Home watch, property management, and what we mean by house management.
Three phrases get used for three different jobs on this island, and the differences matter mostly when something goes wrong. Here is how they actually differ, including where we fit and where we do not.
The short version
| Home watch | Property management | House management | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job | Confirming the house is still standing between visits | Running the house as an income asset | Looking after the house itself, and the owner's time |
| Client | Any absent owner | An owner renting the house out | An owner who does not rent and is away most of the year |
| Cadence | A walk-through, usually monthly or twice a month | Driven by bookings and turnovers | An agreed interval, weekly for a house standing empty |
| Record | A checklist, sometimes a text | Statements, occupancy, revenue | A written note and photographs the same day, kept permanently |
| Repairs | Referred, often to a company that pays for the referral | Coordinated, sometimes performed in-house | Arranged, supervised, and billed at what the trade charged — no markup, no cut |
| Incentive | Volume of houses | Occupancy and revenue | The house needing less, not more |
Home watch
A home-watch visit is an inspection: somebody walks the house, looks for the obvious, and tells you if something is wrong. It is a real service and for many houses it is enough — a condo used six months a year, a house with a neighbour on the street, a property with nothing complicated in it.
The two limits are worth knowing before you buy one. The first is cadence: most home-watch contracts are monthly, and a month is a long time for water. The second is what happens after a finding — a home-watch company usually hands you a phone number, and in many cases receives something from the company at the other end of it.
Property management
Property management is a rental business. The manager's job is to keep the house occupied, turned over, cleaned and compliant, and to account for the money. If you rent your house, you need one, and the good ones on this island are very good.
It is the wrong service for a house nobody rents. The attention follows the booking calendar, and an empty January is the quietest month in a property manager's year and the most dangerous one in an empty house's.
House management
What we do. The house is the client rather than the calendar: a visit on an agreed interval whether or not anything is expected, a written record the same day, trades met at the door and supervised, the house prepared before you arrive, and one number that reaches the person who walks it.
The structural difference is the money. We are paid a monthly fee to look after the house and we are paid nothing else — no markup on a repair, no referral fee from a trade, no commission from anyone on our Register. When we say a house needs a roofer, there is nothing in it for us either way.
Which one do you need?
- You rent the house. Property management, and a good one. We do not manage rentals and will say so on the first call.
- The house is empty and simple. Home watch may well be enough. Ask what the cadence is, and ask whether they take anything from the companies they refer.
- The house is empty, valuable, and eight months a year is normal. That is the house we are built for.
If you are not sure, the twelve-question check is a faster answer than a phone call, and there is no email address to leave.
Or call 843-619-2346 and ask which one you need. We will tell you honestly, including when it is not us.