Home Watching - Above & Beyond Just Watching Your Property

HOME WATCHING

Above & Beyond the Call of Just Watching your Property!

By Russell Miller

Last month we introduced you to the internationally recognized Association of Home Watch professionals (NHWA, IHWA) to make sure you have an expert looking over obvious issues that can go wrong while you’re away! The important peace of mind for both you and the insurance companies is that no more than one or two weeks go by without a human presence in your property, and that said human presence is also trained, insured and bonded to cover any other legal problems that can go wrong! Remember: UNLICENSED CONTRACTING is a FELONY in FLORIDA.

STORM Preparation and planning with property owner… Remembering IAN and NICOLE

Unfortunately, storm occurrence is on the rise and we must expect a storm to happen! Here are a few stats of the trend: Days between Billion dollar disasters have drastically gone from an average of 80 in the 1980s to 20 days in any given year here in the 2020s! Hurricanes cost an average of 20.5 billion dollars per event. Source: NOAA/NCEI

Having a plan, (keep inventory, take pictures in each room) and having tested all the material (ie: shutters and generator, etc…) that would need emergency set up is of extreme importance as no one wants to be stuck 2-3 days before a hurricane strike and be overcharged for products and services!

Above and beyond just home watching

Do you know that a professional home watch person can be your advocate and oversee all types of projects while you’re away? They can coordinate house cleaning teams, receive deliveries, open the door for Pest control and AC technicians, and do any other task that needs to be done while you’re away! Not only Snowbirds can benefit from the services of Home Watch professionals.

Tricks for making sure vendors and technicians show up and get the job done!

Make sure your availability is virtually ALWAYS THERE so that you are on Top of the list of deliveries and jobs to be done by vendors. Your Home Watch professional will be there for you! Here are the tips to not be stuck at the mercy of Vendors: 1. Be available all days of the week. 2. Ask for the name of the person organizing the appointment for later confirmation (makes them accountable!!). 3. Get email confirmation from them as proof of their commitment. 4. Call back the vendor and use the name of the person who booked the original appointment, 2 days prior because the day before, you might get the run-around! 5. Call and email 24 hours ahead and ask that drivers or technicians call you 30 minutes before their arrival as a reminder and for security purposes. ▸ Russell Miller, contributing author and CEO of Ice Palm International Concierge and

Consulting. Russell is also a Florida licensed

Realtor, part of the Sklar Team at Coldwell

Banker Realty.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L CONCIERGE & CONSULTING SERVICES

Ice Palm is a one-stop shop for modern concierge services based in Fort Lauderdale. We provide a wide array of services for Snowbird Owners and Investors. Ice-Palm does HomeWatching while property is vacant, supervises house cleaning, renovations and other vendors. For peace of mind while you’re away, the Ice-Palm Team is there while you’re not! Call 954-239-7176 or Canada 514-827-3666 www.ice-palm.com