How properties are actually selected
Not through research. Through observation — the cues that mark a house as empty are visible from a passing car, and they are remarkably consistent: accumulated mail and flyers, an uncleared walk after a snowfall, lighting that never changes, no vehicle, blinds fixed in one position for weeks, and grass nobody has cut.
This is genuinely good news, because every one of those is removable and none of them require spending money on hardware.
What works
- Mail and parcels collected, flyers cleared off the step
- Walks cleared within a day of snowfall — a bylaw requirement anyway
- Grass cut on schedule through the growing season
- Bins out and returned on collection day, so the property has a rhythm
- Lighting on varied timers rather than one lamp on a fixed cycle
- Blinds moved between visits rather than left in one position
- Visits at irregular times rather than the same hour every week
- A vehicle in the driveway occasionally, if you can arrange it
- Exterior lighting confirmed working before you leave
- Vegetation trimmed back so entry points are not screened from the street
What matters less than people think
Alarm systems are useful and worth having, but on a vacant property their value is narrower than the marketing suggests: they detect entry that has already happened, and monitoring dispatches someone after the fact. They do not remove the cues that made the property interesting in the first place.
Cameras have the same limitation with an extra one attached — footage of somebody entering an empty house is evidence, not prevention, and on a property nobody visits it may not be reviewed for weeks.
Neither is wasted. Both are less effective than simply not looking empty, and considerably more expensive.
The insurance trap
This is the part most owners never check. Many policies restrict or exclude vandalism and theft coverage once a property has been vacant beyond a defined period — commonly around thirty days.
That means the loss you are protecting against may be precisely the one that no longer responds. Spending on cameras while the underlying coverage has lapsed into restriction is the wrong order of operations.
Ask your broker specifically how vandalism and theft coverage behaves during your absence, and get the answer in writing before you decide what else to spend.
Renovation and long-term vacancy are different
A furnished house that looks lived-in is a much less interesting proposition than a visibly empty, boarded or under-renovation property. Long-term vacant properties attract a different problem set: unauthorised occupancy, copper and fixture theft, and use of outbuildings.
For those, the calculation changes — the property cannot be made to look occupied, so detection speed becomes the main lever. That means shorter visit intervals rather than better hardware.
If something has happened
A crime in progress, or anything suggesting somebody is currently in the building, is a 911 matter. Nobody should be entering a property where there is evidence of forced entry to find out.
After that: document before anything is touched or tidied, contact your insurer promptly, and secure the opening — because an unsecured door or window means weather and animals have been entering by the same route ever since.
Related questions
How do you handle keys and access to my property?
Access information is treated as the most sensitive data associated with a property, because it is.
Keys are held under recorded custody: who has a key, when it was issued, and when it was returned. Keys are never labelled with an address. They are not left at the property, under anything, or in an unsecured location.
Alarm codes, lockbox codes and smart-lock credentials are handled separately from ordinary property information, are provided only to the person attending a specific visit, and do not appear in reports, notifications or general records. Nobody who does not need a code for a specific attendance has it.
Every entry to the property is logged: who attended, when they arrived, when they left, and why. That log is part of your property record and is available to you.
Where a property has smart locks, time-limited or single-use codes are preferable to a permanent shared code, and codes should be changed when arrangements change. Where a lockbox is used for a listing, its code should not be reused for property-care access.
Who actually enters my home?
You are told who attends, and every visit report names the person who attended and records their arrival and departure times.
This is the question that matters most to anyone handing over a key to an empty house, and it deserves a specific answer rather than a reassuring one. Ask any home-watch provider — including us — for specifics before you engage them: who will attend, whether they are employed or contracted, what verification has been performed on them, and what insurance is in place.
Be sceptical of unsupported claims. "Fully insured and bonded" and "background checked" appear on almost every home-watch website in Canada, and they are worth exactly as much as the documentation behind them. Ask to see a certificate of insurance. Ask what specifically was checked and when.
Where contractors attend for trade work, they are there for a specific arranged appointment, with a representative present for access, and their arrival and departure are logged the same way.
Does an empty house attract break-ins?
An empty house that visibly looks empty does. An empty house that does not look empty is a much less interesting proposition.
Properties are generally selected on visible cues rather than any knowledge of who lives there: accumulated mail and flyers, an uncleared walk after a snowfall, unchanging or absent lighting, no vehicle, blinds in the same position for weeks, and untended grass. Every one of those is removable.
The practical countermeasures are unglamorous and effective. Mail collected and flyers cleared. Walks cleared within a day of snowfall. Grass cut. Bins out and back on collection day. Lighting on varied timers rather than one lamp on a fixed cycle. Blinds moved. Visits at irregular times rather than the same hour every week.
One more thing worth checking: many policies restrict or exclude vandalism and theft coverage once a property has been vacant beyond a defined period. If that applies to your situation, the loss may not respond the way you assume. Ask your broker.