Vacant Listing Checks
Handis vacant listing checks are weekly drive-by and interior walks for empty residential listings on the books of Seattle-area real-estate agents, property managers, and investors — from $600 a year for a single residential listing on a weekly drive-by to $1,800 for a multi-property portfolio contract. This is the residential referral channel — single-family homes, townhomes, small-multifamily under residential management. We are not a commercial-building service. The visit catches what an empty listing quietly does on its own — squatter activity, kid-kicked window, package-thief target practice, the slow plumbing leak that nobody is reporting because nobody is living there. Same vetted handyman every visit, dated photo report with chain-of-custody header, log archived month over month.
Service
What Does Vacant Listing Checks Include?
Vacant listing checks is the residential property-watch program for empty homes that are on a real-estate agent's books, a property manager's roster, or an investor's flip pipeline. The visit cadence is weekly (the most common pattern) or biweekly with weekly drive-by, and the entire visit log doubles as a chain-of-custody record — date, time, technician, the lockbox code or key used, total time on the property, photos of condition each visit. We are not a commercial-building service; this is the residential channel for single-family, townhome, and small-multifamily listings. From $600 a year for a single residential listing on a weekly drive-by; multi-property portfolio contracts run higher with a per-property discount.
Weekly Drive-By
The basic visit — exterior walk of the property without entering the house. Lawn condition, MLS sign upright, lockbox present, doors and windows visible from the perimeter, signs of forced entry (pried frames, broken seals, footprints in the flower bed), package thieves' tell signs (a flyer on the porch from a week ago, a package nobody picked up). Photo of the front, photo of each side, photo of any anomaly. About 10 to 15 minutes per visit. The cheapest deterrent against the empty-house signal that draws every kind of small problem.
Weekly Interior Walk
Adds the inside to the drive-by. Lights tested in each room (a vacant house with the entry light always on becomes a tell over time). Plumbing visual under each sink, water heater pan, every toilet base. Thermostat reading and adjustment if the showing schedule wants the house warmer or cooler. HVAC vent for dust accumulation. Visible signs of moisture or pest activity. Mail retrieval, packages brought in, MLS flyer holder restocked if needed. Staging-friendly photo report — interior shots that work as condition documentation without flagging the listing as visited (no boot prints on staged rugs, no rearranged staging).
Multi-Property Portfolio Contracts
For property managers running three or more residential listings or investors with three or more flips in process, the visits run as one route on a single day of the week. Same tech runs the route, photo reports land for each property by end-of-day, the chain-of-custody log is per-property but the visit schedule is consolidated. Per-property pricing applies a discount that scales with route size. Most managers we work with run a Tuesday or a Thursday route across five to twelve properties.
Chain-of-Custody Record
Every entry and exit is logged — date, time, technician name, lockbox code used (we never share the code outside the assigned tech and the route backup), total minutes on the property. Photo report includes a chain-of-custody header. For agents handling estate sales, divorce listings, or any property where a documentation question could come up later, the visit log is the documentation. Reports are archived; we can pull any prior week or month on request.
What This Service Is Not
This is residential vacant-listing work — single-family homes, townhomes, small-multifamily (duplex / triplex / fourplex) under residential management. We do not do commercial-building rounds (office buildings, retail centers, industrial sites), commercial security services, security-guard hours, or 24-hour monitoring. We do not do lock-changes (that is a locksmith), board-ups (a contractor), or evictions (a sheriff). We do not do mid-visit pricing surprises — the price you sign is the price for the year.
How Vacant Listing Checks Works
Five steps every Handis vacant-listing visit runs through — exterior drive-by walk, lockbox or smart-lock entry with chain-of-custody log, interior walk with plumbing visual, mail and package retrieval, and a dated same-day photo report with a chain-of-custody header.
Exterior Drive-By Walk
Tech walks the perimeter — lawn condition, MLS sign upright, doors and windows visible, any signs of forced entry (pried frames, broken seals, footprints in the flower bed), package-thief tells (week-old flyers, packages on the porch). Photos of the front, sides, and any anomaly. About 10 to 15 minutes for the drive-by-only visit.
Lockbox or Smart-Lock Entry With Chain-of-Custody Log
For interior visits, entry is logged — date, time, technician, lockbox code or smart-lock single-use code, total time on property. The entry log is part of the photo report. Codes are never shared outside the assigned tech and the route backup.
Interior Walk With Plumbing Visual
Lights tested in each room. Plumbing visual under each sink, water heater pan, every toilet base for the slow weep. Thermostat reading and adjustment to the showing-schedule setting. HVAC vent dust visual. Pest indicators and moisture stains. The same plumbing-first attention as the vacation-home walk because an empty listing has the same slow-leak risk profile as a vacation cabin.
Mail, Packages, Curb-Appeal Reset
Mail collected and held for the listing agent. Packages on the porch brought in. MLS flyer holder restocked if you supplied flyers. Bins pulled back from the curb after pickup days. The house looks lived-in from the street so it does not draw the empty-house signal.
Same-Day Photo Report With Chain-of-Custody Header
A PDF (or shared link) with the chain-of-custody header (date, time, technician name, lockbox code used, total time on property), dated exterior and interior photos, plumbing visual, any anomalies flagged, and a one-paragraph summary. Lands in the agent's or property manager's inbox the same evening. Reports archived; any prior visit pulled on request.
Vacant Listing Checks Pricing
Per-property pricing on portfolio contracts (three or more residential listings on a single weekly route) applies a discount that scales with route size. Properties outside the standard Seattle metro radius carry a travel premium quoted before the contract starts. Photo report and chain-of-custody log included in every visit. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tell us how many listings, where, and what visit pattern you need — we will quote the route.
Why Seattle Agents and Property Managers Book Handis
A vacant residential listing fails in specific, predictable ways. The package on the porch tells anyone driving by that nobody is home. The forced-entry footprint in the flower bed gets noticed only after the second incident. The slow toilet leak runs for three weeks before the showing buyer flushes it and the staging carpet is gone. The squatter gets in through the back-fence gate that was left unlatched at the last open house. The visit catches all of this early — and the chain-of-custody record means the seller, the agent, the property manager, and the insurance underwriter all have the same documentation when a question comes up later. Same handyman every week, same route, same photo report, same archived log.
Chain-of-custody record on every visit
Every entry and exit logged — date, time, technician name, lockbox code used, total minutes on property. The photo report carries the same header. For estate listings, divorce listings, or any property where documentation could come up later, the visit log is the documentation. Reports archived; any prior visit pulled on request.
Same handyman runs the route every week
The tech who walked the listings last week walks them this week. The package-thief tell flagged in October gets a follow-up photo from the same angle in November — is it the same package, a new one, gone? Continuity beats the rotating-vendor pattern.
Interior plumbing visual on every interior walk
Vacant houses have the same slow-leak risk profile as vacation cabins. The interior walk lays a hand under every sink, on the water heater pan, on every toilet base. A slow weep at a wax ring left running for three weeks in a staged living room is a carpet replacement and a buyer pulled out — the visit catches it in the second week, not the fifth.
Multi-property portfolio routing
For property managers running three or more listings, the visits run as one consolidated route on a single day of the week. Same tech, same route, all reports land by end-of-day. Per-property pricing scales discount with route size. Most managers we work with run a Tuesday or Thursday route across five to twelve properties.
Handyman scope, contractor handoff when needed
We are not a locksmith (we will not change a lock), not a contractor (we will not board up a broken window), not a sheriff (we will not evict a squatter). We name the issue, photo it, escalate to the right party — Washington L&I-licensed contractors for the trades, a locksmith for re-keying, the agent or property manager for any tenant or squatter situation, and the police on anything that looks like an active break-in. Then we come back for the finish work after the contractor or locksmith is done, if you want us in the loop.
Insured, background-checked, lockbox-code discipline
Every Handis tech carries liability insurance and has cleared a background screening before the first listing. Lockbox codes are never shared outside the assigned tech and the route backup, and never logged in any shared system that an unauthorized person could read. Smart-lock single-use codes per visit on the major brands. The chain-of-custody log is the agent's and property manager's record, not ours to share.
Estimate
Tell us how many residential listings, where they are (Seattle metro area, Eastside, South Sound, Snohomish), the visit pattern you want (weekly drive-by, weekly interior, biweekly interior), the access method (lockbox, smart lock, key), and any property-specific notes (staging in place, vacant land, listing under contract). We send a clear annual estimate for the route.
Customer Reviews
Vacant listing checks reviews from real Handis customers — Seattle-area agents, property managers, and investors.
I manage twelve residential listings between Bellevue and Issaquah. Weekly drive-by plus monthly interior walk on the empty ones, all on a single Tuesday route. The photo report goes straight to the seller and to me — keeps everyone honest about condition, and the chain-of-custody log is what underwriters want to see.
Investor here, three vacant flips in process at any given time. Weekly walk catches squatter activity, kid-kicked-out-window stuff, and the package thieves who use empty driveways as a tell. Cheap insurance against the kind of break-in that adds a month to a flip schedule.
Estate listing in West Seattle, took six months to close. Family was in three different states; nobody was driving by the house. Weekly drive-by plus biweekly interior walk caught a slow leak under a bathroom sink in the second month — got a plumber out, saved the floor, and the listing closed without a remediation hit. The chain-of-custody log made the trustees comfortable.
Two townhomes I list regularly between tenants. The interior walk catches the weird stuff — the smoke detector that started chirping after a tenant left, the dryer-vent screen that filled with lint nobody mentioned, the toilet flapper that started running on Day 4 of vacancy. All caught and reported, all small fixes, no surprises at the showing.
Property manager for a small portfolio of single-family rentals in Tukwila and Burien. The drive-by alone has cut break-in incidents and squatter complaints by something close to half year over year. Tech runs the same Thursday route; tenant complaints about response time dropped because we are catching condition issues before tenants do.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Handis vacant listing checks.