I’m sharing five tips for how to sell your home when it’s vacant.

How do you sell your home while it’s vacant? The steps for this are different than selling a home that you’re living in. Here are five tips to improve the sale of your vacant home:

1. Call your insurance agent. Sometimes if you skip this step, homeowners insurance may not cover you if you have not let them know. It may cost you a bit more money when the home is vacant, but overall it’s worth a phone conversation. Worst case scenario: Pipes burst, no one is around to see this happen, and insurance won’t pay for it because you didn’t let them know what was going on ahead of time. 

2. Turn on your water heater and thermostat. Turn on the water heater and turn up the thermostat. Right around 59 degrees for both is ideal.

3. Add sensors to the property. This is particularly critical if the property is not in a close neighborhood. Even if the sensors are not monitored by an alarm system, at least lights will come on when someone gets close. This frequently scares people away if they’re up to something. Trust me, you want this security. 

“Make it look like someone is living on the property, people should know someone is still monitoring that home.”

4. Blinds. In the lower level, the blinds should be down during the night and up during the day. Your real estate agent should do this. 

5. Make the property presentable. You want to get the home sold as soon as possible. Have landscaping maintenance come every two weeks to blow leaves, mow the lawn, and so on. 

Overall, you want to make sure you prepare your house, and make it look like someone is living on the property, people should know someone is still monitoring that home. 

If you have questions about this or any other real estate topic, feel free to reach out to me by phone or email. I would love to help you!