What does an estate manager do?

An estate manager is the single accountable person for the condition and operation of a private residence: the inspection cadence, the preventive maintenance calendar, vendor and contractor supervision, project oversight, household staff coordination, arrival and departure preparation, storm readiness, and the written record of all of it.

What does an estate manager cost in Palm Beach County?

A directly employed estate manager here is a six-figure role once the full cost of employment is included, and it comes with the obligations of being an employer. Retained estate management from our firm is published: $750 a month for Home Watch, $2,000 a month for Estate Care, and $5,000 a month for Private Estate Management, set after an on-site walk rather than by square footage.

When should I employ my own estate manager instead?

When the residence is occupied most of the year, when there is real household staff to supervise, when you want exclusive attention and total availability, when several properties and vessels sit inside one estate, or when privacy requires everyone who touches the house to be bound by your own employment agreement.

How do I start hiring an estate manager?

Write down what the house actually needs week to week, decide whether that is a job or a retainer, interview at least two firms and one candidate with the same ten questions, ask for a written scope with a cadence and an authority limit, and start month to month.

Is an estate manager the same as a property manager?

No. Property management is tenant-side work: leasing, tenant placement, rent collection. Estate management is owner-side work on a residence the owner occupies. We do not provide leasing or rental management of any kind.

Due diligence

Hire an Estate Manager in Palm Beach County

Most owners who start looking for an estate manager in Palm Beach County are not really shopping for a person. They are trying to solve a problem: a house that needs attention when nobody is in it, trades who need supervising, and a growing sense that nobody is actually accountable for the condition of a significant asset. There are two honest ways to solve that, and they cost very different amounts.

You can employ an estate manager directly, on your payroll, answering only to you. Or you can retain a firm that performs the same function on a schedule, with a bench behind it. This page lays out what the role involves week to week, when each structure is the right answer, what it costs here, and the ten questions to put to any candidate or firm before you commit. We run one of those firms, so we will be plain about where hiring your own employee beats hiring us.

By Nick Martinsen, Owner · Updated 2026-08-14

The role

What an estate manager actually does, week to week.

Not a job description written for a recruiter. This is the work itself, in the order it tends to happen.

Walks the house on a fixed route

Every room, every mechanical space, the attic access, the pool equipment pad, the roof line from the ground. The point is not tidiness. It is noticing the ceiling stain, the corroded hose bib, or the condenser running long in the week it starts rather than the month it fails.

Holds the maintenance calendar

A/C service and filters, condensate treatment, generator exercise and load test, pest and termite, irrigation zones, pool chemistry, roof and gutter cleaning, dock and lift service, window and door hardware. Scheduled ahead, not called in after something stops.

Meets the trades at the door

Access is supervised in person rather than handed out as a code. The work gets checked against the scope before the truck leaves, and the invoice gets read before it reaches you.

Controls what gets authorized

Nothing is approved in your absence beyond the limit you set in writing. Above that limit the decision comes back to you with photographs, a diagnosis, and a recommendation rather than a bill.

Prepares arrivals and closes the house

Climate reset, water on, linens and provisioning, vehicles started and washed, staff scheduled for the week you land. In reverse when you leave: humidity settings, water main, water heater breaker, drain traps, appliances, lighting schedules.

Keeps the record

Timestamped photographs after each visit, written exceptions, equipment serials and filter sizes, warranty terms, and every invoice since the first visit — in one place you can read tonight from wherever you are.

Two things are worth separating early. Inspection of an empty house is a narrower job than running one, and it is priced that way — see what home watch is. Supervising trades is its own discipline, covered under vendor and contractor management. An estate manager holds both, plus the judgment about what to do next.

The comparison

Employ your own, or retain a firm.

The right answer depends almost entirely on how many days a year somebody is living in the house.

When employing your own manager is the right answer

We tell owners this regularly, and it costs us work. If the following describes your household, hire an employee and do not retain a firm for the same scope.

The house is occupied most of the year: A residence with people in it daily generates a volume of small decisions that a visiting firm cannot absorb. If someone is needed on the property most days, that is a job, not a retainer.
There is real staff to manage: Housekeepers, a chef, a nanny, drivers, groundskeepers. Once payroll, scheduling, reviews, and coverage for time off are part of the work, an employee inside the household is usually the cleaner structure.
You want exclusive attention and total availability: An employed manager answers to one family. Any firm, including ours, holds a roster. If exclusivity is the point, employ someone.
There are multiple properties, vessels, or aircraft in one estate: When the portfolio spans homes in different states plus a boat and a plane, the coordination load justifies a salaried principal who then retains local firms in each market.
Privacy demands a household employee: Some families want everyone who touches the residence bound by their own employment agreement and NDA. That is a legitimate reason to hire directly, and we will say so.

If that is your situation, the sensible next step is a household staffing agency for the search, and a compensation structure built with your accountant. A full-time employed estate manager in this market is a six-figure salaried position once payroll taxes, benefits, and the overhead of managing that person are counted. Plan for the real number, not the base salary.

When retaining a firm is the right answer

For most seasonal and second-home owners in Palm Beach County, the house does not need a person on site every day. It needs a cadence, a bench, and authority in writing.

The house is empty for months at a time: A seasonal or second home does not need a salaried person on site. It needs a documented inspection cadence, a vendor bench, storm authority, and someone who answers on a Sunday.
You do not want to be an employer in Florida: No payroll, no workers' compensation, no benefits administration, no unemployment exposure, no wrongful-termination risk, no replacement search when the person leaves in March.
You want redundancy: An employee gets sick, takes vacation, and resigns. A firm has more than one background-checked person who knows the house and the file, and coverage does not depend on one calendar.
You want the vendor bench that already exists: Hiring an individual means they start building trade relationships on your time. A firm arrives with licensed trades who already know the equipment in this market.
You want the cost to be a known number: A retainer is a line item you can predict. Employment is a salary plus everything that rides on top of it.

There is also a middle path owners often miss: employ a manager for the months you are in residence and retain a firm for the months you are not. We work alongside employed managers on several properties, and the handoff in May and again in November is the whole point. Related reading: household management and executive home management.

The cost

What the role costs in this market.

We publish our prices, which is unusual in this business. The employment side we will describe honestly rather than invent.

Employing an estate manager directly is a six-figure commitment in Palm Beach County once payroll taxes, health benefits, paid time off, a vehicle or mileage, phone, and the management overhead of having an employee are added to the salary. We will not quote you a specific figure for someone else's payroll, because the honest range depends on scope, staff count, and whether housing is part of the package. Your accountant can model it in an afternoon. What we can tell you precisely is what retained management costs, because it is our own price list.

$750/month

Home Watch

Scheduled inspection of an unoccupied residence with a timestamped photo report after every visit, every 7 to 14 days. This is the right structure for a house that sits empty and does not yet need a manager.

See what home watch covers

$2,000/month

Estate Care

Inspection plus the maintenance calendar, vendor scheduling and supervision, arrival and departure preparation, and the storm program. The functional equivalent of a part-time estate manager without the payroll.

See estate maintenance

$5,000/month

Private Estate Management

Full oversight: project and renovation supervision, household staff coordination, budget and invoice review, and concierge coverage. For owners who would otherwise be interviewing candidates for a salaried role.

See private estate management

Final pricing follows an on-site walk of about forty minutes, never a square-footage formula, and every engagement is month to month. The full breakdown sits on our pricing page, and the reasoning behind the numbers is on home watch cost.

The interview

Ten questions to ask any candidate or firm.

Ask all ten in one sitting, of everyone you interview, including us. The pauses are as useful as the answers.

01
Who, by name, is accountable for my house, and do I have their mobile number?
One name in the agreement and a direct number. If the answer is a company main line or a rotating team, the accountability is theoretical.
02
Is the person walking my house an employee or a subcontractor?
An employee is background-checked, trained on your house, and carried on the firm's workers' compensation. A rotating subcontractor is a stranger with your alarm code.
03
Can I see a real report from a real visit, with the address removed?
You are looking for timestamped photographs, written exceptions with a likely cause, and readings rather than checkboxes. A text message with two pictures is not a record.
04
What happens between visits when something breaks at eleven at night?
Ask who picks up, what they are authorized to do, and how fast a vendor can be at the door. Then ask for the last time it actually happened.
05
What authority do you hold when I cannot be reached?
There should be a written limit, agreed in advance, covering protective work: shutters, water shutoff, board-up, dry-out. Unlimited authority and zero authority are both wrong.
06
Are vendor invoices marked up, and will I see the original?
Ask directly. Our answer is that trade invoices pass through at cost, you see the original, and there are no referral fees. A firm earning a margin on repairs has an incentive you should know about.
07
Will you show me insurance certificates without being asked twice?
General liability, workers' compensation, and a crime or fidelity bond covering employee theft. Certificates by email, not verbal assurance.
08
How many properties does one person cover on a route?
The number tells you how long a visit really lasts. A full systems walk of a large residence takes forty minutes to an hour, and a route packed with stops cannot deliver that.
09
Where does the house file live, and do I keep it if we part ways?
It should live in a portal you log into, and the record of your own house should be exportable. Ask before you sign, not after.
10
What are the cancellation terms?
Month to month with no penalty is the honest answer. Long lock-ins exist to protect the firm from its own service quality.

If you are comparing firms rather than individuals, the longer version of this exercise is on how to choose an estate manager, and the inspection-only equivalent is how to choose a home watch company.

How to start

Four steps, in this order.

Write down the actual week. List what the house needs in a normal week in February and a normal week in August. If February needs someone most days and August needs someone twice a month, that is two different solutions, not one.
Decide job or retainer. Use the comparison above. Occupied year round with staff means employ. Empty for months means retain.
Interview with the same ten questions. At least two firms and one individual candidate. Ask for a real report and real certificates.
Insist on a written scope. Cadence in days, scope in lines, an authority limit in dollars, cancellation terms in plain language. Then start month to month and judge the first sixty days.

Answers

Questions owners ask before they hire.

Before you hire

Home watch explained for owners
Why an unoccupied Florida house needs a documented walkthrough every seven to fourteen days.
How to choose a home watch company
The questions to ask about insurance, cadence, reporting, and who actually walks your house.
Choosing an estate manager
How owner-side supervision differs from a rental manager or a general contractor.
Home watch rates, published
Real numbers rather than a quote form: what the service costs and why.
Owner questions, answered
The answers we give most often about cadence, coverage, insurance, and cancellation.

Begin

Put the ten questions to us.

We will answer each one in writing before you decide anything, and if the honest answer is that your household should employ someone directly, we will tell you that instead.

Or call 561-351-6323.

Book your free consultation

Tell us about your home. We'll respond within one business day.