Ok, let's talk about what the condition of your listings are that are vacant....
I was recently showing some upper bracket homes, one in particular had a jetted tub....(clearing throat) and it was full of dust and dirt.....and BUGS! Didn't leave a very good taste in my buyers mouth and I don't blame them!
So who's responsibility is it to keep the tub tiddy when the house is vacant? The tidy bowl man?
Also, if you are in a geographical location where it is beginning to get chilly..... now is the time that spiders start moving in, more particularly brown recluse spiders.
A suggestion might be to head to the hardware store or Wal-Mart or wherever and get some of those triangle type sticky traps that exterminators use and put them in your vacant houses......
We had a popular sports figure from town here, bought a house that had sat 1-2 years, it was FULL of brown recluse. How he managed I don't know but he made the corporation be bought it from buy it back.
Fran White, REALTOR®
Reece and Nichols Residential
816-682-3897
www.kansascity-realestate.net
www.franwhite.reeceandnichols.com
Good for that buyer, although I'm surprised they actually bought it back!
I have found sprays at stores that you can spray around the perimeter, inside and out, that keeps bugs away for up to 6-9 months, depending on the spray. I HATE spiders, and love these sprays because they really work. I can attest firsthand, because I use them in my own house! ;-)
I have several vacant listings right now, and took my sprays with me to one of them last week because there were so many daddy long legs in the entrance to the basement, that I just could not make myself go down there during showings. I just opened the door and graciouslyl gestured with my hand that all were welcome to check out the basement...... I am such a chicken when it comes to spiders!
We also get wasps and other flying bugs inside this time of year, and those sprays will work on them as well. I think Ortho puts out one, and I can't recall the brand of the other one I've used.
Ann Cummings, www.AnnCummings.com
The bad thing about brown recluse is they feed off of other dead bugs... (MMMmmmm tasty) and they were telling us here that sprays don't help because recluse hide and then you kill the other bugs and the recluse eat them.
Beats me, I just hate spiders!!