05 Mar How to Leave Your Home Vacant

There are tons of things to do when exiting your home during a move. If this is a long-distance move and you have no intentions of returning, then take a moment and browse the options that you have to leave your home vacant for the next person. When people come to purchase your home or the apartment complex enters, cleaning may not be the right thing to stress over. So Sam, what is the proper way to be respectful of the following inhabitants?

• List the Quirks: Take a moment, and room-by-room, use a piece of paper to list the quirks of that particular area. If you’re 3 out of 6, then at least you tried. “Window only rises 1/4 of the way” is a ton more information than most. Drop the paper on the floor in each room and close the door.

• Shut the windows: The nicest thing that you can do is shut the windows when you leave. Windows are an entry point for animals, rain, and teenagers. There are no wet carpets without rain.

• Turn the water and power off: Some people prefer to leave the air conditioner on at 80 when they leave. We suggest simply walking over to the front yard with the yard thingy and turning the water off. We also suggest going to the breaker box and hitting the main switch (in the downward direction).

• Hide the key: Most realtors will clean the home, or the property complex will clean the home after repairs. Lots of people will try to video each room in the house upon exiting; however, hiding the key somewhere for the next real estate agent to find is the last step. Keys are important to the complex as well, but they will re-key your door.

What you do is what’s done to you sometimes. Paying it forward may be getting it in the backwards anyway, but at least you tried. Maybe in the long run, better things will be found when things aren’t to your liking to. If you’re in Tampa, enjoy a call to Sam’s Movers for your move.