Before Colette left Vermont in fall 2023 for her winter home in Bonita Springs, Fla., a neighbor offered to keep an eye on her house while she was away for six months. Though it was a generous offer, the retired widow from Williston didn’t feel comfortable imposing so much responsibility on a neighbor, especially one who refused to accept payment for his time and effort.
Then Colette heard about Vermont Home Watch. The Jericho-based business promises to keep houses safe and secure while their owners are out of town for a week, a month or a year.
“I thought, This is perfect, because I’m always looking for somebody to take care of my property while I’m gone,” Colette said. (Like all the homeowners interviewed for this story, Colette asked that her last name not be published because her house is unoccupied for much of the year.)
Vermont consistently ranks in the top three states for second-home ownership, with about 17 percent of all residential properties listed as recreational or seasonal, according to the 2023 U.S. Census. With many of those houses and condos sitting vacant for months at a time, a cottage industry has sprung up to keep an eye on part-time residences while their owners aren’t there.
“A lot can happen to a home when it’s unoccupied,” said Charlie Posnick, co-owner with his wife, Kim, of Vermont Home Watch, which serves all of Chittenden County as well as Waterbury, South Hero and Grand Isle.
Posnick, 65, launched Vermont Home Watch in December 2022 after retiring from a career as a software tester at Dealer.com. Eager to remain busy into his retirement, he heard about the National Home Watch Association, an industry trade group that trains and certifies home-watch professionals. Posnick’s is one of three such businesses in Vermont and the only one that is nationally certified. Elsewhere, home-watch professionals have operated for more than 20 years in such places as Arizona and Florida, where seasonal properties are common. The national certification requires home watchers to be insured and bonded and to undergo training and criminal background checks.
Posnick’s clients are mostly snowbirds and professionals who travel frequently. Occasionally, he’s hired to watch vacant houses that are part of decedents’ estates that are going through probate court and cannot be sold yet. One of his clients is a family relocating from Georgia, who engaged him to regularly check on their new house until they’re ready to move north.
“A lot of people have security cameras or remote temperature monitors,” Posnick said. “That’s great and all, but it gives the homeowner a false sense of security because it doesn’t provide a complete picture of what condition their house is in.” If the power or internet goes out, he noted, the homeowner may not discover a problem until it causes serious damage.
Posnick does more than stop by the house every few weeks to bring in the mail and water the plants. During a routine visit, he’ll spend 30 to 45 minutes working through a checklist of 30 items from the basement to the attic. He looks for water leaks, checks for dying batteries on smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms, and sniffs the air for mold and other strange odors. He flushes every toilet and runs every faucet to make sure the pipes don’t freeze and the plumbing traps don’t dry out, which can allow noxious sewer gases to leak into the home.
“A security camera won’t tell the homeowner that their freezer stopped working and the food is spoiling,” he added. “But I’ll be able to tell the minute I walk in.”
Outside, Posnick inspects the roof, gutters, outbuildings and surrounding landscape for signs of vandalism, downed trees, ice dams, and animal or insect infestations.
If Posnick discovers a problem, such as a leaky pipe or damaged roof shingles, he immediately notifies the homeowner and offers options for addressing the problem. When a home is unoccupied for an extended period and damage occurs, the insurance company may deny the claim if it’s not filed in a timely manner, he explained.
“My job is to discover small issues before they become extensive, expensive damage.” Charlie Posnick
Typically, Posnick’s clients ask him to take care of the problem himself. Vermont Home Watch also maintains an extensive list of preferred contractors — roofers, plumbers, electricians, exterminators — who can address nearly any residential issue. All have been vetted by Posnick to make sure they are licensed, bonded and insured. He will allow the contractor access to the house and document their work with before-and-after photos and videos.
“My job is to discover small issues before they become extensive, expensive damage,” he said.
That was certainly the case for Colette, whose furnace stopped working about a month ago while she was away. Posnick discovered the problem, contacted Colette, then scheduled a repair crew from Vermont Gas to come the same day. Within 48 hours, the furnace was running again.
“If that [problem] hadn’t been discovered for weeks,” Posnick noted, “she would have had water damage for sure.”
Another time, Posnick discovered a broken window on the third floor of Colette’s house. Rather than waiting until she returned in April to fix it, Colette asked Posnick to bring in a repair service.
“I’m just thrilled with him,” she said. “He’s very responsible and very knowledgeable.”
Because many of his clients are business travelers, Posnick offers other à la carte services, such as running errands, idling clients’ cars and stocking their refrigerators just before they return.
“Charlie’s been very helpful. A super-nice guy who goes above and beyond,” said Tim, a Florida resident who owns a vacation home in rural Chittenden County. “He’s the kind of guy I would call a friend at this point.”
Tim, who first hired Posnick in June 2023, replaced the heating system in his Vermont house last fall. A week later, Posnick came in for his weekly inspection and discovered a small leak. While it wasn’t a dire emergency, Tim said, Posnick found a basin to catch the water until the contractor could return and fix it.
“Just getting eyes on stuff has been a huge help,” Tim added. “It more than provides peace of mind.”
The rates for Vermont Home Watch vary depending on the size of the house and the level of services requested. A single visit starts at $65, and Posnick recommends at least one visit every other week.
“Obviously, a 200-year-old farmhouse with four bedrooms and three bathrooms and old plumbing is going to take me longer to check than a brand-new 1,500-square-foot condo,” he said.
Unlike some of his home-watch colleagues in other states, Posnick hasn’t had any dangerous or strange encounters on the job — no burglars, squatters or large venomous snakes lurking in toilets. About the worst issues he’s dealt with are broken windows and downed trees.
But for Posnick, an uneventful day of work is precisely the goal, keeping small problems from hitting people where they live.
The original print version of this article was headlined “House Keepers | Vermont Home Watch keeps abodes shipshape and safe while their owners are away”
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This article appears in Nest — Winter 2025.
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