What is Home Watch?

A plain guide for Lake Minnetonka homeowners

Home watch is the scheduled, in-person inspection of an unoccupied home by a professional who checks the house inside and out, looks for trouble before it becomes damage, and documents every visit. It exists because houses do not pause when their owners leave. Water heaters fail, power flickers, storms pass through, and a small problem given six quiet weeks becomes a large one. Home watch is how a house stays known while its people are away.

Who home watch is for

Around Lake Minnetonka, home watch is mostly a winter service. Households leave for Naples, Scottsdale, or Palm Springs in October and come back when the ice goes out, and the house stands empty through the hardest months Minnesota has. It also serves second homes and cabins, families in the middle of long travel, and homes in transition, such as an estate between owners or a house waiting out a renovation. If a property you are responsible for will sit unoccupied for more than a couple of weeks, it is a candidate.

What a visit actually includes

A proper home watch visit is a walkthrough with a checklist and a camera, not a drive-by. Interior rooms are walked and eyes are put on ceilings, floors, windows, and mechanical spaces. Water gets particular attention, because water is the thing that ruins houses: taps are run, toilets are flushed and checked for silent leaks, the water heater and softener are looked over, and in deep winter the heat is verified room by room. Outside, the roofline is checked for ice dams, gutters and grading after storms, doors and windows for signs of attempted entry. Mail and packages that announce an empty house are collected. And after every visit, the owner receives documentation, so that a thousand miles away, you know your house was seen by someone who knows it.

What a camera cannot do

The common alternative to home watch is technology: cameras, leak sensors, smart thermostats. We install and monitor these gladly, and they are genuinely useful. But a camera can tell you a pipe burst at two in the morning. It cannot turn the water off. A sensor can send an alert. It cannot meet the plumber, move the furniture out of the water, or stand in the driveway while the mitigation crew works. Monitoring tells you something happened. Presence is what protects the house. The other common alternative, a kind neighbor with a key, is goodwill rather than a system: no checklist, no documentation, and an awkward conversation waiting if something goes wrong on their watch.

The insurance question

There is also a quieter reason home watch exists. Many homeowner policies treat an unoccupied home differently, and some expect the home to be checked regularly while its owners are away, particularly where freeze damage is concerned. A documented record of professional visits, with dates and photos, is exactly what you want to be holding if you ever need to make that claim. Every policy is different, and this is a conversation worth having with your agent before the house empties for the season, not after.

How we do it at Finn & Lola

Finn & Lola provides home watch across Wayzata, Edina, Minnetonka, Excelsior, Orono, and Deephaven. Visits are scheduled to the house, not to a route, and each one ends with a documented report to the owner. Because we are a whole home concierge rather than a checklist service, the same company that watches the house can also handle what the house needs: the plumber met, the repair coordinated, the fridge stocked and the beds made for the night you land back home. We are small and local by design, and we take on a limited number of winter homes so that each one is genuinely known.

Common questions

How often should an empty house be checked?

Weekly is the working standard for an unoccupied home in a Minnesota winter, and after any major storm or deep freeze regardless of schedule. Milder seasons can stretch longer. The right cadence depends on the house, its systems, and how long it will stand empty.

Is home watch the same as house sitting?

No. A house sitter lives in the home while you are away. Home watch is a professional service of scheduled visits to an unoccupied home, with inspection and documentation each time. Many of our households use home watch precisely because they do not want someone living in the house.

When should home watch be arranged?

Before the house empties, ideally a few weeks ahead. A proper start includes a walkthrough with the owner to learn the house, its systems, and its quirks, and winter calendars fill before the first snow does.

Does home watch include shoveling and lawn care?

We coordinate it. Snow removal and lawn service keep a house looking lived in, which matters for both security and appearances, and arranging trusted providers is exactly the kind of thing a whole home concierge does. It is handled through the same single point of contact as the rest of the service.

If your house will stand empty this winter, we would be glad to talk before the season starts. Visit our home watch page or write to hello@finnandlola.com.