Through the year
These are general patterns for the Front Range; conditions vary by property.
- Winter
- Houses stay closed and heated. Furnace-carried smells appear when a blower first runs for a showing. Dry air also lets drain traps evaporate faster than people expect.
- Spring
- Snowmelt and spring storms can raise moisture near foundations. Check basements, window wells and gutters during any vacancy.
- Summer
- Heat speeds spoilage in refrigerators and trash left behind and makes sewer-type smells more noticeable from dry traps.
- Early fall
- A good time to service furnaces and replace filters before closed-house season returns.
What each season tends to expose
- Winter
- Furnace and duct residue, stale closed-in air
- Spring
- Basement dampness, musty closets
- Summer
- Spoiled food, dry traps, trash odors
- Fall
- Unfinished repairs that show up when heating resumes
Checks to schedule by season
- Winter: test the blower and filter before every showing.
- Spring: look at window wells, downspouts and basement walls during each vacancy.
- Summer: confirm that the refrigerator is empty and the trash has gone out.
- Summer: refill traps in floor drains, tubs and unused sinks.
- Fall: replace filters and walk each rental house with the heat on.
Why a calendar helps
A house that is vacant for three weeks in July behaves very differently from the same house vacant for three weeks in January. Heat accelerates biological smells and speeds the drying of trap water, while cold keeps those problems quiet until the next time the furnace or the faucets are used. Thinking in seasons lets a landlord decide which checks to repeat during a vacancy and which can wait for the final walkthrough.
Local weather is not predictable, and a warm spell in February or a cold snap in May can break any pattern. Treat the calendar as a prompt for what to look at, not a forecast. Adjust it based on the property: a house with a finished basement needs different attention than a slab-on-grade ranch with attached garage.
Keeping a short log of what each vacancy looked like, season by season, turns this calendar into a record specific to your own properties after a year or two.
A good companion to this calendar is a short list of properties with their own quirks, such as a house with a damp window well or a unit with a seldom-used floor drain. Linking those quirks to the season in which they show up turns the general calendar into something tailored.
General information for Aurora, not a quote or professional advice. In an emergency, call 911.