How do I choose a home watch company?

Verify insurance and a fidelity bond covering employee theft, ask to see a real inspection report before you sign, confirm who physically walks the house and whether they are a background-checked employee, establish the cadence against your insurance policy's unoccupancy language, and ask directly whether vendor invoices are marked up. A firm that answers all five plainly and in writing is a serious one.

What insurance should a home watch company carry?

General liability, a fidelity or crime bond covering theft by an employee inside your home, and workers' compensation on anyone entering the property. Ask for the certificate of insurance itself rather than a verbal assurance, and check that the coverage is current.

Should I hire an accredited home watch professional?

Accreditation through a recognized industry body is a reasonable signal that the operator has been trained on inspection standards and carries appropriate coverage, and it is worth asking about. It is not a substitute for the twelve questions on this page — verify the insurance certificate, the report format, and the person walking your house regardless of any credential.

Is a neighbor or a house sitter a reasonable alternative?

A neighbor is doing you a favor and is not insured, not trained to read an air handler or a condensate line, and not producing the dated photo record your carrier may want. It is a generous arrangement and a poor risk-management one. A house sitter provides occupancy, which is a different service entirely.

What should be in the written agreement?

The inspection cadence, the scope of what is checked, the report format and delivery timing, the after-hours response commitment, the approval threshold before any repair is authorized, whether vendor invoices are passed through at cost, the term, and the cancellation terms. If a cadence and scope are not written down, they are not a commitment.

Guide

How to Choose a Home Watch Company in Palm Beach County

By Nick Martinsen, Owner · Updated August 2026

You are handing a stranger a key, an alarm code, and the authority to be alone in your house for eight months of the year. Twelve questions separate the firms that can carry that from the ones that cannot.

We wrote this to be used against us as much as against anyone else. Ask us all twelve. If a competitor answers them better, hire the competitor — the point is that the house is looked after properly.

Why this industry is easy to get wrong

Home watch has almost no barrier to entry in Florida. A truck, a phone, and a willingness to say yes is enough to start taking keys, and the customer usually cannot observe the work — you are a thousand miles away when the visit happens or does not happen.

That asymmetry is the whole problem. The only defenses available to you are verification before you sign and documentation after. Everything below is one or the other.

The questions

Twelve questions to ask before you hand over a key.

Ask them in a single conversation and take notes. The hesitations are as informative as the answers.

Are you insured, and can I see the certificate?: General liability plus a fidelity or crime bond covering theft by an employee, and workers' compensation on anyone entering the property. Ask for the certificate rather than the assurance. A company that hesitates here has told you the answer.
Who will actually be walking my house?: An owner-operated firm sends a small, known team. A volume operation sends whoever is on the route that day. Ask whether the person inspecting is an employee or a subcontractor, and whether they are background-checked. Consistency is what allows someone to notice that a stain is new.
What does a report look like? Show me a real one.: You want timestamped photographs of each area walked, written exceptions, and a recommendation — not a text message saying 'all good.' Ask for a redacted sample before you sign. If the deliverable is a checkbox, the inspection is a drive-by.
How long does a visit take on a house like mine?: A thorough walk of a furnished waterfront estate is not a fifteen-minute stop. If the answer is vague, ask them to describe the route through the house. Someone who does this properly can tell you exactly what they check and in what order.
How do you price, and why?: Per-square-foot pricing means they have not looked at your systems. The number should follow cadence, walk time, waterfront exposure, and whether the home is furnished. A company that quotes without seeing the property is quoting a category, not your house.
Do you mark up vendor invoices?: Ask directly. Some firms take a percentage of every trade invoice, which quietly rewards expensive repairs. Ask whether you see the original vendor invoice and whether you approve work before it is authorized. Both answers should be yes.
What happens at two in the morning?: Alarm, water alarm, a call from the association. Ask who answers, how fast someone is on site, and what they are authorized to do before they reach you. An answering service that takes a message is not a response.
What does my insurance policy require, and does your cadence satisfy it?: A competent provider knows Florida vacancy and unoccupancy language and will ask to see your policy's inspection requirement. If they have never heard of the provision, they cannot help you keep water-damage coverage intact.
What is your storm protocol?: Ask for it in sequence: what happens at 96 hours, at 48, at landfall, and afterward. Ask how many properties they carry and how they intend to shutter all of them in the same window. The arithmetic of that answer matters more than the enthusiasm of it.
How many properties does each person cover?: This is the question nobody volunteers. A route loaded past capacity is where visits get shortened and storm preparation gets triaged. You are buying attention, and attention has a numerator and a denominator.
Are you a home watch company or a rental manager?: If leases and tenants are the main business, home watch is a side line and your house is filler between showings. You want a firm whose entire practice is protecting homes their owners live in.
Can I speak to an owner in my neighborhood?: Not a testimonial on a website — an actual owner, ideally on your street or in your enclave. A firm with genuine local density can arrange it. One that has to think about it does not have the density it claims.

Red flags

Answers that should end the conversation.

Any one of these is enough to walk away, whatever else is on offer.

No certificate of insurance produced on request, or no fidelity bond covering employee theft.
A price quoted over the phone from square footage without seeing the property.
A 'report' that is a text message, a checkbox sheet, or nothing at all.
Vendor invoices marked up, or repairs authorized without your written approval.
Subcontracted inspectors who change from visit to visit and are not background-checked.
No written storm protocol, or no honest answer about how many properties they carry.
A contract with no defined cadence, no defined scope, and an open-ended term.

Our answers

Where we stand on all twelve.

We are owner-operated and licensed and insured, and we will send the certificate before you ask twice. The person walking your house is a known member of a small team, not a rotating subcontractor. Every visit produces a timestamped photo report filed in your EstateEase portal the same day, and every repair is recorded against the property's history.

No work is authorized without your approval, and you see what the trade charged. We price after walking the property, never from a square-footage table — the reasoning is set out in what home watch costs. And we hold deliberate route density in Palm Beach and Martin Counties so storm week is arithmetic we can actually perform.

Ask us the twelve questions on the phone: 561-351-6323. Or read what home watch actually is first. If the answer you are really after is one accountable team running the whole household, that is estate management for your residence.

Questions

Choosing a provider, answered.

How do I choose a home watch company?: Verify insurance and a fidelity bond covering employee theft, ask to see a real inspection report before you sign, confirm who physically walks the house and whether they are a background-checked employee, establish the cadence against your insurance policy's unoccupancy language, and ask directly whether vendor invoices are marked up. A firm that answers all five plainly and in writing is a serious one.
What insurance should a home watch company carry?: General liability, a fidelity or crime bond covering theft by an employee inside your home, and workers' compensation on anyone entering the property. Ask for the certificate of insurance itself rather than a verbal assurance, and check that the coverage is current.
Should I hire an accredited home watch professional?: Accreditation through a recognized industry body is a reasonable signal that the operator has been trained on inspection standards and carries appropriate coverage, and it is worth asking about. It is not a substitute for the twelve questions on this page — verify the insurance certificate, the report format, and the person walking your house regardless of any credential.
Is a neighbor or a house sitter a reasonable alternative?: A neighbor is doing you a favor and is not insured, not trained to read an air handler or a condensate line, and not producing the dated photo record your carrier may want. It is a generous arrangement and a poor risk-management one. A house sitter provides occupancy, which is a different service entirely.
What should be in the written agreement?: The inspection cadence, the scope of what is checked, the report format and delivery timing, the after-hours response commitment, the approval threshold before any repair is authorized, whether vendor invoices are passed through at cost, the term, and the cancellation terms. If a cadence and scope are not written down, they are not a commitment.

Before you hire

What is home watch?
The plain definition: a scheduled inspection of an empty home, with a photo report after every visit.
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.

Interview us

Put the twelve questions to us.

Tell us about the property and we will answer every one of them in writing, with the insurance certificate and a sample report attached.

Book your free consultation

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