Empty houses · Owner-side only
Vacant Home Property Management in Palm Beach County
By Nick Martinsen, Owner · Updated August 2026
Vacant home property management is the ongoing care of a residence nobody is living in: scheduled inspections, humidity and climate, supervised vendors, storm readiness, and a continuous dated record. It is owner-side asset protection, not rental property management.
We manage vacant residences across Palm Beach and Martin Counties for owners north for the summer, holding through a sale or settlement, or waiting out renovation. Same cadence, same photo record, same single point of contact whether the house is empty four months or four years.
An empty house is not a paused house
Owners tend to picture a vacant home as being in suspension, closed up, quiet and waiting. It is the opposite. Humidity climbs, salt air works on every fastener and coil, pumps seize from disuse, and any water that starts moving keeps moving until somebody walks in.
Almost every catastrophic loss we have been called into after the fact had the same shape: a small, ordinary failure and a long gap before discovery. The failure was never the expensive part. The gap was.
Vacant home management closes the gap and creates the paper trail. That is the whole proposition. Owners who want more than inspections while the house sits, the maintenance calendar run and the trades supervised, move to Palm Beach County estate management.
Exposure
What we are actually managing against.
The six failure modes that account for nearly every loss in an unoccupied Florida residence.
- Water, and the eight weeks nobody noticed
- A supply line behind a toilet, a failed water heater, a condensate line backing into a ceiling. In an occupied house you hear it the same day. In a vacant house the volume of water is the only variable, and it is a function of how many days pass before the door opens.
- Humidity, and what it does to the interior
- Left unconditioned, a closed Florida house runs high enough to swell millwork, lift veneer, cup flooring, and start mold in a cabinet you will not see until you smell it. Holding the interior in range is not a comfort setting on a vacant house. It is preservation of the finishes.
- Insurance exposure
- Many high-value Florida homeowner policies limit or exclude water damage in a dwelling left unoccupied beyond a stated period without documented inspections. The photo record on a dated cadence is what removes that argument from the claim.
- Storm season with nobody there
- Shutters that have not been operated in a year, a generator that has not been exercised, loose furniture on a deck, and a named storm five days out. Readiness is a maintained state, not a weekend of scrambling.
- Systems that fail from disuse
- Pumps seize, seals dry out and let sewer gas in, batteries die in smoke detectors and gate operators, irrigation heads break and flood a bed for a month, vehicle batteries go flat. All of it is cheap to prevent and expensive to discover late.
- Occupancy signals
- Uncollected mail, an overgrown lawn, packages on the step, and interior lights on a fixed schedule all tell anyone watching that the house is empty. Managed presence is part of the service.
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Disambiguation
Vacant home property management vs rental property management
Rental property management serves landlords: leases, tenants, rent, turnovers. Vacant home property management serves owners of private homes that sit empty. No tenants. No rent collection. The job is preservation, documentation, and readiness.
If you need tenants managed, we are not the right firm. If you need the empty house protected, you are in the right place. Related: home watch, property caretaker, absentee owner property management, and snowbird home watch.
Cadence
How often we walk a vacant property.
Set against your policy language, the exposure of the site, and how the house is appointed.
- Every 7 days
- Waterfront, oceanfront, fully furnished residences, and any home vacant through hurricane season. This is the cadence we recommend for the majority of the properties we take on.
- Every 14 days
- The practical floor, and the interval most Florida carriers reference for an unoccupied dwelling. Appropriate for inland, unfurnished, or lightly appointed homes.
- Additional visits by event
- Before and after a named storm, on contractor and delivery days, ahead of your arrival, and after any exception we flagged on the previous walk.
Scope
What each visit covers.
The standing checklist, adjusted for waterfront exposure, pool and dock equipment, and how the residence is furnished.
- Scheduled interior inspections: leaks, humidity, A/C performance, plumbing, appliances
- Exterior inspections: roof line, windows, doors, pool equipment, irrigation, landscape
- Photo-documented, timestamped report delivered after every visit
- Storm preparation, shuttering, and post-storm damage checks
- Mail and package collection and handling
- Vehicle starts and battery checks
- Running water, flushing lines, and checking for pest activity
- Access management for approved vendors and deliveries
The record
Every visit documented, every repair recorded.
Timestamped photographs of each area walked, written exceptions with a recommendation, and the full history of the property filed in your EstateEase portal. When a carrier, a warranty administrator, or a buyer's inspector asks what has been done to this house, the answer is a document rather than a memory.
Related reading: what home watch is, what it costs, and absentee owner property management. If the house is used seasonally rather than sitting empty, see second home management. For one accountable person on an empty house, see our property caretaker program . Or call 561-351-6323.
Questions
Vacant home property management, answered.
- What is vacant home management?
- Vacant home property management is the ongoing care of a residence nobody is living in: scheduled inspections, humidity and climate, supervised vendors, storm readiness, and a continuous dated record. It is owner-side asset protection, not rental property management.
- What is vacant home property management in Florida?
- It is owner-side management of an unoccupied private home: inspection cadence, climate, vendors, storms, and insurance-ready records. It is not HOA management and not tenant property management.
- How often should a vacant home be checked in Florida?
- Every 7 to 14 days. Fourteen days is the practical minimum and the interval most high-value Florida policies reference for an unoccupied dwelling. Weekly is what we recommend for waterfront and oceanfront homes, for fully furnished residences, and for any property vacant through hurricane season.
- Is vacant home property management the same as rental property management?
- No. Property management serves a landlord: leases, tenants, rent collection, turnovers. Vacant home property management serves an owner whose home sits empty and who wants it preserved and documented. There are no tenants and no rental income involved, and the objective is asset protection rather than yield.
- Does my insurer require documented inspections on an empty house?
- Many high-value Florida homeowner policies limit or exclude water damage in a dwelling left unoccupied past a stated period unless inspections are documented. Read your policy's vacancy and unoccupancy language, then set the inspection cadence to satisfy it. A timestamped photo report filed after every visit is the evidence those provisions ask for.
- What temperature and humidity should I leave a vacant Florida home at?
- The goal is relative humidity held roughly in the 50 to 55 percent range, which usually means leaving the air conditioning running with a humidistat rather than raising the thermostat to save power. Shutting the system off entirely is the most expensive economy available to a Florida homeowner, and the interior finishes pay for it.
- Do you manage vacant homes that are for sale or in an estate settlement?
- Yes. Listed properties, homes held during a probate or trust settlement, and residences vacant during a long renovation are all common for us. Those situations usually want the inspection cadence plus showing-ready presentation and vendor access management, and they benefit most from the continuous dated record.
- What does vacant home property management cost?
- Scoped after a walk of the property. Retainers commonly start in the $750, $2,000, and $5,000 bands depending on cadence, systems, and how much vendor supervision sits on top of the inspection. The tiers are listed on our pricing page.
- What is the difference between this and home watch?
- Home watch is the inspection and reporting layer, and for many vacant homes it is the whole answer. Vacant home property management describes the fuller program: the inspections plus climate management, the preventive maintenance calendar, supervised vendor work, storm readiness, and the seasonal opening and closing of the residence.
Related reading
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 a home watch provider
What separates an accountable firm from a neighbor with a key and good intentions.
- Selecting an estate manager
The credentials and habits that matter when one person speaks for the house.
- Home watch cost in Palm Beach County
Why square-footage pricing gets a waterfront house wrong, and what we charge instead.
- Questions owners ask first
Terms, scope, and what is included before you commit to anything.
Begin
How long will the house be empty?
Tell us that and the exposure of the site, and we will recommend a cadence, a scope, and a price built around the actual property. Retainers commonly start in the $750, $2,000, and $5,000 bands; see pricing.
Book your free consultation
Tell us about your home. We'll respond within one business day.