Taking Care

When asked, “What does a property manager do?” our minds may conjure images of checking a home periodically, collecting mail and meeting the occasional plumber or carpenter. For top management companies, though, the actual list of duties can be a long one, with a vast range of services offered.

David Croom founded Croom Construction Company in 1978, then building the first custom homes in John’s Island, including his own. Twenty years later, he saw the need for services that would take care of unoccupied homes during summer months when seasonal folks were away.

“Whitehall was formed to help take care of homes that Croom had built,” says David Lyons, co-owner and vice president of Whitehall Professional Property Management. “We would get calls every October from people we had built for maybe four or five years ago, and there would be small maintenance jobs to do. We tried to address those issues one at a time, but it was tedious and tough to keep up with, so we started Whitehall 20 years ago to take care of that side of the equation,” he says.

Two homeowners were approached and asked if they would like to be test cases for the new Whitehall Maintenance Program. The next step was to draw up a home inspection list designed to detect any issues before they became larger and more costly to repair. Croom had met a retired Marine who had been an aircraft maintenance manager, a field in which attention to detail is crucial. He and Croom drew up a list of inspection points that currently numbers 220 items. “The idea was to keep our clients in the Croom family.”