A home watch service is a scheduled visual inspection of an unoccupied or seasonal home, performed by a trained professional and documented with photos and a written report. It is not house sitting, property management, or a security system — it exists to catch small problems (leaks, pests, power loss) before they become expensive ones.
What is a home watch service?
The National Home Watch Association (NHWA) defines home watch as “a visual inspection of a home or property, looking for obvious issues.” When the inspector finds a problem — a drip under a sink, a tripped breaker, storm damage, signs of pests — the homeowner is notified right away and decides how to proceed. The NHWA classifies the service as risk mitigation, and that framing is exact: the job is to shrink the window between something going wrong in an empty house and someone finding out.
Three things separate a professional home watch from a neighbor with a key. It is scheduled — visits happen on a fixed cadence, usually weekly or bi-weekly, not whenever someone remembers. It is systematic — the inspector works through the same checklist every visit, inside and out. And it is documented — every visit produces a written report, typically with photos and timestamps, so an owner a thousand miles away can see the house is fine. The report is the product. Without it, a home watch visit is just a favor.
Home watch by the numbers
- The definition: “a visual inspection of a home or property, looking for obvious issues” — National Home Watch Association (accessed July 2026).
- Insurance vacancy window: most homeowners policies limit or exclude coverage once a home is unoccupied for “typically 30 to 60 consecutive days” — Insurance Information Institute (June 2025).
- Visit frequency: professional plans are most commonly sold as weekly or bi-weekly visits; monthly is generally treated as a floor, not a norm.
- Typical price: published operator rate cards run about $25–$50 per visit by home size (Southwest Florida, 2026); a regional guide puts professional weekly service at $35–$55 per visit (December 2023).
What does a home watch visit include?
A standard visit covers the exterior and interior on the same trip. Outside: a walk around the full perimeter looking at the roofline, gutters, siding, windows, doors, landscaping, pool or lanai, and any sign of forced entry, storm damage, or pest activity. Inside: a room-by-room walk checking for water intrusion, mold or mildew smell, correct thermostat and humidity readings, refrigerator and freezer function, water heater condition, running toilets, and anything visibly out of place. Many operators also flush toilets and run taps to keep traps wet, and collect mail and flyers so the house does not advertise its emptiness.
Each item gets a status, and anything abnormal gets a photo and a note. The full room-by-room list — and a printable version — is in the home watch checklist guide. NHWA-accredited providers deliver a detailed report after every visit, often with photos, timestamps, and notes, which is the standard any serious operator should meet whether accredited or not.
Home watch vs. house sitting vs. property management vs. security monitoring
These four services get conflated constantly, and the confusion costs everyone — homeowners buy the wrong thing, and operators get asked to do work outside their scope. The NHWA is blunt on one point: home watch is not house sitting, because house sitting involves someone living in the home. Here is how the four actually compare:
| Service | Who is there | What they do | What the owner gets | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home watch | A trained inspector, on a fixed schedule | Visual inspection inside and out; flags issues to the owner | A written, photo-documented report after every visit | Roughly $25–$60 per visit for most homes (pricing guide) |
| House sitting | Someone living in the home | Occupies the house; upkeep duties vary by arrangement | Presence and deterrence, usually little or no documentation | Varies widely — from a free housing-for-presence exchange to a negotiated daily fee |
| Property management | A management company, tenant-facing | Leasing, rent collection, and maintenance coordination for rented property | Monthly statements and a managed tenancy | Typically 8%–12% of monthly rent |
| Security monitoring | No one — sensors plus a monitoring center | Alerts on intrusion, smoke, and sometimes water sensors | Notifications and dispatch; no inspection, no report | Professional monitoring runs about $20–$80 per month (NerdWallet, Oct 2025) |
Two more terms worth separating. A caretaker is ongoing hands-on labor — an employee or contractor who maintains the grounds, does repairs, and may live on site, common on larger estates. Home watch is inspection and reporting, not labor; the operator finds the problem and coordinates the fix. And property management exists for rented homes with tenants; an unoccupied seasonal home has no tenant, which is exactly why home watch is its own category.
None of these replace each other. A monitored alarm tells someone a door opened; it says nothing about the slow leak behind the washing machine. Many home watch clients keep a security system and add home watch on top — the sensor catches the burglar, the inspector catches everything else.
How often should an empty house be checked?
Start with the insurance reality. According to the Insurance Information Institute, most homeowners policies include a vacancy clause that limits or excludes coverage — often for exactly the perils an empty house faces, like vandalism, theft, and water damage — once the property is unoccupied for typically 30 to 60 consecutive days. Documented, dated visit reports are how an owner demonstrates the home was being checked, and some policies specifically require periodic checks. Owners should confirm their own policy's wording; the window and requirements vary by insurer.
Beyond the policy, the practical math is about damage windows. A supply line that fails the day after a visit runs for six days on a weekly schedule — and for almost a month on a monthly one. That difference is measured in drywall versus demolition. This is why weekly is the cadence professionals sell as standard, with bi-weekly as the common budget tier and monthly generally treated as a minimum for mild seasons. On-demand visits after storms, hard freezes, or power outages sit on top of any schedule.
Who needs home watch?
- Snowbirds — the classic client: owners who leave a southern home empty all summer (or a northern one all winter), often for five to seven months at a stretch.
- Second-home owners — vacation homes used a few weeks a year and empty the rest.
- Estates in probate — a house that must be preserved, documented, and insurable while an estate settles, sometimes for a year or more.
- Extended travelers — sabbaticals, long medical stays, military deployments, multi-month trips.
- Vacant listings — homes sitting empty on the market, where a burst pipe can erase the sale.
If you are building a home watch business, that list is your customer map — and trust is the entire sale. Owners are handing a stranger keys to an unattended house, which is why many shop specifically for accredited providers; the NHWA accreditation guide covers what that involves and whether it is worth pursuing.
What does a home watch service cost?
For most homes, published rates cluster around $25–$60 per visit, scaling with square footage, visit frequency, and market — coastal and luxury markets run meaningfully higher. How to set rates, structure weekly-versus-bi-weekly plans, and price add-ons is covered in the home watch pricing guide. Operators comparing tools for scheduling, checklists, reports, and billing can start with the home watch software comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is home watch the same as house sitting?
No. House sitting means someone lives in the home while the owner is away. Home watch is a scheduled visual inspection by a professional who visits, documents the home's condition with photos and a report, and leaves. The National Home Watch Association draws this line explicitly in its definition of the service.
How often should an empty house be checked for insurance purposes?
Check the specific policy — most homeowners policies limit coverage once a home is unoccupied for typically 30 to 60 consecutive days, per the Insurance Information Institute, and some require documented periodic checks. Professionals treat weekly or bi-weekly visits as the norm; the shorter the interval, the smaller the window for undetected damage.
What does a home watch report include?
A per-item record of what was checked inside and out, with photos of anything abnormal, notes, timestamps, and a clear flag on any issue that needs the owner's decision. Accredited NHWA providers deliver a detailed report after every visit, and that documentation standard is what separates a professional service from an informal key-holder.
Do home watch companies need a license?
Generally there is no home-watch-specific license in the United States; requirements are typically a standard business registration plus general liability insurance, and many operators add bonding and background checks because clients ask. Rules vary by state and municipality, so verify locally before launching.
Is a home watch service worth it?
Weigh the visit fee against what an unnoticed failure costs: water damage claims routinely run into five figures, and a vacancy clause can void coverage entirely on a home no one was checking. For an owner five states away, a documented weekly check is cheap insurance on top of actual insurance.
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Home Watch Crew is free practice-management and per-visit billing software for home watch operators: per-home checklists, phone-first checks with photos, branded reports emailed under your letterhead, and one invoice per client family — paid by card, ACH, Wave, or your own Venmo. iOS and web. Free to start.
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