The Vacant Home Access and Exit SOP

Purpose

This SOP makes every visit to an empty listed home leave the same two things behind: a house in the condition you found it, apart from the work you were authorized to do, and a dated record proving it. Without it, techs leave a thermostat at 68 F in a house the seller keeps at 50, forget to close a water main they opened, or start work beside a ceiling stain they never photographed, and the shop becomes the obvious explanation for whatever is found next. The lockbox log will show you were there either way. This procedure is what shows what you did while you were.

Scope

Covers: any visit by any tech to a residential property that is listed or under contract and has nobody living in it, entered by lockbox, key or agent appointment, for any trade.

Does not cover:

• Turning water or gas back on in a winterized house. That is its own job with its own authorization; see Restoring a Winterized Vacant Home for Inspection.
• Bank-owned or preservation-company properties working under a lender's work order, which carry the lender's own photo and reporting requirements; see Bank-Owned and Preservation Work.
• Occupied listings where the seller is still living there; see Scheduling Around Showings and a Seller Still Living There.

Roles and responsibilities

The handoff that fails most often is the one in the third row: a stop rule fires, the tech calls the agent, the agent says "fine, go ahead" on the phone, and nothing is written. Every go-ahead under this SOP is a text or email the tech can attach to the job.

Procedure

1. Confirm access and conditions before dispatch. The office gets, in writing from the listing agent: the lockbox code or how to get the key, a showing block covering the full job window plus 30 minutes, which utilities are on, the alarm disarm code and verbal passcode, and whether the house is winterized. Acceptance: a single job note holding all five. If any is missing, the job does not go out; the office calls the agent, and if the answer still is not in writing by end of day, the job is rescheduled. Hazard: a vacant house is a lone-worker site, so the note also records the tech's expected exit time, and the office calls the tech if no exit report has arrived 30 minutes after it.

2. Check the outside before you open anything. Park where you are visible, walk to the door, and look and smell before you touch the lockbox: no forced entry at doors or windows, no signs of someone living there such as a car in the drive, lights or voices, and no gas odor. Acceptance: all three clear. If you see forced entry or occupancy, do not enter; step back to your vehicle, call the agent, and call the police if anything suggests someone is inside. If you smell gas outside or at the door, do not enter and do not operate the lockbox, doorbell, lights or any switch; move well away from the house, call the gas utility's emergency line and 911 from there, then the agent.

3. Enter, announce, and disarm. Open the lockbox, photograph the box and the key, then knock and call out "contractor, coming in" before opening the door. Disarm the alarm within its entry delay. Acceptance: door open, keypad reading disarmed, no response to your announcement. If the alarm sounds and the code fails, step outside, call the monitoring company with the verbal passcode before they dispatch, then the agent; do not continue the job until the alarm is resolved. If anyone answers your call or you hear movement, leave, close the door, and call the agent and the police from your vehicle.

4. Photograph the house before you touch anything. Walk your route to the work area and photograph each room you pass through, the work area from two angles, ceilings below every bathroom and the kitchen, and any staging furniture near your work. Acceptance: timestamped photos of every room on your route, taken before tools come in. The stop rule is the one this SOP exists for: if you find damage on arrival, such as a water stain, standing water, a broken window, a fallen ceiling, droppings or a missing fixture, stop. Photograph it close and wide, do not start work, and message the agent with the photos. If water is actively leaking, go straight to step 5's meter check and, if it confirms a leak, close the main, stay out of any wet area with outlets, cords or a panel in it, and tell the agent you did. Resume the job only on the agent's written go-ahead.

5. Record the utilities as found. Before you change anything, write down: water main open or closed, the water meter's leak indicator moving or still with every fixture off, the breaker panel state (any breaker off, as found), gas meter valve on or off and whether it is locked or tagged, thermostat mode and setpoint, and water heater on or off. Acceptance: six entries, each a value, not a tick. If the main or fixtures carry a winterization tag, do not open the main, whatever your job needs; stop and tell the agent the job needs a de-winterization first. If the gas meter is locked or tagged, only the utility reopens it, so any gas work is off for today. Hazard: if the panel sits in a wet area or shows scorching, do not open it; note it and tell the agent.

6. Do the scoped work, and keep the house showable. Lay drop cloths under and around your work, protect staging furniture, and move nothing heavy without the agent's written permission. Acceptance: the work matches the scope on the job, and nothing outside the scope was touched. If you find something out of scope, photograph and note it, and do not fix it; the owner has not authorized it. If a showing arrives despite the block, close any open access panel, crawlspace hatch or ceiling opening, or stand at it, tell visitors you are working for the seller and to ask their agent any questions, and continue only after they leave. Hazard: each tool or opening you introduce carries its own trade controls, and an open hazard left unattended in a house strangers walk through is yours.

7. Put back anything you changed, and prove it works. Return every utility you touched to its as-found state from step 5 unless the agent instructed otherwise in writing. Repressurizing water: open the main slowly, stand to the side of any joint you worked on rather than over it, watch it for 5 minutes, then check that the meter's leak indicator is still with all fixtures off. Re-energizing: covers on before the breaker goes back, then test any GFCI receptacle on that circuit with its test button and reset. Acceptance: every step 5 entry matches, or the difference is in writing from the agent. If the meter indicator moves after you restore water, close the main again and treat it as step 4's damage stop.

8. Walk out the way you walked in. Retrace the route: every faucet off and no toilet running, doors to the outside locked and windows latched, thermostat at the step 5 setting, lights as found, staging furniture and rugs back where the arrival photos show them, trash and drop cloths out. If you used a torch or soldered, stay and check that area and the space behind it for at least 30 minutes after the flame was out before you leave. Acceptance: exit photos of the work area and each room on the route, matching the arrival set. Hazard: on the way out, any hatch or panel you opened is closed, because the next person through is a buyer, not a tradesperson.

9. Return the key, lock the box, and report. Re-arm the alarm, lock the door, return the key, close the lockbox shackle and spin the dials if it is a combination box, and photograph it closed. Send the agent an exit report within 1 hour: work done, utilities as found and as left, anything found on arrival, anything out of scope. Acceptance: the agent acknowledges, and the office has the record within 1 hour. If the key is missing, or the box will not close, do not leave the key under a mat or in your truck; call the agent and wait for an instruction. Hazard: a key you take home is a security breach for an empty house, so the default is that it never leaves the property without the agent's written permission.

The record this produces

Each visit adds one entry to the job, readable by anyone later, holding:

• arrival photos and exit photos, timestamped, by room;
• the six as-found utility values and the six as-left values;
• any damage found on arrival, with photos and the agent's written go-ahead;
• every change to the house and the written instruction behind it;
• the exit report as sent, and the agent's acknowledgment.

Who reads it: the office when the agent asks "was that stain there when you arrived?"; the owner if a claim is made; and, rarely, a buyer's lawyer after closing. It is written for the third reader.

Worked pass

An HVAC tech, booked for a furnace safety check the buyer requested, at a vacant listed home. Showing block 9:00 to 11:30.

The stop rule as taken. At 9:04 the tech stopped, photographed the stain close and wide, and found the meter indicator turning with every fixture off. The ceiling was below the bathroom but well away from any light fixture or outlet. He closed the main at 9:09 and confirmed the indicator stopped, then texted the agent four photos: "Damp ceiling stain below upstairs bath on arrival, water meter showed a leak with everything off. I closed the main at 9:09. Please confirm I can do the furnace check, and whether water stays off."

The go-ahead. The agent replied at 9:31: "Thanks. Yes, do the furnace. Leave the water off, seller is calling a plumber." That reply went into the job.

Reading it back against the procedure. Step 4 failed and the job continued only after a written go-ahead, as the stop rule requires. Step 7 shows the one place as-left differs from as-found, with the instruction that authorized it attached. The tech also hung a tag on the closed main: "Water off 9:09 by [shop] due to leak. Ask listing agent before reopening." Without that tag the seller's plumber, arriving next day, might reopen it on a ceiling nobody had looked at since. If the stain had been next to a light fixture, step 4's hazard line would have kept him out of that hall entirely until power to that circuit was off.

References

• Your listing agent's lockbox and showing-service access rules
• See related: Working in a Vacant Listed Home
• See related: Restoring a Winterized Vacant Home for Inspection
• See related: The Real Estate Job Intake SOP