Ronnie Fairlie: Ensuring Peace of Mind with I Watch Your Home's Premier Services in South Florida

Your home is your castle, and ensuring its guardianship is only a call or click away. Ronnie Fairlie, with I Watch Your Home,  offers his insights on how seamless it is to tap into I Watch Your Home's services. He shares a golden nugget for listeners: the direct line to tranquility, 954-324-1201, or iwatchyourhome.com. As your host, David Conway, I peel back the curtain to reveal the support system that lets you roam globally while your home remains locally cherished. Engage with Ronnie's story, and let his expertise guide you to the ultimate in home security and personal care for your prized possession.

iwatchyourhome.com
954-324-1201

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome, welcome everyone, to Local Living, a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today's episode. I've got Ronnie Fairley with us today, and you know, sometimes you hear the name of a business and you wonder what do they do? Well, today that's not the case. Ronnie is the co-founder of I Watch your Home. Ronnie, welcome to Local Living.

Speaker 2: 0:41

No, thanks for having me here. Yeah, and you're right, the name hopefully kind of tells you what we do.

Speaker 1: 0:46

It really does. And you know, down here in South Florida I know it's a great place for your sort of business. But you know, why don't you start off by just telling us a little bit about I Watch your Home?

Speaker 2: 0:59

Yeah. So I Watch your Home is a local business here in South Florida that when it's mainly geared towards people that have second homes or vacation homes. So there's a lot of snowbirds down here in South Florida where they may live down here for a few months out of the year and then they live, whatever their main residence is, somewhere else. So I Watch your Home will look after their home while they're away. So it's not for a house that is rented out, it's a house that is vacant. Excuse me, and then we'll go in and you know, take a look visually, check everything, make sure there's no issues going on in the house and if we've come across anything, we obviously let the owner know and it kind of gives them that peace of mind while they're away that their home is safe, secure and in working condition.

Speaker 1: 1:48

So I know you said snowbirds and people with a second home. How about people that may be taken along vacation? I know when I go away usually I've got to get scrambled to get somebody to cover maybe taking care of an issue at the house or delivery something along those lines. Do you help with that?

Speaker 2: 2:10

Yeah, absolutely. So. We do actually have one client that goes over and lives in Spain for about two months, so while they're away. So if it's like an extended vacation, yes, we absolutely do that. Our visits are typically weekly or bi-weekly. And you kind of also mentioned another thing about deliveries, right? So we also have a concierge service and so if you are away on vacation or whatever it may be, and you actually having delivered to your house, we'll be able to go to your house and accept that delivery for you.

Speaker 1: 2:44

So will you pick me up from the airport? Ronnie, you don't do that, do you?

Speaker 2: 2:49

So we will provide the transportation, we'll set up everything. So, oddly enough, yes, we can right. So a lot of people may use Uber, right, that's kind of the most common thing nowadays, but there are people that still want that car service and will help and cater and get that car service for them to make sure that when they arrive or go to the airport we got them covered Sounds like you're giving them a higher level of comfort.

Speaker 1: 3:15

one less thing they've got to worry about right, correct, correct, yeah. So how'd you get into the business so?

Speaker 2: 3:22

I've been in the real estate business for the last, say, seven years or so and I do a lot of networking In real estate. You're always out there networking, kind of being there in the local community. And I want to say, in about a month span I kind of heard of this concept out networking. Someone made a comment oh, we watch people's homes and my wife's done this for the last, I don't know seven, eight years for kind of friends and family, and our neighbors where we currently live are snowbirds so we kind of watch their house. So just kind of caught my eye and we have a young family. We've got four kids that are all kind of in school.

Speaker 2: 4:05

So my wife was actually looking to get back into the workforce. She had a great career, she was working before kids and the conversation just kind of came up that she was ready to kind of go back to work and have normal conversations versus the kid conversations, and just the timing seemed to be great. So we kind of started this business. She's very detailed, so in this business it's great she goes in, she does the inspections, looks at everything. So it's just kind of about timing and as South Florida is growing, we're getting more and more seasonal people down here.

Speaker 1: 4:41

So when you first started to hear about the business and thinking this might be something we want to do, were there any misconceptions that you might have had? Or do you ever hear myths or no-transcript Things of that nature from prospective clients about your industry?

Speaker 2: 4:59

so I wouldn't say myths, but kind of what I've come to find out and from what we've done for the last seven or eight years and this business, it seems like there's a lot of say neighbors or you know the house Cleaning people that may watch the house, kind of watch their home while they're away, but there's really no formality of it right there, just kind of that that neighbor is going in Doing what they're supposed to be doing or whoever it may be With. You know I watch your home. We've got a detailed report that gets sent to them every every visit we do, with pictures so they can see the plumbing, that everything is done and, god forbid, something does happen. Those pictures play a huge role when it comes to insurance. So if there's ever needs to be an insurance claim, they have proof now that look x amount of time it was in working order. You know they weren't negligent on, you know not looking after their home.

Speaker 2: 5:57

So I think the the myths or the things that's kind of coming out there, you know Someone not a professional company doing it, because they just don't, maybe they don't know that it exists. So it's always usually a neighbor or someone they may know, this kind of checking in on it, but From what I hear it's all trust, right. They don't know how often they're coming in, they're just, you know, kind of having someone look after it.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So, and I'm I know you. I live in Parkland. I know you live close to me, so I trust you're you're available to do work in Parkland. How about Boca Del Rey? Do you go up to those areas also?

Speaker 2: 6:34

Yeah, so the the majority of our business is from, say, pompano Beach to, like, boynton Beach. Okay, so that kind of frame, that's kind of where the bulk of our business is now. Now, obviously, as it grows, you know, we potentially may branch off into a little further south, a little further north, but for the majority of our businesses between, say, pompano and Boynton, so I know you're working a lot.

Speaker 1: 6:58

a lot of your attentions are focused on building the business, but you also mentioned you have four kids, yeah, so I know that keeps you busy. Besides running around taking care of the kids, taking care of the business, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 2: 7:15

So, whenever, I can get a chance and, as we know, having you know, my kids ages are age from five to nine.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Whenever I get a chance, if I can get out and play golf, that's my, that's the thing that I, you know, I try to like to do to help, you know, the mental break and I am a ridiculously bad golfer, where I actually I won't play golf with a client because I'm afraid they might not want to do business With me anymore after actually seeing me on the golf course. No, how about you? What?

Speaker 2: 7:47

yeah, I'm good score for you out there. No, if I break 100, I'm happy. Right, I'm not the greatest golfer, I just enjoy it. I just can't wait till the day that I can Spend more times playing because, as you know, golf is a more mental game. You know, getting out there and there's, the more you can practice. You can do it, and just right now, with Between the kids, work and everything, I just can't commit the time to start playing, say every week or so. So, yeah, so if I break 100, I'm happy. I get a couple good shots, I'm happy. But yeah, I'm not the the greatest out there, you know, when it comes to the go.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Okay, so you're probably better than me, but you are Eligible to play with me if you ever want to all right, so. You're building a business. I know you said you have a history in the real estate industry. Anything you might have been through earlier in life or some challenges you might have faced that you find helps you now as you Journey on your quest to build your business.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, so I've been in, say, real estate for the last seven years, more in the mortgage side, and Prior to that I was in, say, corporate America. I worked for a franchise company called United franchise group and I traveled the world opening up stores. So small businesses, small business owners, I'd help them get started. You know franchise is like a system. So you know I kind of show them the systematic way for this particular business to get to get going.

Speaker 2: 9:14

And Once you know kind of got married, settled down, started having kids, I was on the road 80, 80 percent of the time so it wasn't ideal for, say, the family life or, you know, the married life. So I Actually took that leap of faith, always loved real estate and took that leap to say leave the corporate America world and kind of go off on your own like most real estate is Commission based. So I took that leap of faith and and I think you kind of learning from the franchise business or the company I was with, you know I learned good in bed the good, good things people did and the bad things people did with their business, and that kind of really gave me a lot of Insight and some knowledge about when you're trying to grow your business. You know different aspects and ways to do it. So obviously, like anything, the first year or two was difficult, but you kind of overcome it and know that you know, if you stick to the course you know, good things will happen.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Are you finding that some of the relationships you develop and have developed in the real estate industry Are helping you with? I watch your home.

Speaker 2: 10:23

Yes. So part of our segment is, you know, when realtors which I kind of have Been around them for less seven years got some you know good relationships, when they have a client that may be moving down from you know up north and they're coming here and the realtor will know, hey, they're not here full-time yet. That's helped with them referring. You know, hey, you can check out, I watch your home and then kind of look after your home until you're. You know We've got two scenarios. One is people bought the house down here and just not ready to retire, but they know they want to retire down here. So they may be down here, you know, in next three or four years. And then we have your typical you know we call it snowbird, but you're seasonal person that just bought their second home down here and we'll spend a few months down here During the, the winter, the nicer part down here, and then you know, live wherever they may live, you know the rest of the year, so anything else you'd like our listeners to know about, I watch your home.

Speaker 2: 11:21

The only thing which we touched a little bit on it. But you know we're also a concierge service. So you know, besides just watching your home, you know we got the concierge side. So whether that's deliveries, you know that you need there, or if you just move down here, you need help, or someone to be there when utilities are getting hooked up. Or you know the airport rides, or even like when you get bent. When you come back in the town and you want your pantry and grocery, you know groceries done. We can have that done, you know, the day before you get in. So when you get here, one less thing you have to worry about is going grocery shopping. So you're there and ready. So whatever it may be, we're flexible. You know, whatever the kind of the client needs, we'll try to work around and, you know, come up with a way to help them out.

Speaker 1: 12:03

That's great. It sounds like it's all about the relationship with you and the client, right? Yeah, absolutely so. If someone's thinking about using you or wants to pass your information on to someone they Know could use your services, how do they reach you?

Speaker 2: 12:19

Yeah, the best way is the real good, or our website I watch your home calm or they can reach us, you know, through our phone number, which is 954. As I'm looking here, three, two, four, one, two zero one, so I watch your home calm We'll kind of give you the rough roundabout of. You know what we could do, get a little bit of better part of the business, and All of our information is on that website.

Speaker 1: 12:45

Once again, this is Ronnie Fairley, co-founder of I Watch your Home. If you wanted to reach out To Ronnie, best way go to I watch your home calm great URL, by the way, ronnie, and Listen. I really appreciate you being on the podcast today, appreciate you having me, and, and to all of our listeners out there, thanks for joining us on local living and we look forward to having you tune in next time.