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Summer Tips For Palm Springs Area Seasonal Homeowners

Summer Tips For Palm Springs Area Seasonal Homeowners

Summer Tips for Your Vacation Home When You're Away

If you're a seasonal homebuyer from colder areas, you understand the importance of maintaining your Palm Springs vacation home during the summer months. To ensure your property remains in good condition while you're away, consider these essential tips:

  1. Schedule bi-annual AC servicing: Arrange AC maintenance at the start of winter and summer to keep your system running smoothly.
  2. Keep your AC running: Avoid turning off your AC during summer. Set the temperature to 85º F (29.4º C) to prevent furniture and wood from drying out.
  3. Maintain pest control service: Don't halt your pest control treatments. Continuously treat the perimeter of your home.
  4. Explore home check services: Consider hiring a home check company that can periodically inspect your property. They can run water in sinks and showers and flush toilets to prevent sewer gas odor when drain traps dry up in the desert climate.

Tips From a Palm Springs Air Conditioning Professional

Todd Shaw, owner of Desert Air in Palm Springs, advises against setting your thermostat too high when away for the summer. Based on his expertise, Shaw recommends setting the thermostat to 85º F to strike a balance between energy savings and proper maintenance. Desert Air has been serving the area since 1954, and Todd represents the third generation of his family in the business.

Selling Your Home During the Summer Months

If you plan to sell your Palm Springs home in the summer, it's crucial to create a comfortable environment for potential buyers. Our Sheri Dettman & Associates realty team has witnessed cases where buyers walked away from homes with uncomfortably high temperatures. To make your home more appealing, we suggest setting the thermostat to 79º F (26.1º C) when your property is listed for sale.

Disclosure: While we employ Desert Air to service our personal home and office, we receive no compensation for mentioning them here.

What You Ought To Know About Rental Property Insurance

What You Ought To Know About Rental Property Insurance

PGA West, La Quinta

Many home and condo owners choose to rent their properties to short-term renters (less than six consecutive months). While this can be a great income opportunity, you'll want to check your homeowner policy for coverage. If it won't cover your home for short-term rental usage you'll want to look for a policy that does.

In speaking with Richard Cox of The Cox Insurance Agency in Palm Desert, Richard said, "We can now cover most rental homes and condos for short-term rentals at a very reasonable cost. Representing a first in the industry, this Comprehensive Property and Liability Insurance Program was created especially for homes and condos that are being used as short-term vacation rentals."

Short & Long Term Rental Coverage 
Richard further said, "This new program can be used by those who book their homes year-round or by those who only book a few days, weeks or months per year. Owners can now have peace of mind knowing that they are properly covered at a reasonable cost."

So, even if you think you are properly covered, you'll want to review your policy, or have your agent review your policy. "Most vacation homeowners are simply not covered for the risk of short-term rentals." 

Richard Cox can be reached at 760.797.1800.
Email Richard

Question of The Month – HOA Rental Rules

Question of The Month – HOA Rental Rules

Enclave Mountain Estates, La Quinta

Question) Do most communities allow short or long term rentals in the desert?

Answer) Each community HOA has their own rules and regulations including rules regarding renting your property. Some HOA’s allow short-term daily and weekly rentals, while others allow only longer-term rentals of one month or more.

We can guide you on the rental policies governing most popular desert communities. You are also entitled to receive a copy of an HOA’s CC&R’s and rules during escrow and before committing to a property purchase.

Communities without an HOA generally have no rental restrictions although city regulations may be in place.

Does Your Insurance Carrier Consider Your Vacation Home Vacant?

Does Your Insurance Carrier Consider Your Vacation Home Vacant?

I mentioned in a previous post that if you choose to rent out your vacation home or condo, you should let your agent know. But what is considered a vacant home? We checked in with local agent Richard Cox of Cox Insurance to get the scoop on this subject.

“Insurers know that vacant homes have a much higher occurrence and severity of damage,” Richard said. “Most companies want the homeowner to be in the home every 30-days, but will accept a visit from friend or even a hired property watch type service.”


The Vintage Club, Indian Wells

“There are many official and unofficial services of this type offered in our desert. Most carriers will accept this type of service. Many of these services will feed cats, walk dogs, flush toilets and even run sinks and water plants. Some will even send or email a ‘property check report’ to the homeowner at a very reasonable cost. These documented reports are perfect for showing insurance carriers that the property was not abandoned in the event of a claim.”

“Short term rentals are often the most miss-categorized property. Second homeowners really need to let their insurance agent know if they are renting it for periods of less than six months. There is almost nothing worse than finding out there is a problem when you are filing a claim.”

Many of the local property watch services charge as little as $30 to $35 per visit to check a property. Thank you Richard for this important information. Richard Cox can be reached at (760) 797-1800

Better Cell Phone Reception At Home

I don’t normally offer tech tips in my real estate blog, but last week my husband Bill helped me eliminate an almost year long frustration with dropped cell phone calls from my home office when using our Verizon wireless phones.

As you can imagine, my phone is vital to my business. So this was a big deal and a big win. Presto! No more dropped calls and both of our cell phones bars went from between zero and two bars to between three and four bars. If you have high-speed Internet (DSL or cable) read on.

More Bars For Less Than $300

A number of wireless providers offer a solution. For us we purchased Verizon’s Network Extender for less than $300. ATT&T offers a similar product called the AT&T MicroCell. Both products plug into your home or offices high-speed Internet service. They boost your signal strength for multiple cell phones within an average 5,000 square foot area. Installation is basically plug and use.

In a nutshell you get your own private micro cell tower right in your own home. Verizon offers a 3-day return policy but we are definitely keeping ours!

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