You lock the door for the summer, or fly out after season — and the house sits alone through South Florida's heat, humidity, and hurricane risk. Here's what a proper home watch actually covers, why your insurance policy may require it, and how a licensed Community Association Manager and General Contractor can watch your home and fix what's wrong in the same visit.
Vacation home watch is a scheduled, in-person check of a property while the owner is away — commonly weekly or every other week — to catch the problems that turn into disasters in an empty Florida house: an air conditioner that quietly dies and lets humidity and mold take over, a slow leak nobody is there to notice, a storm that knocks a shutter loose, or a break-in that goes unreported for weeks. It is a physical walk-through, not a camera feed or a neighbor's promise to "keep an eye on it."
Palm Beach County has one of the largest snowbird populations in the country, and a growing number of second-home and investment-property owners who are simply not on-site most of the year. If that describes your property, a home watch visit is the cheapest insurance you can buy against the kind of damage that only gets worse the longer it goes unseen. Call (561) 779-3213 to ask whether home watch fits your property.
This is the part most owners miss: a home watch visit isn't just peace of mind, it can be the difference between a covered claim and a denied one. Keeping a dated log of each visit — what was checked, what was found, and when — is exactly the kind of record an insurer or an adjuster asks for after a loss.
An empty house needs different attention in June through November than it does in February. Before a storm threatens, a home watch visit should confirm shutters or impact windows are ready to deploy, patio furniture and anything loose is secured or stored, gutters and downspouts are clear, and the generator (if there is one) is fueled and tested. After a storm passes, the same visit becomes a damage assessment: roof and soffit condition, water intrusion around openings, downed limbs or fence damage, and whether the power and AC came back on correctly.
Because the same person doing the walk-through holds a Certified General Contractor license (CGC1528750) and a Certified Roofing Contractor license (CCC1332751), storm damage found during a home watch visit doesn't sit in an email inbox waiting for someone else to look at it — it can be scoped, priced, and scheduled for repair directly. See our roofing and impact windows & doors pages for the storm-protection work itself, and Bell Land Services for post-storm debris and yard cleanup.
A scheduled, in-person walk-through of a property while the owner is away — checking doors and windows, AC and humidity, plumbing, pests, storm shutters, the pool, and mail — to catch small problems before they become expensive ones. It's a physical inspection, not a camera feed.
Cameras can catch a break-in in progress, but they can't smell mildew, feel a soft spot in drywall, or notice a slow leak under a sink. A home watch visit catches the problems that develop quietly over weeks — an AC failure, humidity and mold, or a small roof leak — that a camera pointed at the driveway will never see.
Many Florida homeowners policies contain a vacancy clause that suspends or excludes certain coverage — often water damage, vandalism, and theft — once a home sits unoccupied past a set number of consecutive days, and some carriers require documented, periodic inspections to keep that coverage in force. The exact trigger and requirements vary by policy, so confirm your specific terms with your insurance agent in writing.
Weekly or every other week is the common standard, and Florida's heat and humidity make longer gaps riskier than in a drier climate — an AC failure can lead to visible mold inside a single week. Your insurance policy's own inspection requirement, if it has one, should set the floor for how often visits happen.
Doors, windows and locks; the AC system and indoor humidity; plumbing and visible leaks; signs of pests or wildlife; the roof, storm shutters and exterior; the pool and irrigation system; mail and package accumulation at the door; and the breaker panel and any smart-home alerts since the last visit.
Yes — that's the core difference from a home-watch-only company. Randolph Scott Bell holds the CAM license (CAM34850) plus a Certified General Contractor license (CGC1528750) and a Certified Roofing Contractor license (CCC1332751), so a problem found on a Tuesday walk-through can be scoped and scheduled for repair without you finding, vetting, and coordinating a separate contractor from out of state.
Yes. Before a storm, a visit confirms shutters or impact windows are ready, loose items are secured, and gutters are clear. After a storm, the same visit becomes a damage assessment covering the roof, soffits, openings, and power — and any storm damage found can move directly into a repair scope through our roofing and land clearing divisions.
Palm Beach County, Florida, including West Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Jupiter, and surrounding communities with a significant seasonal and second-home population.
Home watch is for an owner-occupied home that sits empty part of the year — nobody is renting it, so the job is inspection and upkeep, not tenants or rent. Full property management is for a rental you want leased, managed, and collected on. Some owners use both at different times of year — call (561) 779-3213 to talk through which fits your property.