How to start a home watch business

What home watch is

Home watch is regular visits to a home while it's empty, to catch problems before they get expensive. On each visit you walk around the outside and through the inside, looking for leaks, a failed air conditioner or furnace, humidity and mold, pests, storm damage and any sign that someone has tried to get in. Then you tell the owner what you found, usually in a short report with photos.

It is a visual check, not a repair service. You aren't a home inspector, a contractor or a security guard, and you don't open up walls or equipment. When something is wrong, you call the owner and, with their OK, get their plumber, roofer or other vendor in. Being clear about that line from the start, in conversation and in writing, protects you and sets the right expectations.

Many operators also offer extras: letting in a vendor or a delivery, a visit after a big storm, opening the house before the owner returns, or closing it up after they leave.

Who the clients are

Your clients are people who own a home they aren't living in for weeks or months at a time. Most fall into a few groups:

• Seasonal residents. Snowbirds who spend the winter somewhere warm, or summer residents who leave a hot climate for the season. Many are retired, and many have used home watch before.
• Second-home owners. A vacation home, a condo near family, a house they're keeping for later.
• People away for a stretch. A long trip, a work posting, a hospital or rehab stay.
• Homes in between. An estate waiting to be settled, or a house that's for sale and sitting empty.

Whoever they are, they want the same thing: to stop wondering about the house. A prompt, clear report after every visit is most of what they're paying for.

Lawn, pool and cleaning businesses often have these clients already. If that's you, see adding home watch as a winter route.

Setting your prices

Most home watch is billed per visit or as a monthly fee for a set schedule, such as weekly or every other week. Work your price out from your own numbers rather than copying a competitor's:

1. Your hourly rate: the pay you want, plus your yearly costs (insurance, phone, car, software, marketing), spread over the hours you'll actually spend on visits.
2. Your time per visit: the visit itself, writing the report, and the drive to the next home. Drive time is what most new operators underprice.
3. Your price per visit and per month, from those two.
4. A check against your market: call or look up three local competitors and see where you land.

Our free home watch pricing worksheet walks through each step with a worked example, and the Excel version does the sums for you.

What people charge varies a lot with the area, the size of the home and how often you visit. Prices often start around $35 a visit for the smallest, simplest homes, and go up from there with size, extras and drive time.

Price your extras up front, too: letting in a vendor, a visit after a storm, opening or closing the house. Clients take a price list better than a surprise on the invoice.

Service agreements

Before you hold someone's keys, put the arrangement in writing. A good home watch agreement covers:

• What a visit includes, and what home watch is not.
• The visit schedule, your fees and when they're due.
• What you may do when you find a problem, and how much you may spend without asking first.
• Which vendors you'll call, and who pays them.
• What the client is responsible for, such as keeping utilities on and their insurance current.
• Responsibility for damage, and how either side ends the agreement.
• Every key, remote and code you hold, and who else may go in.

Our free home watch service agreement template covers all of that, with a key and code log attached, in PDF and Word. It's a starting point, not legal advice: have an attorney in your state read it before you use it.

Sign it at a first walk-through of the home with the owner. Our walk-through worksheet takes you through the house in visit order, so you find every shutoff, panel and setting while the owner is there to show you.

Insurance

You'll be alone in other people's homes, holding their keys and codes, so talk to an insurance agent before your first client, and tell them exactly that. Ask what covers you if you damage something, if something is said to have gone missing, and if a problem you were paid to look for gets missed. Coverages worth discussing include general liability, a bond or crime coverage, professional liability (errors and omissions), care, custody and control coverage for property in your care, and lost-key or rekeying cover.

Many clients will ask whether you're insured and bonded before they sign, and some will ask for a certificate of insurance. Having one ready makes the walk-through go faster.

What it costs depends on where you are, how many homes you look after and the cover you choose, so get quotes rather than relying on a figure from someone else.

Check your local rules at the same time. You may need a local business license from your city or county. Most states don't regulate home watch itself, but check your own state's rules.

Certification

No certification is required to do home watch anywhere we're aware of. Home watch associations offer training and accreditation, but it can be pricey, and some programs are tied to particular vendors or services that their training materials promote. It can still be a useful trust signal when you're new and have no reviews yet.

Most of that trust comes from simpler things: being licensed, bonded and insured, and perhaps a background check you order on yourself to show clients. Add a written agreement and prompt, clear reports, and you're most of the way there.

Your visit checklist and reports

Use the same checklist on every visit, in the same order, so nothing gets skipped on a rushed day. A typical visit goes outside first, then inside room by room, then heating and cooling, plumbing, electrical, and a lock-up check on the way out. Add extras for homes with a pool, a dock, vehicles left behind, storm season or freezing winters.

Our free printable home watch checklist is laid out that way, as a one-page PDF or a sheet you print with only the extras each home needs.

After each visit, send the owner a report the same day. A good report says when you arrived and left, shows a few dated photos of the home, and lists anything that needs their attention and what you've done about it. Keep it short: owners read it on their phones. Your reports are also your best advertising, since clients forward them and show them to friends.

Before a season starts, give owners our before-you-leave checklist. It covers what they should do before they go, so the house is set up the way you agreed.

Finding first clients

Home watch clients rarely search for you. They ask someone they trust, usually a few weeks before they leave. Early on, your job is to be the name that person gives:

• People who already serve your clients: insurance agents, real estate agents, property managers, HOA and condo managers, estate attorneys, and the lawn, pool and cleaning businesses on the same streets.
• Where seasonal residents gather: clubs, churches, golf communities and local newsletters, timed for the weeks before they leave.
• Neighborhood groups online, where people ask "does anyone know someone who checks on houses?"

Our 16 low-cost marketing ideas go into each of these. When someone gets in touch, reply the same day: our lead email template explains what a visit covers, what happens when something's wrong and what it costs, and asks for the walk-through.