Question for those with vacation property

I live in a city which has a considerable amount of waterfront vacation property in which the owners are using there homes only a few weeks out of the year. I am thinking about starting up a cocierge business in which I would look after these homes, get them winter/summer ready, security checks, ect. My question to you guys and gals is, do you think this would be a good business to start? There is no one that is doing this in my area. I know it will be a challenge to establish trust when it comes to looking after high dollar homes but you have to start somewhere. I am wondering about fellow members that own vacation homes in different cities. What do you do with your homes? Do you have someone looking after them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Sounds like a good idea to me, building trust is the key!

I can't believe somebody hasn't already been doing it. Go for it, do not hesitate. I have several properties in Naples and at one time relied on people in that business to help me out as I was not there. Now I live in the area and take care of most of this myself. But have already come up with multiple new ideas on how I could create a similar business with additional services. The key to most businesses is discovering a opportunity like this where nobody has really discovered. You need to be early to the game and provide a valuable, reliable product. If you do that don't be surprised when others try to copy the idea. Be consistent , Professional, reliable, punctual and by all means communicate beyond the expectation and your business will thrive.

Sounds like a great idea! I would definitely hire someone to do that. Do it!

You could franchise such service, the more I think about it the better it sounds!

Definitely sounds like you found an untapped market. Vacation home maintenance is big out here in Colorado with all the ski resort towns with 7/8 figure homes inhabited a couple weeks out of the year. Perhaps you could look up some maintenances companies in resort towns and figure out what kind of services they offer to help guide you.

I really like the idea. I think trust would be the issue for me. You could do security checks, maintenance inspections (check for leaking roofs, busted water pipes), lawn care, etc. You could take dated pics and upload them to an online account that they can log in and look at. Help give them some piece of mind that the roof has not collapsed and the house is still there. I imagine if I had a house that nobody was looking after I would constantly be thinking "what if" when I'm not there.

Thanks for all the comments and ideas. I am quite surprised myself that no one is doing this in my area. Where do you think I should start to get the business up and running? Probably getting a website established would be the first thing to do. I think that I will have difficulty establishining trust with the potential clients with starting a brand new business. I also have a full time blue collar job in which I start a 3:30 am and finish around 1 pm so that mite cause an issue even though I have the whole afternoon and evening to work this business. My goal would ideally would be to grow this business enough to be able to quite my job and run my own business. Thanks again guys. Keep the comments coming please.

Let me add that I am a very dedicated, hard worker and would do all I can to make this business a success. Hell it took me ten years to save up to buy my Lamborghini.

You should start by finding out what license and insurance requirements you need to operate legally. You need to think of a business name and get incorporated. These things will need to be done prior to you putting up a website. Then you need to figure out how to market the business to the owners of these homes that are never there. You have some work cut out for you to get the business up and running but it certainly isnt impossible. I wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor.

I have a property management company that does mine, and a security company that does frequent visits as part of their contract.... I know the larger properties around have caretakers lliving on the property, also you may need a Real Estate License, depending on where you are at..good luck with your venture..

You should start by finding out what license and insurance requirements you need to operate legally. You need to think of a business name and get incorporated. These things will need to be done prior to you putting up a website. Then you need to figure out how to market the business to the owners of these homes that are never there. You have some work cut out for you to get the business up and running but it certainly isnt impossible. I wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor.