Why we don't stop at the checklist
Checklists are great at preventing repeat mistakes. They're a poor substitute for a property manager who actually cares about your home.
Every property manager has a checklist. Ours are detailed and we use them religiously. But a checklist can quietly become something else: a way for a contractor to cover themselves.
You’ve probably seen it. Something goes wrong, and the answer is, “That wasn’t on the list.” Technically correct, and no help to you at all.
We don’t want to be right on paper. We want you to walk into your home and find everything working, including the things you never thought to mention.
What a checklist is good for
A checklist is the best tool we know for making sure the same mistake never happens twice.
Here’s a real one. One home we manage has a wine cave with a beautiful magnetic lock. The release mechanism is finicky: if a small set screw works loose, the door never lets go of the magnet. We found that out the worst way possible. The owners arrived, went to open their wine cave, full of newly purchased bottles, and couldn’t get in.
It was embarrassing, and it was exactly what a checklist is for. Now, before every arrival, we open that door, check the mechanism, and adjust it if it’s shifted. Since then, that one step has caught the same problem roughly ten times, ten arrivals that would otherwise have started the same way.
That’s how our checklists grow: from real experience on real homes. Every surprise becomes a step, so it stops being a surprise.
What a checklist can’t do
A checklist only covers what someone already thought of. Homes don’t fail politely in the order you wrote things down.
A stain on the ceiling that wasn’t there last week. A gutter that refilled two days after it was cleaned. A boiler making a sound it didn’t make in the fall. None of these are on anyone’s list, and all of them matter.
Catching them takes a manager who understands how a house works and pays attention every time they walk through the door. If we see something wrong, you’ll hear about it, whether or not it’s on the list.
Why it matters to us
We’d rather build a relationship with you than a paper trail. We want you to know your home is looked after by someone who is a little obsessive about it, so you don’t have to be.
Checklists cover us. We’d rather cover you.
HDLO provides home watch and property management for second homes in Sun Valley, Ketchum, and the Wood River Valley. See what’s included or request a walkthrough.