The Kiawah absent-owner playbook.
Every guide and tool we publish, in the order an owner who is away most of the year needs them.
What this island does to a closed house.
Start here, because everything else follows from it. Each month on Kiawah brings different risks to a house, and what matters in April is not what matters in September. An owner who knows the calendar asks better questions of everybody.
- The Kiawah year, month by monthLong read · twelve minutes
What each month does to a house here, what should be watched, and what you should have settled by then.
- The Kiawah year, on one pagePrintable · one sheet
The same twelve months compressed for a house binder or a kitchen drawer.
- What a Kiawah house needs when you’re awayField note
Why spring costs more than hurricane season, and what happens in a closed house between visits.
Three tools, and none of them grades your house.
The first two look at the arrangement around the house rather than its condition, because that is the part an owner controls, and it is rarely looked at. Both publish their method in full, and both can honestly tell you to change nothing. The third is not an assessment at all — it is your own arithmetic on how much of running the house still comes back to you, with no method behind it because it is addition. All three run in your browser and none of them asks for your email.
- The Home Management CheckInteractive · three minutes
Questions on how your current arrangement is structured, and a profile of what is defined and what is open.
- How complete is your house record?Interactive · four minutes
Fifteen questions on what exists in writing, with the three gaps worth closing first.
- How much still falls back on you?Your own arithmetic
Eight counts from your last twelve months, added up. No rate, no saving, no comparison.
The part that compounds.
A house should have a memory: what it is, how it is meant to be left, what somebody actually verified, what has happened to it, and what is still open. This is the structure we use internally, published in full, because a record you start yourself is worth more than one we describe to you.
- The house recordThe fifteen categories
What belongs in each, why an absent owner needs it, and the distinction between a target and a verified fact.
- The systems, and who looks after each onePrintable · landscape
One sheet, not two lists: every system, its away setting, what was last verified, and the company that holds it.
- The method behind the record checkPublished in full
Categories, tiers, weights, the five answers, and what the figure is not.
Leaving, being away, and coming back.
Three different jobs: leaving, being away and coming back. A lot of what goes wrong while you are away comes down to the hour before someone locks up. A good arrival is mostly settled the week before.
- The long-absence plannerInteractive · three minutes
Eight questions about the absence ahead, and a plan specific to its length, its season and what is already settled. No score.
- Before you leavePrintable · one sheet
The general departure sheet: house state, access, people, providers, open work, documents, instructions, the return.
- Before you returnPrintable · one sheet
What should already have been done, checked and told to you before you come up the drive.
Three times of year on this island when it pays to decide in advance.
Storm season, the freeze window and the November closing. Each has a short window, and in each the useful work is agreeing who does what before it is needed.
- The freeze sheetPrintable · one sheet
The window here is one night. Who is on the island, whether they can get in, and what they may do.
- Closing the housePrintable · seasonal
The most important week of the year for a house: close out the season, arrange the winter, leave a written account.
Including of us.
The last section is the one a company in this business would normally keep to itself. Most of what we know about judging a house-management firm is published, including the questions we would least like to be asked.
- The five questions, as a sheetPrintable · three columns
Room to write down what three different firms answer. Our own answers are deliberately not on the sheet.
- Our care standardPrintable field sheet
Our whole standard, with evaluation boxes, so you can work down it in a meeting with anybody.
- Questions for your insurance carrierPrintable · nine questions
Questions only, with room for their answers. Not insurance advice, and deliberately no answers of ours.
- The Vellamore RegisterDirectory
The companies we would call for our own house. Usable entirely without us.
- The sample visit notesDocuments
A visit with a finding, a quiet visit, and an emergency visit — with margin notes that help you read any firm's notes.
Why this is not a PDF. A single compiled download would go stale the first time one guide changed, and you would have no way of knowing which parts had. Every item above prints from its own page, which is the current one. This page prints as the contents list, with each route beside its title, so you can work through the kit on paper and know where each piece came from.
What it is not. Not an ebook, not a lead magnet, not a white paper, and not an ultimate guide to anything. It is the set of guides and tools we would want if we owned a house here and lived somewhere else.