104 CSD
insurance claim.
The key to home watch ser- vices, says Luber, is a personal relationship built on trust. An ebullient transplant with a snow- white beard, Luber likes to meet his customers in person before taking a job. He discusses his customers’ needs before deter- mining exactly which services would work best for them. For example, some custom- ers ask Luber and his staff to keep copies of their keys if they aren’t in a position to leave their keys with a neighbor or relative. Others ask him to hire and oversee cleaning services. Still others request the company to serve as concierge, making sure the refrigerator is stocked and the newspaper is delivered when they arrive home. The company will even shore up a house in advance of a storm and act as second responder if
the alarm goes off.
The company also serves as partners on the ground for peo- ple who rent out their vacation homes. The home watch folks do everything but interface with the tenants.
Luber knows personally how important home watch services are. A veteran second-home- owner, he started the company when he first bought property in Surfside Beach, while he was still living on the Jersey shore. “I needed me but there was no me,” he says. Last fall’s historic flooding kept Coastal Carolina Home Watch busy. At one client’s beach house the outside looked fine, but water had poured through the roof and the ceiling in two second-story rooms. Luber and his team met with the insurance adjuster, bid the job, oversaw cleanup of furniture
and floors, and engaged con- tractors to fix drywall, roofing and electrical. Everything was quickly back to normal and the customer didn’t have to fret or lift a finger.
The strangest call came
from Spain, where Luber’s clients were vacationing. Their college-age daughter and her roommate were stuck in an ele- vator of their Lowcountry home. Greg Doyle, Coastal Carolina Home Watch’s Charleston area manager, dashed over to the house, fixed a kink in the system and helped the girls exit the elevator.
Luber says the company
prevented one family from accidentally burning down their house and kept another house safe from an incipient snake invasion.
Coastal Carolina Home Watch is among the first na-
tionally accredited home watch services in North America. And Luber isn’t just the owner of Coastal Carolina Home Watch, he’s also a leader in the home watch industry. He founded the National Home Watch Association to create ethical and business standards for practitioners. Coastal Carolina Home
Watch services start at $100 per month—an inexpensive insur- ance policy on a house worth half a million dollars or more. They offer security and peace of mind while you’re away from home. 2
COASTAL CAROLINA HOME WATCH 843-357-4440
CCHomeWatch.com
Barry Waldman is principal of Big Fly Communications (
gobigfly.com), a PR/marketing firm for nonprofits and small businesses.
Photograph by Holger Obenaus
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