Frequently Asked Questions

Home watch is a professional service for people whose homes sit empty for weeks or months at a time. While you’re away, we visit your property on a regular schedule and check the interior, exterior, and mechanical systems for anything wrong: leaks, pests, storm damage, heating failures, signs of a break-in. After every visit you get a report with photos, so you always know exactly how your home is doing. Think of us as your eyes and ears on the ground.

Every visit follows a checklist tailored to your home. Inside, we check thermostat settings and confirm the heat is running (if applicable), look for water leaks under sinks and around appliances, check for signs of rodents or insects, and make sure doors and windows are locked and/or that the security system is armed. Outside, we walk the perimeter looking for storm damage, downed limbs, overflowing gutters, or anything out of place. We collect your mail and packages, and if you’ve asked us to, we’ll run faucets, flush toilets, or handle other custom tasks. Then we send you a report with photos documenting it all.

After each visit, you’ll receive a written report with photos documenting everything we checked. No news is good news — but you’ll see the proof either way. If we find something that needs attention, we’ll flag it right away with photos and a recommendation for next steps, rather than burying it in a routine report. For any emergent issues found, we will contact you directly while we are still on site.

That’s exactly what we’re here for. After a nor’easter, heavy snow, or wind event, we do a storm check of your property: looking for downed trees and limbs, roof and siding damage, power outages, and water intrusion. We document everything so you can make decisions quickly instead of discovering damage months later. Storm checks are $45 per visit per building.

We act fast and keep you in the loop. If we find an active leak, we’ll shut off the water at the main valve to limit damage, document everything, and contact you immediately. For a heating failure in winter, we’ll confirm the situation and help you get your heating contractor out quickly — a cold house in January is an emergency, and we treat it like one. If we see signs of forced entry, we contact local law enforcement and then you. You’ll never hear about a problem weeks after the fact.

Our pricing is straightforward and published right on our Services page. Weekly home watch visits are $45 per visit per building. Storm checks are $45 per visit per building. Handyman services run $65 per hour plus materials (with estimates for larger projects), and project management or vendor access is $65 per hour. Mail forwarding is $10 plus the cost of shipping. Other services are priced per request — just ask.

We’re based in Edgecomb and serve the Midcoast: Bath, Arrowsic, Woolwich, Wiscasset, Edgecomb, Westport Island, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, East Boothbay, Southport, Alna, Newcastle, Damariscotta, and Bristol. If you’re just outside this area, reach out anyway — we’ll tell you honestly whether we can cover you well.

Yes. We’re fully insured and background checked. Protecting other people’s homes is a responsibility we take seriously, and our coverage reflects that.

Absolutely — this is one of the most popular things we do. If you have a renovation, a repair, or a delivery scheduled while you’re away, we’ll be your on-site contact: let workers in, keep an eye on the work, communicate with you about progress, and lock up when they’re done. We can also recommend reliable licensed local contractors if you need one.

Neighbors are wonderful, but this is what we do for a living. A neighbor might glance at your house when they drive by; we walk through it room by room, on a set schedule, with a written checklist and photo documentation after every visit. We’re trained to spot the early signs of trouble — the faint water stain, the furnace that’s short-cycling, the ice dam forming at the eave — and we know what to do when we find them. We’re also available after storms and emergencies, which is a lot to ask of a favor. And if something does go wrong, our reports give you dated, photographic evidence of your home’s condition, which matters for insurance purposes.

Honestly? Yes — arguably even more so. A winterized house with no heat and no water is still vulnerable: to break-ins, to roof damage under snow load, to ice dams, to a failed sump pump, to animals moving in. And if your winterizing wasn’t perfect, a small freeze-up can become a big one with nobody there to catch it. Many of our clients winterize and have us check through the season. It’s belt and suspenders for your biggest investment.

Reach out through the contact form at the bottom of any page on our site, and we’ll schedule a time to walk through your property together (in person or by video call). We’ll learn your home’s quirks, your concerns, and what schedule makes sense — then we build your checklist from there. Most clients are up and running within a week.