When you’re responsible for a parent’s home from out of state, the challenge isn’t simply maintaining it. In Sarasota, it’s recognizing problems quickly when you’re hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Every summer, people who own homes in Sarasota but live somewhere else start watching the weather a little more closely.
A tropical system forms. The forecast shows Florida. The Weather Channel starts talking about the Gulf Coast, and the phone calls and text messages begin.
How bad is it there? Is Sarasota getting much wind? Do you think the house is okay?
Sometimes Sarasota isn’t even in the storm’s projected path. That doesn’t necessarily make the owner sitting 1,000 miles away feel much better.
I’ve seen this with seasonal homeowners for years. But the same concern can arise much more suddenly when a parent goes into the hospital, moves to assisted living or memory care, or dies. A home that was occupied every day can unexpectedly be sitting empty while the person now responsible for it lives somewhere else.
Sometimes it’s your Sarasota home that you enjoy for part of the year. Sometimes it’s a parent’s home that suddenly became your responsibility.
Either way, the problem is the same:
The house is here. You’re not.
Maintaining an empty home and watching over an empty home aren’t the same thing.
It's Usually the Ordinary Things
Hurricanes get the attention in Florida. I’m often more concerned about the ordinary things that happen when nobody is around to notice them.
An air conditioner stops cooling in August. Maybe the condensate line clogged. Lightning damages a capacitor. A water supply fails & floods. Rodents discover entry into your property’s attic. Your property’s lawn irrigation system fails or a sprinkler head pops, killing the grass and/or allowing the dreaded chinch bugs or webworms to attack.
Whatever caused it, the important question for someone hundreds of miles away isn’t initially why the AC stopped.
Who knows it stopped?
In Sarasota’s heat and humidity, that’s not something I’d want to discover several weeks later.
I’ve seen how quickly other seemingly small problems can develop too. An irrigation head pops off and wastes water. Another stops working and the lawn begins drying out. Chinch bugs or sod webworms start damaging the grass. Pool water gets too low. A roof develops a leak. Pests find an opening into an attic that nobody knew existed.
None of those problems requires a hurricane.
They just require a house, some time and nobody noticing.
You can have a lawn company cutting the grass, a pool company servicing the pool, a pest-control company treating the property and an AC company servicing the system.
I want those services in place.
But each of those companies has a particular job. The pool technician isn’t necessarily looking for a ceiling stain. The lawn company isn’t walking through the house to see whether the AC is cooling.
That’s the distinction I think people sometimes miss.
Scheduled maintenance doesn’t necessarily mean someone is watching the property.
Everyone Has a Job. But Who's Watching the Property?
Lawn service
Cuts and maintains the lawn.
Pest control
Provides scheduled pest treatments.
Pool service
Cleans and treats the pool.
AC company
Services and repairs the HVAC system.
All four companies can be doing exactly what you’ve hired them to do. That doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will notice a problem outside their particular job.
You can’t eliminate Florida’s storms. You can eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes from wondering what’s happening at the property.
Storm Season Makes the Distance Feel Farther
A storm doesn’t have to make landfall in Sarasota to create several days of anxiety for someone sitting in Michigan, Ohio, New York or somewhere else.
The cone moves. The forecast changes. Sarasota appears on television.
Now you’re wondering about your specific property.
Did a tree limb come down? Did the roof leak? Did the power go out? Is the pool full of debris? Is there something outside that should have been secured?
Technology certainly helps. Cameras can show parts of the property. A smart thermostat can tell you what’s happening with the temperature inside. Leak sensors can alert you to water in certain locations.
They’re all useful.
But they only know what they’re designed to know.
Sometimes there’s no substitute for somebody actually looking at the property and being able to tell you:
I checked. Everything looks fine.
Or:
There’s something here we need to take a closer look at.
You can’t eliminate Florida’s storms. You can eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes from wondering what’s happening at the property.
And the problem isn’t limited to single-family homes.
A Condo Can Reduce the Work. It Doesn't Eliminate the Risk.
One reason seasonal Sarasota residents often choose condos is fairly obvious. If you’re going to spend several months somewhere else, there’s less for you to personally maintain.
The association generally handles common areas and portions of the building. You don’t have your own lawn to mow. In many communities, you’re not individually responsible for the roof. There are neighbors nearby, and there may be management on-site.
There’s a certain amount of comfort in that.
But less responsibility isn’t the same as no risk.
I was reminded of that recently with a Sarasota condo I had listed.
The property had been used as a vacation rental. I had physically been inside the condo the day before.
Everything was fine.
Within hours, it wasn’t.
A water valve connected to the washing machine in the condo above ruptured, sending water into my seller’s unit below. By the time the problem was discovered, there was significant water damage.
And here’s the part worth remembering:
The problem wasn’t even in my client’s condo.
My seller hadn’t neglected anything. There wasn’t a maintenance issue inside the unit that someone had ignored. No checklist before leaving town would have prevented what happened.
Someone else’s plumbing problem had become this condo’s damage.
Once the water was discovered, the issue became making sure the damage was handled correctly.
The affected areas needed to be mitigated and properly dried. Moisture had to be evaluated, and mold testing was performed. Only after we knew the property was dry and had been tested could the walls and ceilings be restored.
That required several people doing different jobs in the proper sequence.
It also required documentation.
Eventually, a buyer was going to ask what happened.
I would too.
After Water Damage, “It Looks Fine” Isn't Enough
Fresh drywall and paint tell you what the property looks like today.
They don’t necessarily tell you what got wet, whether everything was properly dried, whether testing was performed or what was repaired.
A good repair fixes the property. Good documentation helps explain the repair later.
That experience is a good example of why I don’t think the goal should be trying to anticipate every possible thing that can go wrong.
You can’t.
The better question is what happens when something does.
If I were leaving my Sarasota home for several months—or suddenly became responsible for a parent’s home here—I wouldn’t try to create a list covering every possible failure.
I’d want answers to four basic questions.
That last point matters.
The person keeping an eye on a property doesn’t need to be an AC technician, roofer, plumber, pool professional and pest-control expert.
They need to know when something doesn’t look right.
If the house isn’t cooling, get the AC company involved. If there’s a new ceiling stain, find out why. If a significant storm passes through Sarasota, take a look at the property rather than assuming everything is okay.
And if several professionals need to become involved—as happened with my client’s condo—someone may need to provide access, coordinate them and communicate with an owner who isn’t here.
That’s much different from simply thinking: “Don’t worry. Someone has a key.”
When It's a Parent's Home, You May Not Have Time to Plan
There’s one important difference between the seasonal homeowner and the adult child responsible for a parent’s Sarasota home.
The seasonal homeowner usually knows when they’re leaving.
The adult child may not.
A parent goes to the hospital. Then rehabilitation. Everyone expects Mom to return home, but circumstances change and she moves to assisted living or memory care instead.
Sometimes the transition happens gradually. A parent goes to the hospital, then rehabilitation, and everyone expects Mom to return home. But circumstances change and she moves to assisted living or memory care instead. If that’s the situation you’re facing, I’ve also written about what happens to a Sarasota home when a parent moves to assisted living.
Or a parent dies.
Suddenly, a house that had been occupied every day is empty.
At the same time, the family may be dealing with health care, finances, legal questions, belongings and decisions they never expected to make.
The house understandably isn’t always at the top of the list.
But the AC still runs. The pool still needs attention. Storms still form. Things still break.
The person who used to notice those things isn’t there anymore.
A house doesn’t stop needing attention because the family’s attention has been pulled somewhere else.
You Can't Prevent Everything. That's Not the Goal.
I wouldn’t promise anyone that having someone check a Sarasota property will prevent problems.
It won’t.
An AC can fail between visits. A roof can leak. An irrigation head can break. And a washing-machine valve in the condo upstairs can rupture the day after someone was physically inside your property.
The goal is much more realistic:
Shorten the time between something happening and somebody knowing about it.
Because when someone recognizes a problem early, the question becomes, “What do we need to do?”
Instead of, “How long has this been happening?”
Whether it’s your own Sarasota home that you enjoy part of the year or a parent’s home you’ve suddenly become responsible for, that’s the peace of mind you’re really looking for.
You can’t prevent every problem. But you can have a plan for recognizing one sooner.
If the home belongs to a parent and this responsibility arrived unexpectedly, keeping an eye on the property may be only the beginning.
A Resource for Families Facing This Situation
I’ve created The Parent’s Sarasota Home Guide for adult children and families who suddenly find themselves responsible for a parent’s Sarasota-area home.
It starts before the real estate transaction because, as Mike’s experience illustrates, that’s often where families need the most help.
The guide walks through protecting the property, dealing with belongings, evaluating repairs and deferred maintenance, coordinating things from outside Sarasota, deciding what may—and may not—be worth spending money on, and eventually considering what should happen with the home.
You don’t have to figure everything out at once. Start with what needs your attention now.
