Vacation homes have accounted for roughly 5%–8% of all home sales purchases in recent years, according to the REALTORS® Confidence Index.
If your business is in an area where vacationers frequent, you know that paradise doesn’t just happen naturally—it requires preventive maintenance and care. Here’s how you can guide clients to plan and gain maximum enjoyment in owning a vacation house.
Key Takeaways:
- Vacation homes are the icing on the (residential) cake, but require time and work, so advise clients what real estate services and professionals they might want on their speed dial.
- Smart technology makes it easier now to monitor important systems, whether away from the home or on the premises.
- Property managers and communities that help with maintenance remove some of the onus from the homeowner’s to-do list.
Vacation homes tend to have periods of vacancy as owners and renters tend to come and go. But not being on the premises all the time can add risk, particularly if preventive measures aren’t in place.
Even when homeowners prepare, problems may still occur that require someone nearby to tend to emergencies. Pipes may freeze and burst. A tornado may damage the roof. A hurricane may send water gushing through an interior.
On a more prosaic level, food left in cabinets may bring forth an infestation of pests, and garbage outdoors may be a magnet for bears and other wildlife.
With vacation season in high gear, it’s a good time to talk to prospective buyers—particularly first-time vacation-home buyers—about these six considerations.
1. Weather
“Homeowners may not understand the weather, particularly if they haven’t spent time there,” says Diane Saatchi, associate broker at Saunders & Associates on Long Island’s Hamptons area in New York, a popular second home destination where new construction remains in high demand at all price points. “Here in the Northeast, because of a cold winter with lots of wind and snow, there is still a lot of cleaning up to do since trees, branches and shrubs took quite a beating,” Saatchi says.
Having service professionals in the area who can check on their home, especially during times of inclement weather, is useful. For example, if they own a ski house and a big snowstorm is expected, a service that will check that no ice dams build up at the roofline or that their driveway is plowed can stave off damage. The same type of care should go into a house in a warm location, which might be prone to hurricane winds and rain, where they might have someone batten up hatches by closing shutters or bringing in outdoor furniture.
2. Maintenance To-Dos
Recommend that homeowners not get caught up in the fantasy of a second home but consider the essential, down-and-dirty, non-sexy stuff that requires due diligence, such as mechanical systems, roofing, pipes, trees, lawn and gardens, and pests, says Brittany Countryman, a broker with Baird & Warner’s Crystal Lake, Ill., office.
A checklist like one that owners would follow to manage a primary residence works well for vacation property systems and appliances. Vacation homeowners may want to pay special attention to matters that might arise when they’re not present, including how much heating oil they need and its cost, says Saatchi, or they could run out when they’re gone.
In any location there are universal steps to take, says architect John Potter, AIA, NCARB, a partner with Evanston, Ill.–based Morgante Wilson Architects.
“If homeowners have a screened porch, they are smart to have storm-sash windows and even shutters to close it off, so when they return it doesn’t need repair,” he says. Or if they want to pare maintenance for more leisure time, they might build or remodel with parts that require less painting and replacement such as composite decking, he says. Certain systems like heat and water need to be turned off if the homeowner leaves for an extended period. Timers, for other systems like lighting, make things a little easier, Potter says.
Checklists to keep track of what to do and when to do it are available in varying degrees of detail. A simple Google search with terms like “house maintenance checklists” will turn up many options.
Examples can also be found at The New York Times, American Family Insurance, Better Homes & Gardens, HSH and the REALTOR® News Styled Staged & Sold blog.
3. Tech Hacks
Besides heeding the contents of a checklist, homeowners might use smart technology to monitor systems for safety. When connected to the right smart-home devices, apps like Nest and Arlo make it easy to check everything from room temperature to whoever left a package at the door.
Tracking home product information and troubleshooting home maintenance can also be made simple. The Homer app, for example, helps homeowners digitize appliances, manuals, maintenance history, renovations and receipts in one place. It’s built around the idea that a well-documented home is better managed and more valuable. As an alternative, vacation homeowners should list all appliances and contractors in one place or their computer or in a folder and alert others how to find these.
4. Property Management
To ensure routine maintenance and more targeted checks, especially before and after a storm, vacation homeowners can hire a property manager or a watch service, says Angela Graziano, RSPS, broker at Alfred Robbins Realty Group in Naples, Fla. “In Florida, storms can lead to power losses, wind and rain damage, mold and humidity-related issues if a home is vacant for extended periods. After recent storms such as Hurricane Ian, many second-home and vacation property owners have realized how important proactive home monitoring and storm preparation truly are,” she says.
Most companies offering property management services provide customized plans based on frequency of use, services rendered and square footage. Some managers perform concierge-type tasks such as stocking a refrigerator before a homeowner returns, Potter says.
5. Insurance
Because vacation homes are often left vacant for extended periods, there’s a greater risk of an insurance claim. Physical damage may occur without anyone knowing for some time what occurred, which could worsen the issue. There’s also more possibility of vandalism and break-ins. Because of these factors, most companies insist on a larger mandatory deductible for the home, asking the insured homeowner to carry a higher interest and self-insuring a portion of any claim, says Andy Williams, an agent with State Farm Insurance, in the Hudson Valley city of Kingston, N.Y.
On higher-valued homes, companies may require an automatic water alarm that cuts off the home’s water supply at the main source when water is detected, which is something Williams recommends on all second homes. Some companies also may require a reporting burglar and fire alarm, says Brad Hankoff, an agent with Hankoff Insurance Group in Owings Mills, Md. “The threshold for what’s high value may vary by state and carrier,” he says.
In areas prone to inclement weather or natural disasters, like California, Louisiana and Florida, coverage for a second home may be hard to come by or limited. “Be aware,” Williams says, “some carriers no longer write coverage on second homes due to the exposures.” And some also require a higher wind and hail deductible or exclude it completely, says Hankoff.
Vacation homeowners should inquire if the carrier for their primary residence will cover their vacation home. Not all will extend coverage to a vacation property, sometimes because they’re not licensed to write in that state, Hankoff says.
6. Test Runs
Dipping a toe into the market can help a potential vacation-home buyer decide. Is their travel time from their primary residence to the destination reasonable? Have they spent time in the location by first renting or staying at a hotel or inn, even a few times for short-term stays? Will maintenance consume too much of their leisure time? If so, it may be better for them to invest in a community where staff handles maintenance—or hire someone to oversee it full-time or while they are away.
For those who hope to rent out their home, they should check that an HOA or municipality permits doing so and make sure they understand any restrictions. Many require that short-term rentals be for at least a month or longer; some limit the number and size of pets; and some require approving the insurance carrier and amount of coverage, Hankoff says.
The joy of walking along a sandy beach or swimming in a lake or pool, skiing down a challenging slope and gathering around a fire pit may be worth all expenses, but it’s best to be sure. Your guidance on these points and other considerations for your local area will be invaluable to buyers.
Note: The Center for REALTOR® Development’s Resort and Second-Home Property Specialist (RSPS) certification is for real estate pros who specialize in buying, selling or managing properties for investment, development, retirement or second homes in resort, recreational and vacation destinations.
