When you make the smart decision to hire a professional home surveillance service, interviewing each one is part of your due diligence. The decision to surrender emotionally and financially valuable property requires careful investigation. As you interview each potential service, ask about their tools. The tools are an indicator of your professionalism and commitment to the business.
You may ask, “Who needs tools to take care of a house?” Let’s take a closer look at this question and see if you come to the same conclusion.
While residing on the property, you make various assumptions about the systems in the house. Many of these are based on being there for months at a time and being home for hours on end. If you feel cold or hot, you go to the thermostat and make an adjustment. If that doesn’t work, call an air conditioning company. If the freezer seems cold, don’t worry. When it’s not cold, you call a repairman. If you look up one day and see a stain on your ceiling, assume there’s a leak and call a roofer or maybe crawl through the attic to look for a leak. If you hear the toilet run, you shake the handle. If that doesn’t work, you can call a plumber or a handyman. You know the pool is leaking because you look at it every day. In each case, it is your experience of living in the property that allows you to see what is happening and take corrective action.
A home surveillance service, on the other hand, is only in the house for an hour or less on most visits. Whether you pay for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly inspections, they must make decisions based on this short period of time. They can’t afford to live on the premises and watch things fail. They must be proactive in monitoring home systems, comparing results to past history, and taking corrective action. What allows them to do this? Professional-grade tools are the key.
At a minimum, your service personnel should carry a digital instantaneous temperature sensor with a high degree of accuracy, a humidity sensor with an accuracy of plus or minus 2%, specialized lighting to quickly identify roof faults, tools to find toilet leaks, a camera to record problems, a moisture meter and other similar equipment. The best of the best will even have a special “smoke” to check fire alarms, a specialized tool to check the microwave, a leak check system for the pool, and may have an infrared camera to identify problems. The list of tools is not as important as recognizing that they are a necessary part of policing a property.
On each visit, the service should inspect and record items such as the temperature of the refrigerator and freezer, the temperature at the vents of air conditioners and heaters, examining every corner of the ceilings, closets and floors, looking for leaks with a high powered light, recording indoor temperature and humidity, and similar tasks. This is your only time, and it is brief compared to living on the property, to identify problems before they become big problems. A simple walkthrough, just looking for things, is worthless unless you use professional-grade tools and the information is recorded.
When interviewing a professional to watch your home, ask what tools they have. If they react with surprise and pull out an old pair of pliers, send them on their way. Let someone else handle the problems that will arise from this less than prepared service.
