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Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP # 240 The Critical Role of Professional Home Watch Services in Naples
Safeguarding your Southwest Florida property when you're hundreds or thousands of miles away requires more than occasional glances and basic check-ins. Trish Henkel from Home Watch of Naples joins the Good Neighbor Podcast to reveal what truly professional home watch services should deliver.
"I've been shocked at how many times I hear someone say 'I don't really know when my home watch company is here or what they do,'" Trish shares, highlighting a common issue many seasonal residents face. Through her certified and professionally trained team, she's transforming expectations by providing detailed reports with date-stamped photos documenting every inspection. This transparency ensures homeowners know exactly what's being checked and when.
Florida's unique challenges make professional oversight especially critical. Trish explains how proper humidity monitoring requires checking multiple areas of the home, not just where the thermostat sits. "Some people might be able to have their AC set on 78 when they're gone as long as it's managing humidity, but other systems might struggle and need to be set on 76," she notes. These nuanced differences in home systems require personalized attention rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
Hurricane season adds another layer of complexity. Drawing from her experiences during Hurricane Ian, Trish describes conducting comprehensive post-storm assessments for every client property regardless of conditions at her own home. When communications were down, she spent hours at a Walmart parking lot making calls where cell service was available, ensuring clients received firsthand information about their properties. This level of dedication separates true professionals from what Trish calls "pop and go" companies.
Looking for quality home watch services in your area? Trish recommends FindHomeWatch.com, which lists certified providers who are bonded, insured, and background-checked. For Naples area residents along the 41 corridor between Pelican Bay and Coconut Point or near Bonita Beach Road, reach out to Home Watch of Naples at 239-424-9990 or visit homewatchofnaples.com to protect your investment with Midwestern values and Florida expertise.
Home Watch of Naples
Trish Henkel
239-424-9990
info@homewatchofnaplesLLC.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 3:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 240 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Trish Henkel from Home Watch of Naples. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, Jim. Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Pleasure to have you on and learn a little bit more about what you do and share that with our listeners. So let's jump right in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at Home Watch of Naples? To start off with, start off with?
Speaker 2:Well, I think I would start off with letting your audience know that we're a certified and professionally trained HomeWatch service provider and that we provide exceptional service to all our clients. Some people may not be aware of what that difference is as far as being certified and professionally trained, but there is actually a training program for home watch, and so when we first started our business um, I'm like that kind of person that that is, tell me everything I need to know. I want to do it right the first time, and so, through the Homewatch Academy, we did a training course and, you know, never looked back from there. It's been a great experience for us.
Speaker 3:Very nice. So how did you get involved in the Homewatch industry to start off with? So how did you get involved?
Speaker 2:in the home watch industry to start off with. Well, my husband and I were kind of at that stage in life in between, you know, working full time and kind of being semi-retired, and we did a lot of research, looking into different businesses, different business models, and when I found that training program, you know I had a great resource. I could ask all the questions to make sure that you know that was going to be a good fit for us, for our personalities and so, you know, and for your audience, you know, I would also recommend, you know, if someone else is looking for a business opportunity, that's a great way to go. The founder of that program, she's a great resource and mentor to really help you get your business started in the right direction. We've been in business now this is our fourth year and you know we service about a hundred clients.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's. That's quite a quite a number. So let's talk about challenges. You know, obviously there's a lot of challenges in HomeWatch when it comes to our seasonality. Down here in Florida, we've got a lot of natural things that happen here on a regular basis. But, yeah, there are a lot of challenges homeowners face when they're not present.
Speaker 2:Well, I can list a whole bunch of things here. I would say probably one of the first things, like if I sit down with a new client. First things like if I sit down with a new client, I am. I've been shocked at how many times I hear someone say I don't really know when my home watch company is here or what they do, and to me that should never be the case. And so in in our model that we've set up for our clients, that should never be the question. So we use professional software in our reporting, so those emails are sent. We take a number of pictures that are all date and timestamped and that shows the client that we're here, that we're checking these things. So like, for example, if I show you a picture and it's going to be underneath the kitchen sink, well that's showing you that we're checking underneath there looking for drips or leaks.
Speaker 2:Another big thing that most people you know there are companies out there that maybe I don't know what they do. I kind of call them pop and go companies, but we're there at the property for a while. We're monitoring humidity so your thermostat knows what those settings are. You know, usually it's kind of centrally located but we're taking those humidity settings kind of in those outlying bedrooms, because that's the main thing. Some people might be able to have their AC set on 78 when they're gone. As long as it's managing humidity, that's fine. But other systems might struggle to do that and so maybe their AC needs to be set on 76. So each property is going to be different in that aspect.
Speaker 2:So you know, and those are some of the things that maybe the homeowners in your listening area, if they're looking for a new company, you know they may not be in our service area, but those are the kind of questions that they should be asking. But we, you know we check for drips and leaks. We check for drips and leaks. You know we're checking for signs of any pest issues, you know. You know rodents and then that's all packaged. You know in that report that we send lots of photos in there. That way, you know the homeowner knows that. You know we've been there. We're actually checking the property and that's the important part.
Speaker 2:You know, because there's so many let's talk about that a little bit the myths or misconceptions surrounding the home watch industry, and you know what people expect versus, sometimes, what they get right and you know, I know you know for, for here in our area in southwest Florida, you know one of the big concerns that we face and the challenges is, you know, hurricane season. You know what is the extent of, you know what's that storm going to be, because you know they've been a little more proactive these last couple of years. Because they've been a little more proactive these last couple of years and we've been through those situations with our clients, especially with Ian. We had several clients that did take on water and helping them navigate that afterwards, especially if they're still not here, you know. So, through part of this and having a what's our protocol in place, you know we we've realized that any time there's a named storm we need to do a post storm assessment Because you know whether it's you've got a tree, you know that's fallen into your lanai, whether there's roof damage, whether there's intrusion.
Speaker 2:I can't assume just because everything's okay at my house that it's okay at yours. And you know I want our clients to have that confidence that if they call me or you know they're wanting that you know immediate feedback on what's going on, that I can give them answers and not excuses. So you know that and there are a lot of challenges. You know with Ian that you know communications were very poor. You know cell service was very poor. I remember one of those nights I couldn't get a cell service at my house but I could get one over at Walmart. And I went over to Walmart. You know I was over there about three hours making phone calls to clients because you know if they had some sort of issue, you know I wanted them to hear it. You know firsthand on that. So you know. But it's, it's a different, you know, vehicle here in Florida, I think, especially with the things that we encounter.
Speaker 3:But um you know you've got to have a plan in place for your clients you know you've got to have a plan in place for your clients, so are you? Let's back up the story here a little bit. Are you? Are you from Southwest Florida originally? I think you mentioned you retired right down here.
Speaker 2:Well, so we've lived in Florida now since 2012,. But originally we're from Ohio, so we kind of bring our Midwest values with us. You know, I, I, you know, I believe that. You know, homewatch is a very personal service. You know we're in the client's home when they're not, and you know just that I don't know. I find it frustrating if you call a business or something like that, when do they get back with you? So I'm a big person, I believe in answering my phone when somebody calls, or if I've had to miss a call, I'm going to call you back. You know, those are the kind of things that you need to know. You know, if you've got somebody kind of overseeing that care of your home and you're not here, Absolutely, and that's the important part, as you mentioned the Midwestern values.
Speaker 3:So I know owning this business can be very demanding of your time and you probably have little free time. But when you do get a moment of free time, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Speaker 2:Well, before we ever started our HomeWatch business I've taught art classes locally. I usually write mostly now I do like community groups and a lot of them are places I've worked with over the past several years. And my husband, he, in the off season of Home Watch he works part-time at the golf course in our community. But you know we're like I said, we're kind of we're trying to keep that balance between work and enjoying, you know, our time together in this season and. But you know, having a HomeWatch business, I do HomeWatch services all year long. But this time of year you know that's that's. You know we may be only doing about 10% of our client load compared to what we do in the summer.
Speaker 2:I would say, like, when it comes to HomeWatch, you know most HomeWatch companies are going to be small. You know businesses and most of us work on logistics. So you kind of have a defined service area because you want to know that you can get to your properties. You know you want to be within kind of that 20 minute window, you know. So you want to kind of define that pretty well. I would say you know to your listeners because you have, you know, people all over southwest Florida who are listening to your podcast. Example we kind of service off the 41 corridor, mostly kind of between, I would say, pelican Bay and just north of Coconut Point, and then kind of off of Bonita Beach Road, like we'll go down to, like that Barefoot Beach area and around there. So you know what, if you, what are your listeners? Let's say they live in Fort Myers and it's like boy this, yeah, I need a HomeWatch company that is that does things you know professionally and they know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Part of our, our professional organization, through the HomeWatch Academy, there's a website. If you put in your Google search, find HomeWatch. That's going to pull up a list of companies that are all certified, they're going to be bonded and insured, they're going to be background checked. You can put in your zip code and you can find businesses who are going to match up, who are going to be likely servicing your area, and so you know that way, you know, because we can't service everyone.
Speaker 2:But fortunately we've got some other colleagues that are out there that are, you know, also professionally trained on top of their game of what they're doing in the industry. Like you know, we participate in continuing ed. Still, you know, there's always things we can learn from each other. So you know that would be a good place to start, though, for your listeners that if they want to find a HomeWatch company that services their area to go to, you know, to Google find HomeWatch and look through the directory on the HomeWatch company that services their area. To go to Google Find HomeWatch and look through the directory on the HomeWatch Academy.
Speaker 3:Very good, and how would our listeners go about contacting you if they were in the area, in the Naples area, and needed some HomeWatch services?
Speaker 2:Well, our website is. You can put in homewatchofnaplescom and that'll pull us up um and, like I said, we kind of service, you know, kind of described our service area, um, but you know, mostly I don't know. Do you do phone numbers too here on your podcast?
Speaker 3:Yep, okay, we're. 239-424-9990 would be our business line. Very good, trish, it's been a pleasure getting to know you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being such a good neighbor and we hope to see you out in the community soon. Well, thank you. I appreciate me getting to share a little bit about what we do and even helping to educate your listening audience on what they should be getting from their HomeWatch company.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621.