Home Watch for Lake Minnetonka’s Seasonal Residents
Many of our neighbors keep two addresses, and a Minnesota home in January does not forgive inattention. Finn & Lola provides professional home watch in Wayzata, Orono, Deephaven, Excelsior, Minnetonka, Shorewood, Minnetrista and Edina: regular, documented visits that keep your home warm, watched, and exactly as you left it.
Professional Home Watch for Vacant & Seasonal Homes
Full Interior Walkthrough
Plumbing, water heater, sump pump, and signs of leaks or intrusion.
Climate Check
Furnace operation, thermostat settings, and humidity, with special attention during deep freezes.
Exterior Review
Roofline, gutters, ice dams, storm damage, and anything that shouldn't be there.
Mail, Packages & the Lived-In Look
Lights rotated, salt spread if needed, deliveries brought in.
A Photo Report, Every Time
So you see your home with your own eyes, wherever you are.
Someone Actually Comes
Not a sensor. Not an alert on your phone at two in the morning from four states away. Not a camera nobody is watching.
A person walks your house, room by room, on a schedule you know in advance. They check the things that quietly go wrong in a Minnesota winter, they photograph what they find, and if something needs a decision, you hear about it the same day.
An app can tell you that something has already happened. A person standing in the room can tell you it is about to.
Who comes into your house
Our own team, not an app
The person walking your house works for Finn & Lola. They are not a contractor picked up from a marketplace for the afternoon, and they are not a different stranger every visit. You will know who is coming to your home.
Background checked and under agreement
Every member of our team is background checked and works under a signed confidentiality agreement. We do not discuss your home, and we never post about a house while the family is away.
Insured and bonded
We carry our own insurance and bonding, and we are glad to provide a certificate for your records or your carrier's.
Keys and codes, held properly
Access is held securely and limited to the people assigned to your home. If you would rather we use a lockbox, a code, or your existing system, we will work the way you already work.
Minutes away
We are based in Wayzata and serve Wayzata, Orono, Deephaven, Excelsior, Minnetonka, Shorewood, Minnetrista and Edina. When something happens at your house, the person responding is already on this side of town.
Why Documented Visits Matter
Beyond peace of mind, there is paperwork: many homeowner insurance policies include vacancy or unoccupancy provisions that expect a home to be regularly checked while owners are away, and a documented visit history is what proves it. Ask your carrier what your policy requires. Our reports are written to satisfy exactly that kind of question.
“This was our first winter away and they made our worries vanish.”
Molly and the team at Finn & Lola allowed us to leave our new home for the entire winter without a single worry. They communicated regularly, acted proactively, and handled a furnace that broke down in the middle of January. We recommend them highly, and we have already signed on for this coming winter.
Theresa, Minnetrista
The house is warm before you land.
We open a home the way it deserves to be opened. Heat brought up, water on and checked, the drive cleared, beds fresh, and a refrigerator that has something in it. You walk into a house that has been looked after on your behalf, not into a list of things to deal with before you can sit down.
Home Watch, With a Whole-Home Concierge Behind It
Home watch pairs naturally with everything else we do. Contractors supervised mid-project so work continues while you winter elsewhere. Storm response coordinated before small problems become claims. And when you return: a warm house, a stocked refrigerator, fresh flowers if you like them. A home that never noticed you left.
What a season looks like, and what it costs
Leaving Minnesota for the winter? For Lake Minnetonka snowbirds, home watch is a local set of eyes on the house for every month you are away: weekly or every-other-week visits, a documented record of each one, close attention to freeze and storm damage, and help coordinated the moment something needs it.
A season begins with a walkthrough in the fall, before you go. We learn the house, note the systems and the shutoffs, agree on the visit schedule, and build the plan around your dates rather than a template.
Most seasons run October through April, November through April, or December through April, with a May addition if you are back by Memorial Day weekend. Visits are weekly or every other week. Weekly earns the better rate, and weekly is what we recommend from December through February, when a small failure becomes a large one in days.
Individual visits run between $100 and $150 depending on the home: its size, its outbuildings, and how many systems there are to check. Season packages are priced at the walkthrough and can be paid in full before the first visit or monthly across the season. Plant care is a flat addition per visit, and bringing in mail and packages is part of every visit, never a line item.
If you are leaving in November, the walkthrough should happen in October. We take a limited number of homes each season so that the person who knows your house is the person who comes to it.
And the things that come up between visits.
A contractor needs letting in. A delivery has to be received and put somewhere safe. The neighbor has a question about the property line. None of it is an emergency, and all of it needs a person.
Home watch clients can add a block of hours to draw from through the season for exactly this, so the answer is never that it will have to wait until the next scheduled visit. We will tell you what it costs when we walk your home.
Asked & Answered
Who watches my house while I’m away for the winter?
A member of our own team, on a schedule you know in advance, through every month you are gone. Each visit is documented, and if something needs attention, we respond. If you are new to the idea, our guide to what home watch is and who it is for explains how it differs from house sitting and from cameras alone.
How often should a vacant home be checked in a Minnesota winter?
Weekly is the standard we recommend December through February, when freeze events can turn a small failure into a large one within days. Biweekly is often appropriate in shoulder seasons.
What does home watch cost?
Individual visits run between $100 and $150 depending on the home, and a season package is priced at the fall walkthrough once we have seen it. Size matters less than structures and systems: a compact house with a guest house, a boat house and a dock takes more time than a larger house that is all one building. You can pay in full before the first visit or monthly across the season.
Who actually comes into my house?
A member of our own team, background checked and under a signed confidentiality agreement, assigned to your home so it is the same familiar person rather than whoever was available. We are insured and bonded, and we are glad to provide a certificate. We also never post about a home while the family is away.
What happens if you find a problem?
You hear from us the same day, with photos and a recommendation. With your approval we coordinate the right provider from our vetted network and supervise the fix. You make decisions, we make calls.
What if something happens in the middle of the night?
You can reach us outside scheduled visits. If something needs a person at the house right away, a furnace that has stopped in a cold snap, water where water should not be, an alarm nobody can explain, we will go, and there is a set fee for an emergency call outside normal hours. You will know that number before the season starts, not after the phone rings.
What if we are only gone for a few weeks?
That is fine, and it is often when people get caught out. A February trip is short enough to feel harmless and long enough for a pipe to freeze. We schedule shorter absences the same way, without a season commitment.
Do you offer this year-round?
Yes. Summer travelers and snowbirds alike. Any home, any season, any length of absence.
Which towns do you serve?
Wayzata, Orono, Deephaven, Excelsior, Minnetonka, Shorewood, Minnetrista and Edina, and the shoreline in between. If you are just outside that, ask us anyway.
Someone at the house while you are here, too.
Home Watch is for the months you are gone. On Call is for the Tuesday you are in town and cannot be in two places: the furnace tech's four-hour window, the delivery that needs a signature, the noise upstairs you would rather someone looked at today. One text, one of our people, already nearby.
Traveling this winter?
Let's walk your home together before you go.
Get in Touch