What is “home watch” and what services are provided by a professional home watch company?
Home Watch, or sometimes spelled Homewatch, is a business that provides periodic service calls to properties such as homes, condos, townhouse and manufactured homes to report back to the owner of the condition in which they found the property. While the primary service performed is to observe and report, the home watch company may also be asked by the property owner to provide assistance to mitigate issues found during the service call.
It is important to understand the differences in the services provided by the home watch company and the services a property management company. These services provided by each are quite different and should never be confused. The price for these services are also very different, so if you are researching companies to help you with your property understanding exactly what type of services provided will help you determine which service best fits your needs.
The home watch service is primary observe and report the condition of the property. The property management company will handle just about every aspect of the property from finding an issue, repairing or finding a repair company, sometimes paying for repairs and then finally presenting the property owner with a finally invoice for all repairs regardless of how may vendors may have been involved. Management companies many times will be handle renters or rental of the property from start to finish as well. They will hire/fire other vendors who provides services such as but not limited to landscaping, mowing, pest control, HVAC or even pool maintenance.
The home watch industry is by far the least complicated to operate and in many states they are not required to be licensed by the state to provide these services. If you are thinking of starting a home watch business the very first step should be to find out what your state requires for this industry.