If  you live in an area with a high concentration of second home owners – or indeed in an area where residents spend part of the year in second homes elsewhere – then you could take inspiration from Esther Healey who runs Snowbird Services in Norwell, south of Boston Massachusetts.

Many local residents move to Florida for the winter. For $50 a visit, Healy performs 25 tasks including checking all exterior doors, windows, and the roof for signs of weather damage as well as flushing toilets and running taps to check for frozen pipes or any leaks.

It seems that there is a gap in the market in some areas for a service that falls between doing nothing and a full blown property management operation. This is something that could be done by anyone without any skills, equipment of know-how.