In many homes you may find that instead of having city sourced water, the home will have its own well that supplies water to the home. The good news is that your water bill will be a non factor, the bad news is that you are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of your properties well. A well is a mechanical electric powdered piece of equipment that is installed after the drilling of your well to pump the water from the well into your home. Size vary depending on how much water your home uses, plumbing fixtures, and property size. How deep the well is drilled and what type of pump is used will depend on the locations water table levels. The well pump will draw water to the surface into a specialized pressure tank. Centrifugal pumps are the most affordable and operate with suction. They are placed next to the well, instead of inside it which makes it less hassle to repair, but also limits its power to use in shallow wells only. 
A submersible pump is the most common type of pump, and is placed deep in the ground where the water level is always present. The motor provides power to impellers that push the water to the top of the pipe. Finally a jet pump is the most powerful type of pump that provides stronger water pressure via single-drop or double drop installation types. Some pumps can last as long as 25 years! Pump ratings are described in terms of gallons per minute. An average sized home with 3-4 bedrooms will need between eight and twelve gallons per minute. Remember, under sizing or oversizing your pump may cause reduced efficiency.

With winterization season upon us, here is some introductory info on why you need to winterize a vacant home. Throughout colder areas of the US temps can often drop below the freezing mark during the winter months. A few days of low temps, or even a few hours of extremely low temps can cause the water in a homes plumbing and heating pipes to freeze. Thawing the pipes out can take hours with high powered heating equipment. If that's not bad enough, the frozen water may cause the pipes to expand and break. This could cause thousands of dollars in flooding and plumbing damages in a very short period of time. Damages don't just occur in easy to reach places. Breaks can occur behind walls, under tiled and wood floors, and in expensive boiler parts. Depending on the type of heating system and its source of energy may dictate the winterization recommended for your system. Keeping the heat on at 60 degrees or more will generally ensure that no freeze damage occurs, however should the heating system unexpectedly shutoff without you knowing, major damage could occur. It is for this reason that a vacant home that is left unattended for any extended period of time should be full winterized. The follow up posts will be basic information on the most common heating systems, how they work, and how the homes they are in should be winterized. Until next time be sure to keep a close on your homes to prevent freezing!

Roof Inspections are usually required by lenders and asset managers prior to sending out capital repair requests. The reason for this is usually to prevent large change orders after a capital repair has been approved. The roof may look from the interior ceilings, or may look fine from the ground level but a more detailed roof inspection is required to properly assess the lifetime of a roof. A good roof inspection starts with a good interior inspection of all ceilings. Looking for water seepage, signs of leaks, or discoloration. Carefully checking roof sheathing in the attic also helps determine if water has penetrated the roof shingles. Finally a good review of the exterior shingles, flashing, gutters, downspouts rounds off a well inspected roof.

Lock boxes are a great help for Realtor's and contractors alike. They are a great way of ensuring that other brokers and agents have access to homes for showings and inspections. While most brokers or agents have electronic access to the "blue" lock boxes, most contractors do not. The most efficient way to arrange for easy access for an inspector or contractor is to properly vet them and install a numeric lock box at the home. Numeric lock boxes are far less expensive than electronic lock boxes. They start as low as $10 at some wholesalers.  They are also available at most home depot and lowe's stores for about $25. The codes can easily be changed if desired. Some numeric lock boxes like the shurlok lock box may come with an attached key chain that ensures that the key is returned to the lock box and not accidentally pocketed and removed from site. By installing numeric lock boxes on your properties and sharing the codes with responsible inspectors and contractors you can save valuable travel and meeting time.