Every well-equipped Palm Beach County home has an alarm, and many now add cameras, water sensors, and smart thermostats. Owners reasonably ask whether that technology makes home watch unnecessary.
It does not, and the reason is simple: alarms detect intrusion and sensors measure what they are wired to measure. Neither can walk the property, exercise judgment, or act.
Alarms are excellent at detecting door and window breaches, motion inside a protected zone, and in many systems smoke or glass break. Monitored systems dispatch law enforcement. That is a genuine layer of protection and we recommend every unoccupied property have one.
But the vast majority of losses in unoccupied Palm Beach County homes are not break-ins. They are water, humidity, mechanical failure, pests, and storm damage — none of which trip a burglar alarm.
Leak sensors only detect water where they were placed. A supply line failure behind a wall, a slow roof leak into an attic, or a condensate line backing up into a soffit produces no alert until damage is visible. Smart thermostats report temperature but not whether the air handler is icing, whether the filter is destroyed, or whether the drain pan is full.
Cameras show the frames someone chooses to review. They do not show the corroded fitting in the garage, the lifted tile on the north slope of the roof, the rodent trail behind the water heater, or the screen tear in the pool cage.
An inspector opens the electrical panel, runs every fixture, smells for musty odor, feels a wall for moisture, reads humidity against your target, checks the pool equipment and the roofline, and judges whether the landscaping is drifting toward an HOA violation.
Then, crucially, a person can act: shut a valve, call you, meet a plumber at the door, close shutters before a storm, and photograph everything for your insurer.
The right configuration for a Palm Beach County second home is a monitored alarm, water and temperature sensors where they help, and professional home watch inspecting on a documented schedule. Technology narrows detection time on a few specific failures; home watch covers everything else and provides the response.
We can also be listed as an alarm responder so a credentialed local person reaches the property quickly. Call 561-913-2023.
We inspect properties in Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Manalapan — along with more than ninety other Palm Beach County communities. Local knowledge matters: each of these communities has its own gate procedure, vendor registration process, and building or association rules, and we handle that credentialing before your first inspection rather than negotiating it at the gate.
Every Palm Beach County inspection follows the same documented protocol from the first visit to the last, so nothing is left to memory or judgment on the day. Our inspector begins with a full interior walkthrough — every room, every level, every closed door — looking for water intrusion, ceiling and wall staining, musty odor, and anything out of place since the previous visit. We run and check all water fixtures: kitchen and bathroom sinks, every toilet for silent running valves, showers and tubs to clear stagnant lines and keep trap seals full, and the water heater for corrosion, weeping fittings, and pan moisture. A single slow supply-line leak is the most expensive thing that can happen inside an unoccupied Palm Beach County home, and it is the item we check most carefully.
From there we verify the HVAC system: operation, filter condition, thermostat setpoint, and the interior temperature and humidity reading against the levels we agreed on for your property. We open the electrical panel to check for tripped breakers, scorching, and visible wiring issues, then move outside for a full exterior walk — roof and soffit condition from ground level, missing or lifted shingles and tile, gutter and downspout blockage, and drainage away from the foundation after Florida's afternoon storm cycle.
The pool receives a visual inspection every visit: water level, clarity, pump and filter operation, and cage or screen condition. Security systems are confirmed — every exterior door, window, and sliding door locked, alarm status verified, cameras and smart-home panels operating. We look for signs of pest activity including rodent droppings, insect trails, and termite evidence at baseboards, garage corners, and exterior wood. The garage is checked for door operation and the condition of vehicles, storage, and equipment inside. We note landscaping problems — obvious overgrowth, fallen branches, irrigation breaks, and standing water or drainage issues along the property line. Finally, mail and deliveries are collected so nothing accumulates and signals an empty house to anyone watching the street.
Every Palm Beach County inspection ends the same way: a GPS-verified photo report delivered to your email the same day. The report opens with the date, arrival and departure timestamps, and GPS confirmation that our inspector was physically at your property — not a checkbox on a form filled out somewhere else. Inside you get a detailed written description of every item checked, organized by system and by room, along with the interior temperature and humidity readings for that visit.
If we find an issue, you see photographs of it. A stain forming on a ceiling, a corroded fitting at the water heater, a lifted roof tile, a pool pump that has stopped, a breaker that tripped while you were away — all of it is photographed and described in plain language. For anything urgent we do not wait for the report. You get an immediate phone call, and we coordinate directly with licensed contractors for repairs when you ask us to.
Reports are yours to use. Owners forward them to family members who want visibility into the property, to insurance carriers who require documented inspections on an unoccupied home, and to adjusters when supporting a claim after a storm or a water event. Every Palm Beach County report is retained as a permanent dated record of the property's condition, which is exactly the evidence trail an insurer looks for. And you always have direct access to the person inspecting your home at 561-913-2023 — never a call center, never an outsourced dispatcher.
Palm Beach Home Watch is locally owned and based in Wellington, Florida. We are not a franchise operating from a national playbook, and there is no regional office between you and the person who walks your Palm Beach County property. That matters when something goes wrong at nine o'clock on a Sunday night: you call 561-913-2023 and reach the people who are responsible for your home.
We are an active member of the National Home Watch Association, the body that sets professional standards for this industry — accreditation requirements, insurance minimums, and background screening for anyone entering a client's property. Every inspector is background checked. We are fully insured, and a Certificate of Insurance is provided on request naming your property, your association, or your building as additional insured.
Local knowledge is the part that cannot be outsourced. We know Palm Beach County, we know the surrounding Palm Beach County communities, we know how the HOAs and gate operations here handle vendor registration, and we know which local contractors show up when a property needs an emergency repair. We coordinate directly with your HOA, your property manager, or your building security so access is arranged before your first inspection rather than negotiated at the gate. There are no long-term contracts, scheduling is flexible around your travel calendar, and you can add or pause visits as your season changes.
Florida's hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and it is the period when an unoccupied Palm Beach County property is most exposed. Before a named storm approaches we conduct a documented pre-storm visit: storm shutters and impact protection verified as closed and secured, outdoor furniture and loose items brought in or secured, drains and gutters cleared, pool water level adjusted, generator checked for fuel and start-up where one is installed, and interior systems set for the property to sit safely through a power outage. Every item is photographed so you have a dated record of the property's pre-storm condition.
After the storm passes and access is safe, we return for a post-storm inspection. We document roof and tile condition, window and shutter integrity, water intrusion at doors and sliders, screen and cage damage, fallen trees and debris, pool contamination, and whether power has been restored and the HVAC is running again. Photographs are timestamped and delivered the same day, which is precisely the documentation an insurance adjuster needs and precisely what most owners cannot produce from a thousand miles away.
We monitor National Hurricane Center advisories and local Palm Beach County weather alerts through the season and proactively schedule checks around named-storm activity rather than waiting for a call. This is why we recommend weekly visits from June through November even for owners who use bi-weekly service the rest of the year — the window between a problem starting and a problem becoming catastrophic is far shorter in storm season. Call 561-913-2023 to set your hurricane season schedule.
Some carriers credit documented professional inspections on unoccupied homes. Ask your broker, and we will supply the reports they require. Call 561-913-2023.
Yes. Alarm status, camera operation, and smart panel connectivity are verified on every visit.
Outages knock alarms, cameras, and HVAC offline. We verify status on each visit, report outages, and check generator operation where installed.
Yes. Palm Beach Home Watch is a locally owned, fully insured member of the National Home Watch Association. A Certificate of Insurance naming your property, association, or building as additional insured is provided on request. Call 561-913-2023.
All of them — from Wellington and Palm Beach Polo to Admirals Cove in Jupiter, BallenIsles and Old Palm in Palm Beach Gardens, St Andrews Country Club and Boca West in Boca Raton, Addison Reserve in Delray Beach, and the Palm Beach island and Manalapan waterfront.
Call 561-913-2023 or email admin@pbchomewatch.com. We schedule a complimentary walkthrough of your property, confirm gate and HOA access requirements, and most Palm Beach County homes are onboarded within one week.
Call 561-913-2023 or email admin@pbchomewatch.com. We schedule a complimentary walkthrough of your Palm Beach County property and typically begin service within one week.
