DIYbanter - Second homes. Thoughts?

Many thanks for the useful advise.
Did check with my home insurer and no problem leaving it vacant for months.
Also, did find the idea of a webcam to monitor the house very interesting.
I'll have to research that.

From: "DK"
Subject: Second homes. Thoughts?
Date: Monday, December 11, 2006 1:43 PM

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:53:57 GMT, "JJ" wrote:

This is kinda home repair related.

I'm retiring soon and my wife and I are thinking about becoming snowbirds
in
Nevada to escape these dreadful Wisconsin winters.

I've given a lot of thought to owning two homes and the details that need
to
be taken care of such as snow plowing, shoveling, mail, junk mail,
security,
plant watering, trusted neighbor, furnace failure/freeze alert etc.On the
other hand, I have no experience on what it takes to close up a desert
property for the summer.

Just wondering if anyone has practical experience with the snowbird thing?
Thoughts about both, the cold weather and warm weather aspects?

I know when we owned a lake cottage in northern Wisconsin, every tool I
ever
needed was always at the other house! Didn't matter what it was, or which
house we were at, it was always at the other house! That was just 150
miles
away, now we're contemplating 1,000 miles for 6 months at a time.

Any thoughts or experiences, negative or positive will be appreciated!

Thanks all,

Sounds fun.

Find a couple of neighbors or three that will do chores for you and
pick the best one and reward him/her handsomely for their caretaker
duties.

In addition, I'd install a web cam so I could watch the place 24/7
from the 'other' place.