Snowbird Season: Getting a Florida Property Ready Before You Arrive

If you close a Florida house in May and come back in November, you are leaving it empty through the exact six months our climate does the most damage. Heat, afternoon storms every day, and humidity that never really drops.

What happens while you are gone

• Algae on the north and east walls. Those sides stay damp. A wall that was spotless in May is commonly tinted green by October.
• Black streaking down the siding. Summer is peak growth season for the organism that causes it.
• Green film on the driveway and walkway, which is the slip risk nobody thinks about until someone carries a suitcase over it.
• Screen enclosures and lanais grow a film on the screen itself that cuts the light noticeably.
• Gutters packed with six months of leaf drop and storm debris.

The case for doing it before you arrive

Two reasons, and the second one matters more than people expect.

First, you arrive to a house that looks like the one you left, instead of spending your first week organizing contractors.

Second, growth is far easier to remove early. Algae that has had one summer comes off with a routine soft wash. Lichen that has had three summers has rooted into the shingle surface and takes longer, costs more, and never looks quite as good.

What to book

For most seasonal homes a pre arrival visit is a house wash, driveway and walkway, and a gutter clear. Screen enclosures and pool cages too if the house has them, which after a wet summer it usually needs.

If there is a pool cage, add the screen and the deck. That is the area you will actually use first.

You do not have to be there

This is normal for us. We work at seasonal properties across St. Johns County all the time with the owner a thousand miles away. We need outside water on and access to the yard. We send photographs before and after, and we invoice remotely.

If you have a gate code or a neighbor who keeps an eye on the place, that is all the coordination it usually takes.

The timing

Two to three weeks before you arrive is the sweet spot. Late enough that it is still clean when you walk in, early enough that anything we find, a cracked gutter joint or a soft fascia board, can be dealt with before you are living there.

If you are heading back down this season, get in touch now. The weeks right before the season starts are the ones that book out first.