Lou Carulli spent his career in New York — technology startups, enterprise software, fintech — industries where documentation, risk mitigation and measurable accountability are not optional extras. He now applies that discipline to something far less obviously systematic: the empty house. Three Palms HomeWatch in Naples, Florida oversees the residences of seasonal homeowners while they are elsewhere, and Carulli's argument is that most of what passes for that service is not oversight at all. It is a text message.
Carulli answered our questions in writing. His responses appear here as he gave them.
What led you to start Three Palms HomeWatch, and what was Naples' home watch market missing at the time?
Three Palms HomeWatch grew from a broader vision my wife, Kimberly, and I had for building trusted professional services in Naples.
After moving here, Kimberly and I co-founded Three Palms Legal, an estate planning law firm where she serves as Managing Partner. Through that experience, we came to understand how deeply people value what they have built—not simply as financial assets, but as part of their family story and legacy. Estate planning protects that legacy from a legal perspective. Three Palms HomeWatch was created to help protect another meaningful part of it: the home.
When I studied the Naples home watch market, I saw many well-intentioned providers, but I also saw a gap between casually checking a property and professionally overseeing it. Seasonal homeowners were frequently receiving little more than a text saying, “Everything looks good.” For a significant residence that may sit unoccupied for weeks or months, I did not believe that was sufficient.
My background was built in New York within technology startups, enterprise software, fintech and other environments where systems, documentation, risk mitigation and measurable accountability were non-negotiable. I saw an opportunity to apply that same enterprise-level discipline to luxury home watch.
We built Three Palms around the belief that reassurance should be supported by evidence. Our visits are structured, GPS-verified, time-stamped and photo-documented. Clients can see when we were at the residence, what was reviewed, what changed and what may require attention.
What Naples was missing was not another person willing to hold a key. It was a discreet, professionally managed service capable of acting as the homeowner's trusted presence when they could not be here themselves.
What does a typical property watch visit actually involve for your team, and what tends to surprise homeowners most about it?
A professional home watch visit is much more deliberate than walking through a residence and looking for something obviously wrong.
We approach each property as a collection of interconnected systems. Our team follows a structured process that reviews security conditions, interior climate and humidity, plumbing fixtures, visible supply lines, electrical components, appliances, windows, doors and potential indicators of moisture or pest activity.
We run water, flush toilets, inspect beneath sinks, observe thermostat and HVAC conditions and look for subtle changes from one visit to the next. At single-family residences, we also examine accessible exterior conditions, entry points, lanais, pool areas, drainage, landscaping concerns and visible storm-related vulnerabilities.
However, the checklist is only the foundation. The real value lies in observation and judgment.
We are not simply asking whether something is working today. We are looking for evidence that it may be beginning to perform differently than it did during the previous visit. That could be a faint odor, an unusual sound, condensation in a new location, a small change in humidity or landscaping beginning to interfere with the residence.
What surprises homeowners most is the level of documentation and thought involved. They receive a detailed report with time-stamped photographs, observations and recommendations—not a generic checklist or an informal “all clear.”
Luxury home watch is not about moving quickly through a property. It is about knowing where to slow down, what deserves a second look and when a seemingly minor detail warrants action.
What do you think it took to land the No. 1 spot for property maintenance in Naples?
I believe it came from being uncompromising about the fundamentals and understanding that trust is built through consistency rather than slogans.
We have never set out to become the largest home watch company in Naples. Our goal has been to become one of the most trusted. That means arriving when we say we will, communicating clearly, documenting our work and taking personal responsibility for the details entrusted to us.
Recognition is often earned through quiet moments that never appear in marketing: answering a client after hours, noticing something that could easily have been overlooked, remaining at a property until a vendor arrives or making sure a home feels completely ready before the owners return.
We also made a deliberate decision to operate with standards more commonly associated with estate management and risk mitigation. Our visits are GPS-verified and photo-documented. We are insured, bonded and professionally accredited. We maintain relationships with trusted service providers, but we never use the introduction of a vendor as a substitute for accountability. We remain engaged until the client's concern has been properly addressed.
Most importantly, we try to understand the residence and the people who own it. No two homes operate exactly the same way, and no two clients define peace of mind in precisely the same way.
To me, luxury is not defined by grand gestures. It is defined by the absence of friction, the quality of the follow-through and the confidence a client feels when they are hundreds or thousands of miles away.
What is the most common issue your team catches early that a homeowner would never have noticed on their own?
The most common issues are rarely dramatic when they begin. They are usually small environmental or moisture-related changes developing quietly inside an unoccupied residence.
In Southwest Florida, a minor plumbing seep, an HVAC drainage issue, elevated humidity or unusual condensation can escalate quickly. A homeowner may never notice the warning signs during a short visit because the residence is occupied, water is being used and the air-conditioning settings may be different. Once the property is closed and vacant, its operating conditions change.
What we catch is not always water visibly pooling on a floor. It may be slight discoloration beneath a cabinet, a faint musty odor, condensation near a vent, a toilet that is not sealing properly or a humidity reading beginning to trend in the wrong direction.
We also find that comparison matters. A condition may not appear alarming in isolation, but it becomes meaningful when it is different from what we documented during the previous visit. That continuity is one of the advantages of having a disciplined home watch provider who knows the residence.
By the time a problem becomes obvious, it may already require significant remediation. Our role is to recognize the earliest visible evidence that something is no longer operating as it should.
Homes often communicate before they fail. The challenge is having someone present who knows how to listen.
How has running Three Palms as a family company shaped the way you approach client relationships?
Being a family company creates a different level of accountability because our name, our reputation and our values are inseparable from the service we provide.
Kimberly and I built the Three Palms family of companies around trust, discretion, diligence and long-term relationships. Whether a client is discussing an estate plan with Three Palms Legal or entrusting a residence to Three Palms HomeWatch, they are allowing us into a very private part of their life.
We understand that clients are not simply giving us access to a building. They are entrusting us with a home that may contain family history, personal collections, important documents and memories that cannot be replaced.
That understanding influences everything from how we communicate to how we enter and leave a residence. We take confidentiality seriously. We are thoughtful about the vendors permitted into a home, the information shared about a client and the way concerns are handled.
Being family-owned also causes us to think beyond the immediate transaction. When a client calls, the first question is not, “Is this included in the visit?” The question is, “What does this homeowner need, and how can we responsibly help?”
Some of the most meaningful things we do will never appear on a checklist—preparing a home for a family's arrival, remembering a personal preference, helping a client navigate an unexpected repair or leaving a thoughtful welcome for children arriving for a holiday.
Those moments are difficult to standardize, but they are central to true hospitality. We want every client to feel that their home is known, not merely inspected.
Where do you want Three Palms HomeWatch to be a year from now?
A year from now, I want Three Palms HomeWatch to be recognized as the standard for professional, evidence-based property oversight in Naples.
That does not necessarily mean overseeing the greatest number of homes. Growth without discipline would compromise the very experience we have worked to create. We intend to remain selective, deepen our relationships with existing clients and expand carefully without sacrificing responsiveness, familiarity or quality.
We are continuing to strengthen the infrastructure behind the client experience through better technology, more sophisticated reporting, enhanced storm-readiness protocols and a carefully curated network of trusted professional partners. The objective is to make owning a seasonal residence in Naples feel significantly less complicated.
I also want Three Palms to contribute to the continued professionalization of the home watch industry. Homeowners should expect more than informal check-ins. They should expect documented visits, secure information management, credentialed and properly insured providers, defined service standards and clear accountability.
There is a meaningful distinction between checking on a home and accepting responsibility for its oversight. We want to continue defining that distinction.
Our ambition is not simply to watch more homes. It is to elevate what homeowners expect from the people entrusted to protect them.
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