BUSINESS PROFILE
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Pelican House Watch
Checking On Your Home When You’re Away By Erin Kelly-Allshouse
new home-watching business is serving neighborhoods throughout Santa Cruz County. Owners David and Teri Parks, lifelong Santa Cruz residents, got requests to “keep an eye on” local residences that were clients with Parks Construction — their own company for 30 years. They launched the new company, Pelican House Watch, in January 2019. Services include regular home visits to view the exterior, and in some cases, the interior of unoccupied and parttime vacation homes. A typical home watch visit includes a walk around the entire David Parks perimeter of the home, observing conditions of siding and trim, doors and windows, gutters and downspouts, and looking for obvious issues that may affect the home as well as any changes from previous visits. A check of the grounds and walkways are often also included in the service agreement. The company then provides a realtime report using software developed by iAuditor. The homeowner can view the reports and schedule and cancel house watch visits as needed. Pelican House Watch provides similar services to condominium and townhome homeowner associations, inspecting and reporting on walkways, parking lots and common areas of the communities. This keeps the property managers and board of directors current on issues affecting these properties. Inspections and reporting are customized to fit the needs of the client. Agreements also include entry into the home to check for signs of leaks from plumbing, the roof or siding. Conditions such as temperature settings for furnaces, unusual odors, and signs of pest infestation are monitored. Any conditions that may need to be addressed are reported to the owners. The recent wind storm that caused damages in Santa Cruz County prompted unscheduled visits to check for downed trees and displaced lawn furniture. During heavy rains, Parks said, visits may be needed to check on rain gutters and drainage. A visit after dark may be scheduled to observe the operation of outdoor lighting, or interior lights that are set to turn on or off.
The Parks family: David, Teri and daughter Savannah (center). “We have one client, a condominium running a construction business or manmedical complex, which uses us to monitor aging several multimillion-dollar public their trash and recycling enclosures each works contracts simultaneously,” Parks week, as well as provide readings of water said. “Since most are second homes and vacation homes, and usually located in meters on a regular basis,” Parks said. Other services include stored car very special parts of Santa Cruz County, it warm-ups, trash service, pressure washing gives us the opportunity to enjoy the views decks and patios, airing out the house and of the beaches and surroundings while earning a living at the same time.” preparing for the owner’s visit. While the business is still small, Parks Co-founder David Parks attended Laurel Elementary School, Cabrillo College said, it affords him the ability to walk and UC Berkeley, where he got his bach- routes between homes along East Cliff and Opal Cliffs Drive. elor’s degree in architecture. His wife Teri, also a Santa Cruz native, He began Parks Construction Company specializing in repairs and is CFO and secretary of Pelican House remodeling for homeowners and HOA Watch. She has experience as an admincommunities throughout Santa Cruz. For istrative assistant for law firms as well as a time, he was construction superintendent at a private school. Most recently she has for a large local company building town- been a photographer’s assistant and she homes and condominiums, shopping markets her own line of photography. Over center and doctors’ offices. He also worked the years, she provided design and interior for the County of Santa Clara, retiring as finish selections for Parks Construction’s new home building and renovation construction manager in April 2019. “For the most part, performing the projects. “Teri and I have been married for 32 walk-through of the homes and reporting to the owner is stress-free compared to years and most of our careers we never
20 / March 2020 / Capitola Soquel Times www.tpgonlinedaily.com
Photo Credit: Erin Kelly-Allshouse
planned to work together full time,” David Parks said. “Teri has always assisted with bookkeeping as well as interior design work on custom homes that we’ve built both in both Santa Cruz, and for two years, in Bend, Oregon … it was our friends and family — as well as the surf and sun — that brought us back to Santa Cruz.” The couple, who live in Santa Cruz Gardens, have three daughters, Kiela, Katelyn and Savannah. The youngest daughter, Savannah, helps with the business. The owners of Pelican House Watch call it a “concierge service” for absentee homeowners and part-time dwellers, as well as for HOA communities and commercial office complexes. Let them customize a care package that will help you protect and watch over your home and properties. n ••• Office hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekdays,. Home visits can take place on weekends and evenings if needed.
