Your parent's home,
kept safe and working
by someone who's actually there.
A non-medical home membership for families managing an aging parent from a distance. The same caring person visits every week, handles the small things before they become the big things, and becomes the friendly presence your parent looks forward to. You get documented updates. They get someone who shows up.
Adult children quietly managing a parent's home from a distance.
Who Hearthwell is built forHearthwell is for adult children whose parent still lives independently in their own home, and who finds themselves quietly managing that home from a distance.
If your parent is already in assisted living, memory care, or living with you, we're not the right fit yet (though we'd be glad to talk if you want to think ahead).
If your parent has someone in the house full-time who handles the small stuff, you probably don't need us. If they don't, that's exactly where we come in.
Most of our families have a parent age 70 to 90, living alone or with a less-active spouse, in a home they've owned for years. The adult child is typically 45 to 65, working full-time, and lives at least an hour away.
If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
The late phone call
"Dad can't figure out the Wi-Fi." "Mom's smoke alarm has been beeping for three days." "The kitchen faucet is leaking and the handyman never called back." You're hundreds of miles away with a meeting at 8am.
The slow drift
Nothing is urgent. Nothing is a crisis. But filters haven't been changed, batteries are dying, a rug is curling at the edge, and the "I'll deal with it later" list is getting longer. You know something will eventually break.
The contractor spiral
You spend a Saturday reading reviews, vetting three handymen, calling your parent to coordinate schedules, then calling again when nobody shows up. The repair itself takes twenty minutes. You lose two days.
How it worksWhat a Hearthwell membership covers.
The scope is deliberately bounded. We do the home-operations work, with consistency and documentation. We do not provide medical or personal care.
i. Scheduled visits
Same day and time each week (or every other week), so your parent always knows who's coming and when.
iii. Small fixes
Bulbs, batteries, filter changes, minor hardware, furniture sliders, the maintenance items that pile up.
v. Vendor coordination
We find contractors, vet them, schedule them, meet them at the door, verify the work, and document the outcome. You don't coordinate, we do.
vii. Shared family access
You, your spouse, your siblings, anyone you want in the loop gets the same updates at the same time. Coordination without the group-text chaos.
ii. Safety walk-through
Lighting, smoke and CO detectors, trip hazards, door locks, water valves, HVAC filters, a consistent 32-point checklist every visit.
iv. Tech help
Wi-Fi, phones, TVs, tablets, passwords, printer trouble, scam-call awareness. We handle the questions you've been handling by phone.
vi. Appointment and task tracking
A shared running list of what's open, what's scheduled, and what's been completed.
viii. Written updates
A clear visit summary emailed to you after every visit: what was checked, what was done, what needs attention, what's next.
One trained person. A documented checklist. Updates you can actually use.
Your parent gets the same captain every visit. Someone close to their own age, carefully chosen, who learns the rhythms of the house and the person living in it. The relationship that builds over weeks and months is doing as much work as the checklist. The maintenance gets done because someone is there. The loneliness eases because someone keeps coming back. We don't bill it as companionship because we're not paid to sit and chat. But the conversation that happens around the work is most of why the work works.
Every visit produces a written record. Nothing is done off the books.
Your captaiN
Who your captain is, and how you choose them.
Every home captain is someone who actively wanted this work, not because it was available, but because they genuinely like spending time with older adults and find the work meaningful. Many bring their own family experience of helping an older relative to the work, and that lived perspective shows up in how they show up at your parent's house.
We hire for disposition first, competence second. The work itself is straightforward; the temperament isn't. We're looking for people whose answer to "tell me about an older adult you've helped" is warm and specific, not mechanical or transactional.
Beyond disposition, every captain passes a criminal background check, reference verification, and an in-person interview focused on judgment, discretion, and communication.
During onboarding, you tell us what matters for your family. You can request a specific gender (many families prefer a female captain when their parent is a woman living alone, and we treat that as a normal request). You can ask for a captain with experience around cognitive decline, mobility limitations, or specific cultural or language preferences. We match accordingly and tell you exactly who your captain will be before the first visit.
If the match isn't right after the first visit, we'll reassign. Same goes if your parent's situation evolves and a different captain would be a better fit later on.
The same person comes every visit. That's the entire point. Consistency is how trust gets built, how the captain learns the rhythms of the home, and how your parent comes to look forward to the visits instead of dreading them.
The captain comes for the work and stays for the relationship. Someone who genuinely enjoys the conversation, not because they're paid to be polite, but because they took this job specifically for this part of it.
We hire for that. Your parent gains someone familiar who knows them and the house. You gain the certainty that someone is showing up for them, every week, even when you can't.
More than maintenance.
The deliverables
What you actually receive.
Hearthwell is not "weekly visits." It's a structured set of ten deliverables that build over time into a documented operating system for your parent's home, plus the relationship that makes the system work.
1. A baseline home assessment
On the first visit, your captain produces a written assessment: safety audit, appliance inventory with model numbers and warranty status, current vendor list, tech inventory with passwords (stored securely), and identified deferred maintenance with priority levels. About 12 pages. Yours to keep regardless of whether you continue.
2. The same captain, every visit
Matched to your family during onboarding (gender preference, language, experience with specific situations). If your captain ever leaves or goes on extended leave, we tell you weeks in advance and introduce the replacement with a joint visit.
3. A standard 32-point visit checklist
Smoke detector function, water filter status, HVAC filter, refrigerator temperature, exterior door locks, window locks, exterior lighting, garage door function, water heater status, washing machine hoses, dryer vent, kitchen and bathroom plumbing, and twenty more. Nothing depends on memory.
4. A written visit summary after every visit
A real, useful email, not a checkbox. What was checked, what was done, what came up, what needs attention, what's scheduled next. Photos where relevant, always with your parent's consent. Sent within 24 hours.
5. The Home Operating Manual
A living document about your parent's house: vendor contacts with reliability notes, appliance service histories, paint colors, breaker panel layout, your parent's medication list (with permission), family contact tree. By month six, it's the most useful single document your family has about the home.
6. A quarterly home report
Every three months, your captain produces a written summary: what was accomplished this quarter, what deferred maintenance is now critical, what's coming up next, total vendor spend, recommendations for the family. Reads like a property manager's report.
7. Shared family access
Visit summaries, the Home Operating Manual, and the running task list are shared with every family member you authorize. One captain, one home, one record, multiple inboxes.
8. Direct contact with your captain
A phone number and email that goes to the actual person visiting your parent's home, not a call center. Standard response within one business day.
9. Vendor sourcing with vetted referrals
When work needs an outside trade, we draw from a vetted local list, schedule the appointment, meet the vendor at the door, verify the work, and document the outcome. You stop coordinating contractors.
10. An annual home audit
Once a year, a deeper-than-usual visit: structural and exterior walkthrough, HVAC and water heater age and condition, roof and gutter status, driveway and walkway hazards, and a written multi-year maintenance plan. The home's annual physical.
In practice
What a typical visit actually looks like.
An illustrative walkthrough of how a Hearthwell visit unfolds. The names below are placeholders; the visit structure, the captain's actions, the timing, and the deliverables are exactly what your family would receive.
Imagine Margaret, 78, who lives alone in Sarasota. Her son David lives in Boston and pays for the service. Her captain is Linda who's been visiting Margaret every Tuesday at 9 am for four months.
8:55am Linda arrives, parks where she always parks. Margaret is expecting her.
9:00am Coffee at the kitchen table for ten minutes. Margaret mentions the garage door has been making a new noise. Linda makes a note.
9:15am Linda starts the 32-point checklist. Finds the smoke detector outside the master bedroom is chirping (battery low), replaces it. Kitchen sink aerator is calcified, will clean. Checks all water valves under sinks, fine. Refrigerator reading 42, should be 38, adjusts dial.
9:45am Garage door investigation. Spring sounds rough, not catastrophic, but worth a professional look. She'll schedule a service call with Garcia Door (the vendor on Margaret's preferred list) and meet them at the door next Tuesday.
10:00am Tech session. Margaret has been getting "Microsoft Support" scam calls again. Linda reviews how to hang up and verify. Updates the iPad to block one specific number Margaret saw three times this week.
10:30am Linda cleans the kitchen aerator (small fix). Photographs the garage door issue for the vendor. Updates the Home Operating Manual with the refrigerator dial location and the new vendor contact.
10:50am Brief conversation with Margaret about the upcoming family Thanksgiving (Linda noted the date last week). Confirms next Tuesday at 9am with the door vendor.
11:00am Linda leaves. Within 24 hours, David receives the visit summary email. Within 48 hours, the Home Operating Manual is updated and the door repair is scheduled.
This is not unusual. Most visits look something like this. Two hours of focused attention on the home and the person in it, with documented outcomes you didn't have to coordinate.
What the visit summary email actually looks like.
Continuing the illustrative example above, this is the kind of summary David and his sister would receive within 24 hours of Linda's visit.
From:linda@hearthwell.us
To:david.henderson@example.com, sarah.henderson@example.com (sister)
Subject:Margaret's Tuesday visit, Sarasota, November 4
Hi David and Sarah,
Visited your mom this morning, 9am to 11am. Everything's good overall. Three things to flag.
What was done today
Replaced low battery in master bedroom hallway smoke detector
Cleaned kitchen sink aerator (was calcified, water flow was slow)
Adjusted refrigerator temperature (was running at 42F, now at 38F)
Updated iPad scam-call blocks for one new number
What needs attention
Garage door spring sounds rough. Scheduled Garcia Door for next Tuesday at 9am, I'll meet them. Estimate: $200 to $400 depending on what they find. I'll send the quote before any work is approved.
What we talked about
Margaret mentioned the Microsoft Support scam calls have come back. We walked through the verification routine again. She knows to hang up. I'd suggest one of you mention it on your next call as reinforcement, but it's not urgent.
Next visit: Tuesday November 11, 9am as scheduled. Door vendor will be there too.
Home Operating Manual updated to reflect the new refrigerator dial location and the new vendor contact.
Margaret's in good spirits. Garden looks tired (normal for season). She's looking forward to Thanksgiving.
Reach out if you have any questions.
Linda
What's in the Home Operating Manual.
The table of contents of an actual Home Operating Manual after six months of visits. Yours grows over time. You can request a copy at any point.
1. The Home
Address, year built, square footage, lot, key dates (HVAC install, roof, water heater).
2. People
Your parent's daily routine, dietary preferences, medication schedule and pharmacy (with permission), preferred doctors, neighbors who help out, family contact tree.
3. Infrastructure
Where the breaker panel is, what's on each breaker, location of every water shut-off, gas shut-off, HVAC service panel, main sewer cleanout.
4. Appliances
Each appliance with model number, age, service history, warranty status, and preferred repair vendor.
5. Tech
Wi-Fi network and password, every device on the network, login credentials, phone and tablet model numbers, scam protection setup.
6. Vendors
The complete vetted list. Plumber, electrician, HVAC, handyman, garage door, lawn, pest, cleaning, pool. Each with contact info, last visit, and reliability notes.
7. Recurring tasks
Schedule of everything that gets checked or done. HVAC filter every 90 days, water heater flush annually, gutters twice yearly, smoke detector batteries every January.
8. History log
Running record of every issue, what was done, what it cost, when it was completed.
9. The plan
Multi-year deferred maintenance list with rough timeline and estimated costs. "Should do soon" vs. "next year" vs. "watch for now."
If your parent ever needs to move, sell the home, or hand off care to someone else, this document is worth tens of thousands of dollars in saved time, missed details, and bad decisions avoided.
Scope and transparency What's included in every visit.
Every Hearthwell visit includes the following, with no additional charges:
The 32-point home checklist
Completed front to back, with results documented.
Routine maintenance items
Light bulb changes, smoke detector batteries, CO detector batteries, basic filter changes (HVAC, refrigerator, water).
Minor fixes and adjustments
Loose doorknobs, sticking drawers, cabinet hinges, towel bars, toilet handles, faucet aerators, refrigerator dial adjustments, dryer vent cleaning, minor hardware tightening, furniture sliders, weatherstripping, caulking touch-ups.
Simple tech help
Printer setup or troubleshooting, password resets, smart TV troubleshooting, iPad or phone questions, Wi-Fi diagnostics, streaming service login fixes, scam-call awareness, blocking numbers, antivirus checks.
Up to two hours of focused work per scheduled visit
Active Care members get up to three hours.
Written documentation of everything
A visit summary email within 24 hours and updates to the Home Operating Manual.
What's billed separately, with transparent pricing.
Some work falls outside the included visit scope. We don't hide this. The menu:
$99 / hour Additional handyman hours
Billed in 30-minute increments after the included visit time is used. For things like assembling furniture, hanging a TV mount, repairing a section of fence, deeper organizational projects, or any maintenance work that runs longer than the visit allows.
$149 / project Vendor coordination per project
Sourcing the right vendor from our vetted list, scheduling the appointment, meeting them at the door, supervising the work, verifying it was done correctly, and handling payment. The vendor's own cost is passed through to you at exactly what they charge us, with no markup.
$849 to $1,099 Catch-up package
A front-loaded multi-visit package for homes entering service with significant deferred maintenance. Typically 10 to 14 hours of captain time spread across two or three visits in the first month, with a written punch-list and outcomes report at the end.
Custom quote Move-related projects
For downsizing, estate preparation, or relocation logistics, we'll do the on-site work, coordinate movers, and document everything. Fixed quote provided before any work begins.
Pass-through + $149 Specialty work requiring licensed trades
Plumbing beyond a fixture, electrical beyond replacement, HVAC service, roofing, foundation work, major appliance repair. Vendor cost passed through, $149 coordination fee per project.
Getting StartedFrom application to your first visit.
Step 03
Reserve your Founding Family rate
If your family is among the first ten in your metro, we lock your monthly rate for 12 months. Sign a simple non-binding agreement to reserve the rate. No payment is collected until your first visit.
Step 01
Get in touch
Tell us about your parent's situation through the form below. We read every message personally, usually within 24 hours.
Step 02
20-minute conversation
We walk you through what a visit looks like in practice, answer your questions about scope, captains, and pricing, take your preferences for captain attributes, and tell you honestly if Hearthwell is the right fit. No pressure to commit during the call.
Step 04
Meet your captain
We assign your captain based on your preferences, complete their background check and reference verification, and build out the vendor relationships in your parent's area. You and your parent meet your captain before the first visit, by video or in person, so the first real visit feels like a returning friend, not a stranger at the door.
PricingPricing, with the value visible.
per monthA visit every other week, same day and time
Up to 2 hours per visit
Full set of ten deliverables
For parents in steady state, homes in good condition, families wanting a baseline level of oversight.
per monthWeekly visits, 3 hours each
Priority response (4-hour business-day)
No coordination fees on the first 3 projects per month
Full set of ten deliverables
For parents with significant ongoing needs, homes with active deferred maintenance, families in higher-engagement caregiving phases.
per monthA visit every week, same day and time
Up to 2 hours per visit
Full set of ten deliverables
For parents who benefit from weekly contact, homes that need active attention, families wanting more frequent updates.
Founding Family rate
For the first ten families to enroll in each metro, we lock your rate for 12 months. As our prices rise over time, your monthly rate stays exactly where it is the day you sign up. Not a discount, a long-term price lock for early families.
Try Hearthwell first.
If you'd rather see how this works before signing up, request a single visit. $279, no commitment. Your captain produces the baseline home assessment and the visit summary, the same way they would on a first membership visit. If you decide to continue with any monthly membership within 30 days, we apply the full $279 toward your first month.
What this would cost you otherwise.
The honest math, because we'd want to know if we were on your side of this.
Doing it yourself
5 to 12 hours per month: contractor research, scheduling, follow-ups, tech support, worry. At $75 an hour for your time, that's $375 to $900 a month before counting the work itself or the cost of mistakes.
A geriatric care manager
$150 to $250 per hour, billed in 15-minute increments. They plan and coordinate but don't execute. Most families spend $400 to $1,200 per month when actively engaged.
A non-medical home care aide
$30 to $40 per hour. Focused on the person, not the home. No vendor coordination, no documentation, no continuity. A weekly 2-hour visit: $260 to $340 a month with no extras.
A handyman on retainer
Most won't do it. Those who will charge $200 to $300 per visit minimum and don't handle tech, vendor coordination, or documentation.
A property manager
$200 to $400 per month for basic oversight of a rental property. Doesn't visit weekly, doesn't deal with the person living there, doesn't handle tech or small fixes.
Hearthwell
Starts at $399 a month for biweekly visits, $649 for weekly, $999 for active care. Same trained captain every visit. The full set of ten deliverables. We take the entire weight of home operations off your calendar.
For most families, Hearthwell saves three to five times its cost in time alone, before counting the savings on prevented problems and better vendor decisions.
SERVICE AREASWhere we serve.
We work metro-by-metro, concentrating our captains in specific service areas so your parent gets the same person consistently, not whoever happens to be available that day.
Florida
Naples, Sarasota, Tampa, The Villages, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale
Texas
Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio
Rhode Island
Providence and the East Bay
Utah
Salt Lake City and Utah County
Idaho
Boise and the Treasure Valley
If your parent lives outside these areas, get in touch anyway. We expand metro-by-metro based on where families need us most.
OUT SCOPEWhat Hearthwell doesn't do.
We've defined our scope tightly on purpose. The categories below are handled better by other providers, and we'll happily refer you to ours. Knowing exactly what we don't do is part of why families trust us with what we do.
Medical and personal care
Handled by licensed home health and home care agencies. Medication, bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, and physical assistance with mobility fall in their scope, not ours.
Transportation
Handled by your parent's preferred providers or family. Rides to appointments, errands, and social commitments stay with them. Hearthwell handles the coordination; others handle the driving.
Financial and legal authority
Stays with your family. Hearthwell operates without power of attorney, account access, or signing authority, by design.
Overnight and live-in coverage
Outside our model. Hearthwell runs on scheduled, bounded visits, typically weekly, on a set day and time. Overnight, live-in, and companion-sitting fall outside that scope.
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Completely normal and legitimate. We design the onboarding around it: you meet the home captain before the first visit, introductions are handled slowly, and we often suggest starting with a single visit to see how it feels. If your parent isn't comfortable after that visit, we don't proceed, and you don't pay the monthly fee.
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Get in touch anyway. We prioritize expansion based on where inquiries cluster, and your message is a direct signal. When we serve your parent's metro, you'll be the first to hear, and you'll be eligible for the Founding Family rate.
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Yes. Once service begins, you can cancel monthly with 30 days' written notice. No cancellation fees, no lock-in clauses. If you reserve a Founding Family rate before service begins in your area, the reservation is non-binding and you can withdraw it at any time with no obligation.
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Yes, that's the entire point. Consistency is how trust gets built and how your captain learns your parent's home. If your captain is on vacation or leaves the company, we introduce the replacement carefully and with advance notice. We never just send "whoever's available."
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A written visit summary after each visit covering what was checked, what was done, what needs attention, and what's being coordinated. Photos where relevant (always with your parent's consent). And a running Home Operating Manual, essentially a living document about your parent's house that grows richer over time, so nothing lives only in someone's head.
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We carry general liability insurance and bonding. We document every visit. We have clear incident reporting and escalation. If we damage something, we make it right. If a contractor we coordinated fails, we manage the rework and keep you informed the whole way. We own the accountability rather than passing it back to you.
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That's the worst possible outcome, and we design against it. Our home captains are trained to be helpful without hovering, to work with your parent rather than around them, and to treat every home like they're a welcome guest rather than an inspector. Success for us looks like your parent starting to look forward to the visits.
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Every captain passes a criminal background check, reference verification, and an in-person interview focused on judgment, discretion, and communication style. We train on our checklist, boundaries, and documentation standards before the first paid visit.
Questions we hear most often.
Get in touchStart with a 15-minute conversation.
If you're managing your parent's home from a distance, or just tired of being the only one tracking what needs to happen, we want to hear what's going on. Get in touch and we'll be in touch within 24 hours.
Tell us what's going on.
We'll get back to you within 24 hours.
No sales pitch, no pressure. We'll reply with a few questions and you can decide if a call makes sense. We'll never share your information.