Closing Up a Park City Home

Heat stays on, full stop

IBHS recommends never letting an unoccupied home's thermostat drop below 55°F, and a second home that sits empty for weeks at a time is exactly the scenario that recommendation is written for. Turning the heat off to save money while the house is empty is the single most common cause of a frozen-pipe call on a vacation property.

Someone local needs a key

A caretaker, a neighbor, or a property manager who can get inside within the hour matters more than any amount of preparation, because the difference between a small leak and a flooded lower level is almost always how fast someone found it.

Shut off and drain any exterior hose bibs, and if there's a sprinkler system, make sure it's been properly blown out — a system with a backflow assembly needs a licensed irrigation contractor for that, not a handyman visit.