Someone on the property, while you're away.

In a condominium it rarely stops at your unit — it reaches the neighbor below, and a small repair becomes an insurance claim and a conversation with the association.

Air conditioning is the other common culprit. A condensate line backs up, the pan overflows, and water goes into a ceiling or wall quietly enough that nothing is visible until the drywall stains. Water heaters fail the same way. So do refrigerators and ice makers, which additionally leave you a freezer full of spoiled food and an odor that takes weeks to clear.

Then there are the things that move in. Ants, roaches, centipedes, and geckos establish themselves quickly in a quiet unit, and a small trail becomes an infestation over a season away. Dry drain traps let odors back up through empty showers and guest baths. Humidity in a sealed-up home with the air off encourages mildew on walls, in closets, and on furniture and linens.

None of it is dramatic, and most of it is cheap to catch early. That's the whole argument for home watch: someone inside the residence at a regular interval, looking at the places these problems actually start, and writing down what they see.

You're relying on a photo someone sent you, or on nobody telling you anything at all.

We're the last set of eyes before your guest arrives, and the first set after they leave. After checkout, we walk the unit looking for damage, missing items, and anything that needs attention before the next booking. Before an arrival, we confirm the unit is genuinely ready and that appliances, air conditioning, and plumbing are working.

A turn check is deliberately lighter than a full inspection — a focused walk-through rather than the complete checklist. You get an email with a clear overview and the photographs that actually matter, usually the same day, rather than a long report you have to read. When something needs a decision, it's in the first line, not buried on page three.

That's often all it takes to change the outcome. Damage documented the day it happened is a claim you can file; damage discovered two guests later is damage you absorb. A unit confirmed ready before check-in is a review you don't have to apologize for.

Worth saying plainly: we have no contact with your guests. We don't meet them, take their calls, or handle anything mid-stay, and we don't serve as the local contact your rental registration requires — most owners use their cleaner or a licensed manager for that. We work on the property, not with the people staying in it.

The same applies if your unit is a long-term rental. We can document condition at move-in and move-out, and keep an eye on a vacant unit while it sits between tenants or on the market.

How it works

We start with a walk-through of the property together, which is where the checklist gets written. Your quirks go on it: the A/C setting you want held, the door that sticks, the room where the roof was repaired, the piece of furniture that matters to you. No two properties on this coast get the same list.

Then we agree on an interval. Bi-weekly is the standard for a residence sitting empty — frequent enough that a failed supply line is a repair rather than a claim, which is the entire point of the exercise. Weekly for larger properties or longer absences. Monthly is available, but we'll tell you honestly where its limits are.

After each visit the report arrives with photographs attached. If everything is as it should be, that's what it says, and you can stop wondering. If something needs your attention, it's at the top with a photograph, a plain description, and what we'd suggest doing about it. Between visits we can meet a contractor, receive a delivery, and open the house before you arrive.

Rates are set per property after the walk-through, since a two-bedroom condominium and a four-bedroom residence are not the same job. We'd rather quote you accurately than advertise a number that turns out not to apply.