Second Home Services can work with you to design a plan that fits your needs. Our basic Home Watch Services include a thorough weekly inspection of the home. In addition, we keep an inspection log which is forwarded to the homeowner quarterly. Pricing for this service will be standard for each visit and is based primarily on the square footage of the home. Each home will be reviewed and the scope of service discussed prior to establishing a price. Some Home Watch Services in addition to those included in the basic weekly inspection may be arranged and charged at an hourly rate or a flat fee depending on the job.
Owning a second home near the beach doesn’t HAVE to be a big headache or a chore. Granted, keeping a second home in “tiptop” shape is work.The question is “who’s in the best position to do the work, week in and week out” and if you need home watch services…which ones do you actually need?
Home Watch Services Offered
The larger your Florida vacation home; the more technology and cool features you have; the older the home; and the closer you are to lake or salt water… the more often things on your property decay and break.
As the homeowner of a fabulous second home, you aren’t local and therefore can’t personally stick to a regular maintenance schedule. In addition, if you stumble upon a broken icemaker during your vacation, do you really want to deal with the drama?
If you’re considering getting a little help from a trustworthy source, we’ve been successfully caring for non-rental vacation homes like yours for more than 20 YEARS.How do savvy homeowners from Destin to Miramar Beach and 30A keep their beach homes in tip-top shape?
They hire a home watch company, and when they do, here are the top 10 services they request:
- Weekly Maintenance
Every beach home requires a bit of maintenance. Consider the daily tasks of getting the mail, newspaper, altering the thermostat etc. With weekly inspections you get all of this and then some, including changing the air filters and the batteries on smoke detectors.
Return to your home and its valuable assets, intact and ready to be enjoyed.
- Visual Inspections
An experienced home watch specialist performs an on-site visual inspection of your beach home, the front, back and side lawns, pool area, boat dock, outdoor kitchen, garage and the other structures on your property.
The inspection will be thorough to ensure ongoing functionality of your assets and your ability to drop into town quickly and get the fun started.
- Vehicle & Major Appliance Checks
If you’re gone for an extended period of time and need to check your car, boat, golf cart, motorcycle, Jet Ski or even a major appliance, we are at your service. Inspectors can start your vehicle’s engine; let it run for a while; rotate tire position, keep the battery charged, fill up the gas tank and check fluid levels.
HVAC systems, refrigerators, hot water heaters, ice makers, hot tubs, garage doors and other major appliances can malfunction at any second. We’ll check and ensure they are fully operational.
- Storm Protection & Post-Storm Reset
Our home check Storm Protection service is ideal for homeowners that can’t get to Florida and prepare their home for a storm’s wrath. The local team will prep your home for wind and rain helping protect your valuable property from $10k plus in possible damage.
We are effective at initiating your home’s unique storm protection protocol which often includes shutters, storm screens and additional protective equipment. As part of the plan, outdoor items like furniture and plants get relocated inside the home. When the storm is over, the post storm reset includes unpacking and replacing everything into their original position.
- Trash & Debris Removal
You don’t want rubbish or debris piling up around your property. If you need trash removed from the home, garbage cans emptied or debris removed, we take care of it. The Destin to Rosemary Beach area gets strong wind and rain each year, but there is no need to come home to a debris filled property.
- Project Management
Its unavoidable. Each year there will be some type of upgrade or repair that takes a lengthy amount of time to complete. We can manage your project to ensure the work continues even if you’re not present on the property. Get help acquiring estimates, interacting with service providers, being present for inspections and monitoring the entire project to receive the exact results you paid for.
- Security Checks
Leave your luxurious home for more than a few days and you’ll undoubtedly worry about its security. Our home watch services crew will perform regular security checks on your property. We’ll report back to keep you in the loop. Our Security Check service includes items such as engaging alarm systems, securing garage, home doors, and windows. Home watch security checks are often appealing to homeowners that decorate with valuables, or have expensive cars or recreational vehicles on the property.
- Quick Response
Imagine a scenario in which you are back home in your main residence or traveling cross country for business or pleasure and something triggers your beach home’s alarm. It might be a false alarm but unfortunately, the police and fire department don’t this and ultimately make a big scene on your property. As you can imagine, Quick Response is one of the most popular home watch services we offer. We can be on the scene and representing your interest with officials.
- Package Retrieval
Enjoy shopping online? What about packages or shipments from Amazon, Ebay, Starbucks, or your favorite Olive Oil of the month club? Don’t let a so called “porch pirate” get your prized possessions, when we can collect them on your behalf. With Package Retrieval, you’ll find all of your packages safe and in pristine condition when you return.
- Digital Reporting
Probably because the world has gone digital, because remote homeowners are big fans of receiving photographic updates on the condition of their vacation beach homes. Digital documentation is exceptionally helpful if, during an inspection, our home watch services team uncovers a previously undocumented problem.
We can grab real-time images and text/email your representatives. Homeowners have learned “a picture is worth a thousand words” so digital reporting during inspections and handyman projects, are one of the top 10 home watch services owners request.
Above are all 10, so now you know!
If you’re not certain what to ask for when requesting Home Check, or Home Watch Services, start by considering these 10 most often requested services.
They may be easily bundled into a simple package to match your property needs and home watch services budget.
Contact us today, if you’d like to discuss your second home needs.
Testimonials
Since we purchased our second home in 1999, Duke and Second Home Services have taken wonderful care of our home despite the ravages of a beach environment. By checking our house on a weekly basis, they have found the inevitable problems early and prevented serious damage. Today, our house is as beautiful as the day we bought it, and we owe much of that credit to Duke and Second Home Services. We don’t know what we would do without them!
Richard and Christine Fellrath
Always confident that our beloved place at the beach is being cared for in our absence, Duke and Rebecca have taken such good care of us that when we renovated a new second home, we took them with us and have recommended them to others enthusiastically. When weather shows it’s scorn, we are always in good hands and when appliances and other mechanical things show their wear, we can count on Duke to attend to business so we can come down to the beach and relax!
Cathy and Beau Hollingsworth
We have been a client of Second Home Services for more than 15 years. The owner, Duke Bardwell, treats our vacation home like it is his own. From overseeing the property on a daily basis, coordinating repairs and maintenance, to preparing the home for storms, Duke is always there to make sure our property is taken care of in a 1st class way. We would highly recommend his company to anyone looking for a property management company.
The Styslingers