Consider Winterizing Your Vacant House

While many people think that Texas is hot and dry, we do get a couple of hard freezes a year. For most people it simply means that the heat runs a bit more. However, if your house is vacant and the utilities have been turned off it could result in thousands of dollars in freeze damage.

Snowfall in Texas

Copyright 2011 - Imaged2Sell

I received an email from a client with a vacant house last week worrying about this issue because of a blast of cold arctic air that is supposed to drop temperatures into the teens and stay near freezing for a few days.

Rather than having him turn on the utilities, we suggested he have the property winterized. Locally, we often use Mark Kissee of Kissee Inspections to handle this process for our clients. Winterization usually costs less than $150 (a bit more if there is a pool or a really large house) in our market. This is far less than the time and expense of having the utilities turned back on.

Worried about your vacant house? Winterize it!

Tom Branch, Broker, CDPE, SFR

Is Your Home Ready For Plummeting Temperatures?

Here it comes! The National Weather Service is predicting low temperatures on Monday morning to be close to 20 degrees. Is your home ready?

Is Your Home Ready For Plummeting Temperatures

Copyright 2010 - Tom Branch

If your home is heated, you’ll not likely have any problems inside.

Outside, be sure to disconnect your hoses from the faucets. This allows the water to drain. While many newer faucets have freeze prevention built-in, many older faucets can freeze. If they do freeze, the pipes may fracture and the home can flood.

You can purchase covers for less than $5 at many local stores. These covers help insulate the faucet and keep it from freezing. The cost is far less than repairing damaged pipes behind the brick facade and cleaning up the water damage inside.

Tom Branch, Broker, CDPE, SFR