Swimming Pool in the Basement - whoops.

The weather, here in Chicago, has been a little erratic recently.  Two weeks ago we were -6 degrees, with a wind chill of -25 degrees and had 18 inches of snow on the ground.  Last week, we crept up into the sixties, then rain, and all of the snow melted.  We have a bit of a split weather-personality going on here.  And now it's back into the 30's... weird, huh?

But the person, I think, who's the most disconcerted about it, is the owner of the home that an agent in our office showed this weekend.  It was a million dollar plus, home.... that he knew something was wrong with as he walked in the front door.  The home was vacant, and had been for some time.  As he walked in the door, he noticed the house was very humid (not good in the winter)... and that there was condensation on the windows, and on the ceiling of the cathedral ceiling in the living room... with streaks from the "dripping" water crawling down the sides of the ceiling, and dripping onto the living room carpeting.

Your first guess, (leaking roof) would be wrong... as he made his way through the once-elegant home, he found that a water pipe had burst in the basement.  And from the amount of water in the basement, it's clear that the pipe had been running non-stop for weeks... the sump pump had been working continuously in an attempt to keep up, but to no avail... the basement was a swimming pool.

After calling the listing agent, to notify her of the problem, it came out that nobody had shown this home (other than this instance) for at least 2 weeks prior.  And nobody had been in to check the home in this weather. 

The showing agent estimates that there's been an excess of $100,000 worth of damage done to this home.  Now, it's unlikely that the agent would have "prevented" the break from occurring.  But it's highly likely that they might have prevented the additional damage to the living room ceiling, and potential damage to windows due to condensation, had someone popped into the vacant home, on a regular basis... (say even once a week?).

Ladies and Gentlemen.  Check your listings. Burst pipes is but one problem that can happen to a vacant listing.  Burglary, fire, water damage, a door left unlocked, vandalism, an animal could make it's way inside and do damage (squirrel raccoon)... pay some attention to your listings.  You don't want to get the phone call that this agent received... and you sure as heck don't want to have to contact your absentee owner with the bad news.