[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by asianthree

We have a house sitter. No worries on mail, power outage, weather.

We also use a professional House Sitting Service and they visit our house weekly (Village Watchdogs).
We deactivate our Comcast Wifi so no home monitoring system for us.

[Bay Kid]

All of the above, plus I added cameras. Mainly to look at the sunrise views over the bay. The sunset camera shows anyone coming up the drive. My children make regular visits. I miss home when gone, but I hate the cold and have TONS of fun in my winter home!

[Ed Krik]

Originally Posted by eweissenbach

In our home in Missouri we:
turn the thermostat to 55 degrees;
shut the main water valve off;
shut the water heater breaker off;
shut off the ice maker;
make neighbors aware we will be gone for x amount of time and leave our contact information in case of anything suspicious or in case electricity goes off in the neighborhood;
if we are going to be gone for more than a month we have our mail forwarded to our TV address. If less, we have our mail held for us to pick up when we return;

We do all of the above plus,

Add RV anti-freeze to all drains, also to all toilets (tank & bowl). Antifreeze is safe for pipes.

Cover toilet bowls with Saran wrap to avoid evaporation.

I have forced hot water heat. To avoid problems, I had a plumber install a separate water line to furnace, and added anti-freeze to the heat pipes. The lines are protected to -36 degrees. With this setup I can turn the water of to the rest of the house, and leave the faucets open in the set tub. Worth the expense for peace of mind.

I have a gas hot water heater, so I turn the water heater to pilot lite, not vacation mode, leaving the pilot lite on prevents spiders from building nests under the water heater. When I return for the summer I drain the water tank, and refill.

I turn in all my Comcast equipment, I do not go on vacation mode. Instead I order new equipment about a week before I return. Packages are waiting for me, and I install it my self. This also puts me on new customer service plan with no contract. Doing this for 5 years, no problems with Comcast.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Barefoot

We also use a professional House Sitting Service and they visit our house weekly (Village Watchdogs).
We deactivate our Comcast Wifi so no home monitoring system for us.

Op post was their northern house. When we leave our home up north we hire a house sitter that lives in our home while we are gone. We don’t have any worries about what the snow or other issues. We do have a whole house generator, but a live in person in the snowstorm can take care of any problems they may happen.

[justjim]

It is very important to have a person checking on your house on a regular basis. We have a “professional paid person” in The Villages and up north our Son regularly checks on our house. This is very important for a Snowbird”.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by asianthree

Op post was their northern house.

When we are away from our home in Canada (same deal in The Villages), we hire professional home watchers that check our weekly, and after a storm.