow removal. I shut the water off and bleed pressure at every fawcet. I leave the temp at 55. I monitor the temp and if it gets down to 45 I call someone to check furnace. I have been doing this for about 10 years now and never had a problem. I doubt I will ever sell my condo in NH because I have to many friends and family here and I like getting away from the heat in FL in the summer.

[LuvNH]

We have a home in Concord NH. Will never part with it, beautiful area and right now it is still in the 80s up here with no humidity, of course that will change soon. We have all but one of our family in the area and will end up here when the time is right. We did try full time in TV, but the summers are getting unbearably hot and I had to get out in the summer.

I almost forgot the reason I replied to your question. You have had some good information on closing your home for winter so let me say the emotional things. Right now you are drinking the kool aid and loving getting out of the Vermont winter. Do not make any sudden decisions until you have been in TV for a few years. You are young, but as you get older home and family mean an awful lot more than a winter in Florida.

[LoisR]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.
Turn off the water, set the heat at a temp you like, have someone check the house periodically, reroute your mail, then head south and enjoy.
We also have various home sensors that allow us to check in on the house.

[rustyp]

Don't sell your home up north. You will love changing your lifestyle twice per year (and despise summer heat in Fl). If you are at all close to family after 10 - 15 years in TV there is a high probability you will move back up north to complete the circle of life.

[Bay Kid]

Turn off the water, set the heat at a temp you like, have someone check the house periodically, reroute your mail, then head south and enjoy.
We also have various home sensors that allow us to check in on the house.

Don't forget to turn off your ice maker and hot water heater.

[kendi]

All the above.
Cameras are the best devices you can add. The next best thing to "being there". You will have to keep your internet service active, but it is well worth it. Set your heating temperature down to 55 degrees, unplug everything that's not needed, and turn the water off at the sinks and bathrooms. Make sure your driveway gets plowed and your mail is forwarded. And have a neighbor or relative come in and check around at least once a month. It will take a year or two for you to feel comfortable being a snowbird.

And don’t forget to protect any plumbing that is on the outside walls. Insulate and/or leave cabinet doors open that holds the plumbing.

[kendi]

Don't sell your home up north. You will love changing your lifestyle twice per year (and despise summer heat in Fl). If you are at all close to family after 10 - 15 years in TV there is a high probability you will move back up north to complete the circle of life.

Agree. Thought I’d spend the rest of my years in TV. Now I know my last years will be up North.

[dougawhite]

We live in Vermont, I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?


An unattended home way up north can rapidly deteriorate. My home in NH developed HUGE ice dams all along the 80' of roofline. And I was only living 45 minutes away at the time! See this video my son shot of me chopping through the 18" thick ice!
https://youtu.be/ZUIvv6qTDwM?si=pvQSITXT0Xnvf6tS
Then there's also the rodent invasion... Yikes, better to sell it and rent an Air BnB if you want to return for a long visit.

[Topspinmo]

Too big of headache for me, I would just rent till I decided to move. After couple years renting you may change you mind or sell and move?

[rustyp]

An unattended home way up north can rapidly deteriorate. My home in NH developed HUGE ice dams all along the 80' of roofline. And I was only living 45 minutes away at the time! See this video my son shot of me chopping through the 18" thick ice!
https://youtu.be/ZUIvv6qTDwM?si=pvQSITXT0Xnvf6tS
Then there's also the rodent invasion... Yikes, better to sell it and rent an Air BnB if you want to return for a long visit.

5.5 million US households own vacation homes. How do they prevent rapid deterioration ?

[Lisanp@aol.com]

Do you have a central station alarm system? If so, add flood detectors to a few areas of the house. Mine are in the basement by the water heater and in a 2nd floor bathroom directly under the air handler in the attic.

[psjordan]

Lots of great advice in this thread. We own a lake home in NY and a home here in TV. The four things that make leaving our home in NY unattended a no-brainer are:
Permanent standby generator
Cameras
Remote thermostat
Great neighbors

To each his own, but we have no plans whatsoever to sell the lake house. It's beautiful in the summer months, we have friends we'd miss and lake activities would be sorely missed.

The only downside we've come up with so far is that we are (were) both active outdoors in the winter/snow (XC skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, etc.) and we do miss a good snowstorm and getting outside in the cold air for the day (laying out by the pool in TV is a great consolation prize however). We may be the only bozos in TV that check the weather back north in order to fly back to catch heavy snow.

Otherwise you'll figure out the mechanics of coming and going, and you'll have to decide if it's a "pain" or "too much work". For us, we love both places and the opening/closing/worrying is way, way down the list of concerns. That may change as we age, but if we get there, well we'll address it then.

[mamahaffen]

We are concerned about the winter months as well. The current plan is to sell the house and buy a condo...no worries about upkeep (plowing, mowing, etc) and any HOA fees are cheaper than our tax bill. Allows us to be up ANY time with the kiddos and not have as many worries. Will still invest in a camera system.

[Cheapbas]

And don’t forget to protect any plumbing that is on the outside walls. Insulate and/or leave cabinet doors open that holds the plumbing.

Yes to this, learned the hard way. Leave all cabinets with pipes open; kitchen sink, bathroom. Shut off water if you can, make sure your heating system doesn’t need a constant water supply, I think they are a closed loop.

[tszatko@rochester.rr.com]

Cameras and smart thermostat! We have a house on a lake in western NY. Turn off water and drain lines. Don’t risk frozen plumbing if something happens with the furnace. I learned the hard way and had to replace all plumbing one year. That won’t happen again!

[skippy05]

Sell the house in Vermont, you can afford the houses but not afford the stress.

[Causey]

Have owned a second home in Vermont over 20 years, deep in the woods. I have drained all the pipes, shut down the power by throwing the main breaker every year, never a problem. We had planned to keep the Vermont second home for another 10 years, after 1 year in TV we decided to sell it. Too many activities in TV we enjoy, got to Vermont and it seemed liked we were back at work, missed the TV lifestyle. Will continue to vacation in NE in the summers, but I don't need 20 acres in the woods any more. Time to move on.

[msilagy]

I have done this for 13 years - up north I have my home monitored by MarCell (I do not need to leave my internet on) MarCell is monitored thru Verizon (do not need a verizon acct either). You set the temp limit, I set at 45 and leave my thermostat on 55, If the furnace goes off I will be notified immediately as he temp will drop to 45 or under. I can go online and see MarCell readings at any time. At that point a heating co could service. Cost for MarCell service is $11 a month and you choose which months. I am gone 6 months - shut off main water line, open cabinets, cover toilet bowls with saran wrap and you are good to go. I use a MarCell unit in my Fl home to monitor humidity while I'm gone during summer months.

[Gsorace]

After a few years of doing the same, my wife suggested we sell our newly built "northern" home. She got tired of cleaning for days every spring. We used the proceeds to purchase a 2nd Villages home, right across the street! Good luck.

[Switter]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.

Whatever you do, shut off your water at the main source. Open all your faucets too. It's the single most important thing.

[davephan]

Many good suggestions were made about having a security system, remote thermostats, and cameras. When you’re over 1,000 miles away for months, you need to be alerted if there are problems at a home where you are gone for many months.

The security system will not have frequent false alarms if it’s properly designed and installed. If you have no security system, one good solution can be found at the Alarm System Store online. There’s a DSC system that has two-way wireless, so you don’t have to fish wires through your house. The new wireless is a drastic improvement from the old wireless days.

Don’t use overpriced monitoring, like ADT. You can self monitor for about $140 a year, and/or monitor with a central station for another $140 a year. These are available from The Alarm System store.

Power outages can cause problems. A whole house automatic starting generator is the ultimate solution, but costs about $13K to $20K. UPS units are needed on some of the electric devices to keep them running between the loss of the utility power and when the generator starts running.

Ecobee makes an excellent remote thermostat, which you can monitor remotely and receive alerts if there are problems. Ecobee also has remote temperature sensors that you can place around your home.

A remote electrical power switch is important for your cable/DSL/fiber Internet and router boxes. The remote power switch automatically pings Google and other sites. If the Internet boxes fail to communicate, the remote power switch automatically cycles the power to reset the Internet boxes. This reduces or eliminates the need to have someone drive to your home to manually reset the Internet devices.

Some people use the remote power switches to reset their camera systems or other devices that need to be reset. There are electrical remote power outlets available on Amazon that can be controlled from your cellphone from anywhere.

There are Lutron Caseta electric switches and dimmers that can replace your switches and dimmers. The Lutron Caseta switches and dimmers can be remotely controlled from your cellphone to make your home appeared to be occupied. The Lutron Caseta switches and dimmer switches can be programmed to turn on lights at sunset and off at sunrise. The sunset and sunrise times are for your zip code, and follow the sunset and sunrise times perfectly throughout the year. Program the schedule one time, and you’re done.

Other things are needed too, like s snow removal service to make your home appear to be occupied. Water leakage sensors and low temperature sensors can be attached to the security system.

You can make the Internet service more reliable if you subscribe to different Internet providers. The different Internet providers are connected to a combiner box. If one Internet service goes down, the other Internet service still works.

You have to decide how much money you should throw at the problem. You could be very aware of what’s occurring at your unoccupied house, be completely unaware of potential problems, or somewhere in between.

2-Outlet Remote Power Switch - IP Power Switch, 276 Reviews (https://5gstore.com/product/8897_5gstore_remote_power_switch_-_2_outlets_-_remote_automation_and_remote_rebooting_-_app_controlled.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr6yqhvjZgQM Vsp5aBR0OnQJ_EAQYASABEgI-c_D_BwE)

[Stu from NYC]

My goal as we got older is to simplify and not own what we can easily rent or borrow or go on vacation with.

So happy we have done this

[Escape Artist]

My wife and I are looking to move to The Villages as soon as we find the home that meets our needs. We are planning to keep our current home for summer use, at least for a couple years.
While this is an exciting time, I am a little nervous about leaving the current home for 5-6 months over the winter months. We live in Vermont and have relatives that can look in on the house as well as having cameras etc. setup.
Leaving the house in TV I would engage a service to watch but I was curious if anyone had experiences they could share on leaving a home in the frozen north?
We've factored in the added expenses of a second home but it is more about any unknowns that could come up when leaving a home empty for six months?

Thanks for any tips anyone may have, good or bad.

Lucky you that you can afford to pay taxes on two homes! Vermont’s property taxes are going to increase, if that’s even possible, because the state is going to take over appraisals.

As for summers in NE, this past summer was horrific with catastrophic rain, below average temperatures, and many days of haze, smoke and poor air quality from the Canadian wildfires. The weather is too much of a crapshoot in general except you can count on long, cold winters that last 6 months (not to mention mud season!). Vermont is a very dysfunctional state and it’s getting worse by the day. I think you’ll find Florida more amenable in every way, especially financially/economically.

[alicevt]

We are snowbirds from Vergennes. All the comments about what to do are great. We use simplisafe with lots of sensors, keep the oil heat at 50, open doors under sinks, have a neighbor check once in a while, have driveway plowed, turn off wifi and dish network. Never had a problem in VT but had a leak in sprinklers in The Villages. The utility turned off outside water, we always turned off inside. We will fix the problem when we get there. Enjoy. Look for the green license plates in TV. We are always finding people who live in Vermont or love Vermont. The leaves are beautiful. This summer was awful, but usually love our VT summers and fall.

[rustyp]

Lucky you that you can afford to pay taxes on two homes! Vermont’s property taxes are going to increase, if that’s even possible, because the state is going to take over appraisals.

As for summers in NE, this past summer was horrific with catastrophic rain, below average temperatures, and many days of haze, smoke and poor air quality from the Canadian wildfires. The weather is too much of a crapshoot in general except you can count on long, cold winters that last 6 months (not to mention mud season!). Vermont is a very dysfunctional state and it’s getting worse by the day. I think you’ll find Florida more amenable in every way, especially financially/economically.

Therein is the secret. If you can't afford two homes it will be a nightmare. If you can afford two homes it will probably be the fulfillment of a lifetime of dreams.

[Laker14]

My goal, when working, was to snowbird. When the time came, I was unprepared for the stress I felt leaving my lake house unattended. I got used to it, but it it still is stressful. A lake house is different than a real house, I suppose.
What works for me may not work for you, but what I decided to do was drain the water, and turn off the heat. Probably not great for a house to get to sub-zero temps throughout, but at least my pipes won't burst. Also saves some $ in heating bills.

Even if you heat the home to a minimum of 50F, you might consider having the water drained. Turning off the water will prevent the water from running through burst pipes, but won't prevent the pipes from bursting, and then when you turn the water back on, you will have a mess on your hands.

There is some stress to the snowbird life, no question. But if you can deal with it, it's a great way to live.

Best of luck!

[rjm1cc]

We're in the same boat as you. We both just retired, 67 and 66. This will be our first snowbird winter. We kept our home in SW Indiana because my wife isn't ready to leave the grandkids. They're 7 and 9. She wants to wait a few years.

We did plan for this but It's not a longterm plan. I would sell our home here tomorrow if it was only up to me.
Fortunately she knows we can't do this for too long and is already talking about when we should sell. So for now we'll enjoy the best of both places.

Consider selling and rent for a few months when you go North. Try long term motels etc.

[Stu from NYC]

Consider selling and rent for a few months when you go North. Try long term motels etc.

or airbnb

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

Sell the home and buy a condo ,then you can have the best of both worlds ,without the stress .

[Stu from NYC]

Sell the home and buy a condo ,then you can have the best of both worlds ,without the stress .

Think you nailed it.