Our objective and mission is to provide you information about qualifications and experience required for you to select professionals to care for your home. Let’s start by describing types of home watch services.
- Neighbors Doing Favors: They intend to be helpful but are ill-equipped to watch over your home. They are untrained and certainly not insured.
- Hobby Home Watchers: They generally start out as a neighbor doing a favor. Then they do a second home and now consider themselves a home watch company. They never establish a business entity and do not have insurance. They have not received professional training or certification.
- Scoundrels: These are the people who misrepresent the truth about their qualifications and credentials. They view your home as easy money. After all you will not be there to see what they do or don’t do. Heck, they may not show up at all and you may never know it.
Diane Pisani, Co-Founder of the International Home Watch Alliance* says, “this is where the rubber meets the road” and she offers “to pull back the curtain and reveal the truth; kind of like the Wizard of Oz” in the e-booklet publication, The Ultimate Home Watch Interview Guide (link below). If you are a seasonal homeowner looking for a home watch provider then this booklet is for you. Make an informed decision before turning over your keys to your home.
The best type of Home Watch Service
- Real Deal Home Watch: Your best choice by far. These are career-minded professionals that have professional training, are properly credentialed and they have a pool of licensed, insured and bonded trades to help with just about any problem you can imagine.
A home watch provider cannot prevent things from happening. It is their job to recognize damage, in the early stages, before it becomes a disaster. Regular home watch visits should be conducted either weekly (7 days), bi-monthly (14) days, or tri-monthly (10) days. Consult with your home insurance provider to determine the best fit for you. Failure to abide by the insurance companies’ requirements may result in a denied claim when the time comes. Monthly visits simply do not make sense. Too much can go wrong in such a long period of time.
Some Questions to Ask
- Should my main water valve be left on or off
- Do you cycle the water
- Do you brush and flush toilets
- Do you run water in the sinks, tubs, showers
- Do you check for vandalism
- Do you check for signs of water damage and other types of damages
- Do you check the interior temperature
- Do you monitor the interior humidity levels
- Do you shut off the hot water tank
- Do you check to make sure the Air Conditioning is working
The most important things to ask before you choose a home watch provider:
- Do you have a home watch license? (If they say yes, run! There is presently no license required for home watch.)
- What about insurance?
- Do you have a business license?
- How do you handle an emergency situation?
- How do you charge for your services?
- How do I know that you made a visit when you said that you did?
- Who makes the visits into my home?
- What qualifies you to watch our home?
The Ultimate Home Watch Interview Guide will provide you answers to all of these questions and more. Follow this link to obtain your free copy.
Carefree Home Watch is professionally trained, fully insured, and bonded and serves the greater Fort Myers area. Call Carefree Home Watch, 239.234.1847for a free consultation or visit our website at https://carefreehomewatch.com for more information.
*We would like to thank Diane Pisani and the International Home Watch Alliance for their assistance in providing you this information and resource.
