Your vacation home is on Sullivan’s or Isle of Palms or Daniel Island but you live in Charlotte or Cleveland or Columbia. How do you know that your vacant house is safe, secure and in good repair?
And if it isn’t, who’s handling the problem?
If you’d hired Coastal Carolina Home Watch, they could tell you. Jack Luber and his team know the status of your property because they visit it every week, examine it inside and out, and address issues before they become disasters.
When you engage Coastal Carolina Home Watch to care for your vacation home or rental property you’re really buying peace of mind. “We’ve got your back,” Luber says.
They’ve got your front, too, and your inside and outside. Beyond inspecting the perimeter, they enter the premises and care for your home as if it was theirs—keeping tabs on the landscaper, watering the plants, ensuring that cable and Internet are functioning, running the dishwasher—those sorts of things.
If something is on the fritz, they’ll check in with you before either fixing it themselves or calling in a vetted repair person. They know who is licensed and bonded, who does good work and who can be trusted. Their password-protected online report can serve as proof of occupancy in the case of an insurance claim.
The key to home watch services, says Luber, is a personal relationship built on trust. An ebullient transplant with a snowwhite beard, Luber likes to meet his customers in person before taking a job. He discusses his customers’ needs before determining exactly which services would work best for them.
For example, some customers ask Luber and his staff to keep copies of their keys if they aren’t in a position to leave their keys with a neighbor or relative. Others ask him to hire and oversee cleaning services. Still others request the company to serve as concierge, making sure the refrigerator is stocked and the newspaper is delivered when they arrive home. The company will even shore up a house in advance of a storm and act as second responder if the alarm goes off.
The company also serves as partners on the ground for people who rent out their vacation homes. The home watch folks do everything but interface with the tenants.
Luber knows personally how important home watch services are. A veteran second-homeowner, he started the company when he first bought property in Surfside Beach, while he was still living on the Jersey shore. “I needed me but there was no me,” he says.
Last fall’s historic flooding kept Coastal Carolina Home Watch busy. At one client’s beach house the outside looked fine, but water had poured through the roof and the ceiling in two second-story rooms. Luber and his team met with the insurance adjuster, bid the job, oversaw cleanup of furniture and floors, and engaged contractors to fix drywall, roofing and electrical. Everything was quickly back to normal and the customer didn’t have to fret or lift a finger.
The strangest call came from Spain, where Luber’s clients were vacationing. Their college-age daughter and her roommate were stuck in an elevator of their Lowcountry home. Greg Doyle, Coastal Carolina Home Watch’s Charleston area manager, dashed over to the house, fixed a kink in the system and helped the girls exit the elevator.
Luber says the company prevented one family from accidentally burning down their house and kept another house safe from an incipient snake invasion.
Coastal Carolina Home Watch is among the first nationally accredited home watch services in North America. And Luber isn’t just the owner of Coastal Carolina Home Watch, he’s also a leader in the home watch industry. He founded the National Home Watch Association to create ethical and business standards for practitioners.
Coastal Carolina Home Watch services start at $100 per month—an inexpensive insurance policy on a house worth half a million dollars or more. They offer security and peace of mind while you’re away from home.
Barry Waldman is principal of Big Fly Communications (gobigfly.com), a PR/marketing firm for nonprofits and small businesses.
