How to Protect a Vacant House: Insurance, Security and Upkeep (2026)

Updated October 2026. How to protect a home that sits empty: away for a season, between moves, or for sale while vacant.

To protect vacant real estate, make the home look lived in, secure doors and the perimeter, add cameras and smart alerts, shut off water you don’t need, and call your insurer before you leave. As of October 2026, many homeowners policies limit some coverage once a home is empty 30 to 60 consecutive days, so check yours first.

Jump to: 💲 Insurance first · 🏠 Barriers and fences · 📸 Smart security · 🤝 Looking lived in · ⏱️ Selling it vacant · ❓ FAQ

Moving for a new job, spending winter somewhere warm, or waiting for a sale to close, you leave a house behind with nobody in it. That’s when small problems grow. A slow leak runs for weeks. A broken window invites a squatter. Tall grass tells the whole street nobody’s home. Here’s what we’d do, in roughly this order.

Does homeowners insurance cover a vacant house?

Partly, and only for a while. GEICO’s October 2026 guide says many homeowners policies contain a vacancy provision that can limit or exclude certain coverages after the home has been unoccupied for a set period, often 30 to 60 consecutive days. Vandalism, glass breakage and water damage are the usual losses that get cut back. The exact rule is in your policy wording, so read it or ask.

Before you leave, call your insurer and ask three things. How many days can the home sit empty? What changes after that? Do they offer a vacancy endorsement or a separate vacant home policy? Get the answer in writing.

A home warranty is a different product. It pays for covered repairs to systems and appliances, not for a break-in or a storm. If you’re selling, Armadillo offers home warranty coverage, a warranty plan some buyers like to see in place. Treat it as a repair plan next to your vacant home insurance, not instead of it.

If the home secures a mortgage, your lender also cares about it sitting empty. Our guide to 6 Tips and Best Practices To Safeguard Your Home Loans covers what to keep current.

Do barriers and fences keep a vacant property safe?

They slow people down, and that’s often enough. A locked gate and a solid fence make a house a harder target than the one next door. Wood, chain-link, metal and palisade fencing all work at different price points. High-security fencing is close to impossible to climb, but it’s overkill for most homes.

Open land is different. A vacant lot, a farm parcel or a long driveway can draw dumping and off-road driving. Hiring interlocking concrete blocks is one way to close an opening that a fence can’t, since the blocks stack and lock together without a foundation.

Planning a new fence anyway? Read Top Trends in Fence Design and Materials: Enhancing Your Property’s Curb Appeal and How To Build A Strong And Durable Fence For Your House before you buy materials. Check local height limits and any HOA rules too.

Which smart security systems help most?

Technology does the watching you can’t do from 500 miles away. Among the automated systems worth considering:

• Wi-Fi smart locks that alert you when someone opens a door, and let you give a code to a contractor for one day.
• Motion-sensor cameras at the doors and the side of the house that nobody can see from the street.
• Smoke, carbon monoxide and water-leak sensors that send alerts to your phone.
• Lights on timers or motion sensors, so the house isn’t dark every night at the same time.
• A smart thermostat, so you can see if the heat fails during a freeze.

If the house will be shown to buyers, be careful with audio. NAR notes that laws on video and audio recording vary by state, and in Florida both parties must consent to audio recording, though not to video. A simple fix is to record video only and post a notice that cameras are in use.

Shut off the main water valve if you can, or at least the supply to washers and toilets. EPA says an average household’s leaks waste more than 9,300 gallons a year. In a home nobody is living in, a burst hose can run for days.

How do you make an empty house look lived in?

Burglars look for signs nobody is home. Take those signs away.

• Keep the lawn cut and the walk clear. A neighbor’s teenager or a lawn service costs less than a broken window.
• Stop the mail. USPS Hold Mail keeps it for at least 3 and at most 30 days; for longer trips, use mail forwarding.
• Ask a neighbor you trust to park in the driveway now and then, take in flyers and walk the perimeter once a week.
• Leave curtains in their normal position and a lamp or two on timers.
• Don’t post your trip on social media until you’re back.

If you pay someone to check on the house, write down what they’ll do and how often. Only give keys or codes to people you’d trust with the house itself.

What if you’re selling the house while it’s vacant?

Empty homes can sell well, but they photograph flat and they need a plan for showings. In NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Staging, 83% of buyers’ agents said staging made it easier for buyers to picture the home as their own. If you’ve already moved the furniture out, Sell or lease a vacant home with photo-realistic virtual staging explains how digital furniture works in listing photos. Curb appeal matters even more when there’s nothing inside to look at, so see How To Enhance Your Home’s Curb Appeal.

Showings need access without you there. With Beycome, a full platform to sell, buy and close, buyers’ agents request times through ShowingTime (where the MLS offers it) and you approve them from your phone. A flat fee MLS listing starts at $99, puts the home on the major home search sites and the MLS, and charges $0 at closing. A key lockbox is an add-on on Basic and Enhanced and is included in Concierge, which is $999 until November 2, 2026 (list price $1,399). Concierge experts work with you whenever you need them, and every decision stays yours.

Beycome has worked with 22,000+ homeowners who saved over $225 million (Beycome internal data, October 2026). Beycome users close deals every day with local agents, brokers, title companies and lenders on the other side, and Beycome works with all of them.

Vacant home questions