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Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, places experienced property caretakers and caretaker couples with owners of second homes, ranches, and estates across the US.
When you hire a property caretaker with us your property will stay safe, maintained, and ready even when you’re not there.
Most of what goes wrong at your second home is likely to happen in the months when it’s empty. A property caretaker looks after your second home while you’re away, living on site or nearby.
We have been staffing second homes since 2015, so we know how to find a reliable fit for the job.
- 198 caretaker searches across all our offices since 2022
- 75% of them for couples
- 47% for a second home
- 67 applicants per caretaker ad, 49% more than our average ad
Since 2022, over all our offices, we have carried out 198 caretaker searches for clients, 75% were for clients who wanted a caretaker couple and 47% for owners of second homes.
We only employ experienced, proven caretakers who have a strong track record of working in large private homes.
If you have a second home in Aspen, Palm Beach, Napa, or anywhere else, we can staff it. Give us a call at +1 (646) 965-2308 and start your search today.
Source: Morgan & Mallet caretaker job briefs, all our offices, April 2022 to June 2026 (198 searches). How we count
What does a property caretaker do?
A property caretaker stays on the grounds at your second home, taking charge of daily maintenance, security systems, and seasonal preparation. They keep your property secure and ready-to-use while you’re away.
- The building: The property caretaker conducts routine maintenance of your house, checking for minor or major repairs, especially with the heating, plumbing, pools, and generators. Security alarms are set in place and consistently checked to see if they work before an emergency happens.
- The grounds: They manage the gardeners and groundskeepers to ensure the lawn is tended to, driveways remain clear and accessible, and the docks and fences are maintained. When finding property caretakers for rural properties, we check if the candidate has practical skills. We’ve received requests for property caretakers who can do agricultural work, have handyman skills, or even know how to hunt.
- Security and presence: The property caretaker takes daily walk-throughs of the house and the perimeter, checking doors, windows, gates, and security alarms to see if anything’s out of place.
- Seasonal work: The caretaker opens and closes the house each season. They prepare for any storm or winter issues and test everything before you fly to your property.
- Readiness: The caretaker keeps the house ready for your arrival at any time. You or your guests walk into a fully stocked home where everything runs with no issue.
- Contractors: The property caretaker lets in and keeps an eye on the various maintenance teams that fix up your property in your absence.
In all our locations, 90% of our caretaker briefs for employers looking to find a caretaker include the grounds, 86% security, 82% letting in and overseeing contractors, 81% repairs and handyman work and 61% a pool to look after.
28% name the alarm or camera system the caretaker runs, 23% include a vegetable garden or greenhouse, and 47% ask the caretaker to drive the family when needed.
Although the daily cleaning of the home is for the housekeeper to do, a property caretaker needs to have a teamwork mindset to efficiently run the property.
Only 45% of our briefs from clients for single property caretakers included housework, compared with 94% of our caretaker-couple briefs.
In 25% of briefs, the caretaker needed to work with other staff, usually gardeners.
Morgan Richez, our co-founder, remembers his own live-in work: when the owner was away, he helped the housekeeping and maintenance teams with small jobs. “If you say no, this is not my job, this is not an industry for you,” he says.
| In the brief | Share |
|---|---|
| The grounds | 90% |
| Security | 86% |
| Letting in and overseeing contractors | 82% |
| Repairs and handyman work | 81% |
| A pool to look after | 61% |
| Driving the family when needed | 47% |
| The alarm or camera system | 28% |
| A vegetable garden or greenhouse | 23% |
Source: Morgan & Mallet caretaker job briefs, all our offices, April 2022 to June 2026 (198 searches). How we count
Caretaker or caregiver? Two different jobs
In the US, a caregiver looks after a person, usually an older adult or someone living with a disability. A property caretaker looks after a place, like a second home, estate, or ranch.
The words often get mixed up, but we hire for each one differently. Our candidate database has 3,693 caretakers and 2,051 caregivers in it.
A good caregiver has nursing and care diplomas with valid first aid certification. We also see if they have experience with conditions like dementia, diabetes, or limited mobility.
When we search for a caretaker, we look at whether they have the practical skills for the job and how they manage an empty home.
Pay varies between them too: our 2025/26 Annual Report has caregiver pay in the US homes we recruit for at $60,000 to $100,000 a year.
| Compared | Caregiver | Property caretaker |
|---|---|---|
| Looks after | A person | A place |
| In our database | 2,051 | 3,693 |
| Pay a year | $60,000 to $100,000 | $70,000 to $120,000 |
Morgan & Mallet has placed both roles across homes in the US over the past decade.
If you’re looking to find help caring for your elderly parent or relative at home, you can find what you need at our hire a caregiver page.
Source: Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026; 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report (US caregiver pay). How we count
Property caretaker, estate manager, property manager or home watch service: which do you need?
These four titles are used interchangeably but each describes a different job. The role you need depends on your property.
Property caretaker
A property caretaker, sometimes called a house caretaker, is a hands-on household employee with knowledge of trade skills. In our different locations, 14% of our caretaker briefs have included a trade, like plumbing, electrics, carpentry or painting.
They’re your direct employee, staying on site and keeping the home running daily.
Estate manager
An estate manager sits a level above the property caretaker. They look after an estate or several homes along with the staff inside them.
Our 2025/26 Annual Report found that most estate managers manage at least three properties at once, and that their pay in the homes we recruit for in the US is $150,000 to $250,000 a year.
They oversee renovation projects, handle property sales, track household budgets across homes, and report to the family office.
Property manager
A property manager is an outside real-estate professional who takes care of rentals, tenants, and leases. They work based on a commission fee and are not directly on your payroll.
Home watch service
A home watch service is a local company that regularly checks your empty home based on their schedule. They charge you per visit to the home or per month.
If you own a house and are away from it for long stretches, then a property caretaker can manage it when you are away.
For owners of more than one or many homes with a team of staff in each one, an estate manager can help you with property and staff management.
A property manager is the right choice when you want to rent out your property to tenants. And if you only need someone to check your home is fine every couple of weeks, a home watch service works well.
The right hire for you also depends on the type of property to be looked after. A home watch service is good for condos or smaller homes with simple systems.
23% of our caretaker briefs cover more than one building, like outbuildings, guest houses or multiple homes. But big houses with more complex security and ground systems need more than check-ins every few weeks for proper maintenance.
When systems don’t work it’s safer to have someone who responds to you quickly than a service that doesn’t.
Source: Morgan & Mallet caretaker job briefs, all our offices, 2022 to June 2026; 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report. How we count
Live-in caretakers, caretaker couples and ranch caretakers: the shapes of the role
Live-in property caretaker: They live on your property, either in the staff quarters, in a guest cottage, or an apartment over the garage. It’s the standard arrangement for staff accommodation in second homes and estates.
At all our locations, 95% of our briefs for caretakers for clients include housing, and in 48% of them it is a separate house.
Where the brief has a size mentioned, the caretaker’s home has a median of 80 square meters (about 860 square feet).
Caretaker couple: The couple shares the household’s work. One usually looks after the groundskeeping and property maintenance while the other manages housekeeping and cooking.
Cooking has been put in 74% of our caretaker-couple briefs, which compares against 24% of single-caretaker briefs, and in 17% of couple briefs one partner works part time.
Our domestic couple page covers hiring couple roles in depth, including how the two roles are split and paid.
Ranch caretaker: They do everything a property caretaker does along with the land and livestock. It’s a common request we get for ranches in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas.
Our clients have asked for someone to look after farm animals in 6% of our caretaker briefs, the family’s dogs and cats are far more common though, at 34%.
Where the brief mentions the land size, the median property has 12 acres, and 31% have 25 acres or more.
Vacation home caretaker: This setup works well for your vacation homes and lake houses in the Hamptons, Palm Beach, and Aspen. The house is well-kept when you’re away and is ready for your stay during seasonal breaks.
11% of our briefs for caretakers have included a pond, lake, river or boat to look after.
Caretaker in a staffed estate: The estate caretaker has to work with housekeepers, domestic couples, security, and gardeners on the property and reports to the estate manager. 41% of our briefs for property caretakers have been for an estate.
Groundskeeper crossover: When the job is more to do with the grounds than the house, you’re probably needing to hire a head gardener instead. 10% of our briefs for caretakers include an orchard, olive trees or vines.
In the homes we recruit for in the US, our 2025/26 Annual Report has head gardener pay at $70,000 to $100,000 a year.
Source: Morgan & Mallet caretaker job briefs, all our offices, 2022 to June 2026 (198 searches); 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report (head gardener pay). How we count
How we find and vet a caretaker you can hand the keys to
- Consultation: A thorough 40-minute call with one of our recruiters helps us learn more about your estate. Once we know the details, like the historic stonework facade or the tropical landscaping at your Miami beach house, we can find candidates who can handle features like these. We also ask if you have any specific concerns you want the caretaker to handle in your absence.
- Shortlist: From our pool of 200,000 candidates, we source qualified and experienced property caretakers. We screen candidates based on whether their experience matches your kind of property and then prepare a shortlist for you to go through. Every candidate has at least three years’ experience.
- Interviews and trials: Through interviews, you personally meet the shortlisted candidates and see if you can trust them with your home. We recommend running trial periods on site. This way, both you and the candidate get a feel for the job.
- Offer and contract: We advise you on the salary range depending on the market and quote it as a gross figure. Our recruiters know the staffing landscape and can guide you through the contract drafting process. For legal support, we can connect you with advisors so your contract meets state laws.
- Placement and follow-up: Your recruiter checks in at 10 days and sorts out small problems before they turn into big ones. The three-month replacement guarantee covers the period when a bad fit shows itself.
The vetting for the right caretaker is done before you get the shortlist. During the candidate interviews, we verify at least two strong past references, career history going back five to seven years, and criminal record.
A good caretaker agency checks trade skills as well as references. That’s why we confirm the candidate can do what their resume claims. 97% of our briefs for property caretakers ask for a driving license.
If you need a caretaker for your ranch property, we make sure your property caretaker knows their way around livestock.
The usual minimum level of experience in our caretaker briefs is three years, and 19% of clients who brief us ask for five or more.
23% want a trial period, most often that’s one month, and 88% are for a permanent contract.
We also check whether the candidate respects an empty house the way they might if you were at home.
78% of our briefs ask for the caretaker to be someone who can work on their own, and 66% ask for discretion.
It’s a baseline for a live-in role, so we ask how they managed empty properties for past employers.
Our property caretaker ads have had 67 applicants each on average, 49% more than our average ad. We accept 10% of the caretaker applications we go through and assess.
Morgan Richez sees the same in the celebrity homes we staff.
“When it comes to celebrity, … you must understand that you will be alone to work sometime because … these kind of people, they travel a lot. …
“So that’s why the property is empty many many months or years … So you need to know how to work alone without the employer,” he says.
Matching personality to the home is a big part of a placement that lasts. The most important thing is to find out if the candidate can handle an empty house.
Some candidates grow restless in an empty house after a few months, however good the pay. That’s why we look for people who know how to fill their own days in previous quiet roles.
Source: Morgan & Mallet caretaker job ads, all our offices, April 2022 to June 2026 (4,151 applicants to 62 ads); 1,903 caretaker applications assessed, 2016 to 2026; job briefs. How we count
How much does a property caretaker cost?
Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report puts property caretaker pay in the US homes we recruit for at $70,000 to $120,000 gross per year (the report calls the role Property Guardian/Concierge).
A caretaker couple is typically paid as a combined package, from $100,000 to $250,000 depending on the property and split of duties.
Caretaker couples share third place in the report’s table of the highest US salaries, at up to $250,000 a year.
Property caretakers do not pay rent because housing is a part of the package. This is a live-in role, so the caretaker stays on the grounds or close by. Utilities and cars for property use are also covered.
The bigger the property and the more systems to run, the higher the salary. Remote properties are harder to fill, because fewer people want to live somewhere isolated for long stretches.
Our Annual Report says that pay can go above the usual ranges in remote locations. For remote homes, we advise a strong salary, good accommodation and a live-in role.
For ranch properties, skills with animals, irrigation, and machinery add a premium on top of the base salary range. Because livestock need daily care, there’s no real time off in the role.
| Role | Pay a year |
|---|---|
| Property caretaker | $70,000 to $120,000 |
| Caretaker couple, together | $100,000 to $250,000 |
| Head gardener | $70,000 to $100,000 |
| Caregiver | $60,000 to $100,000 |
| Estate manager | $150,000 to $250,000 |
When you add housekeeping duties to the contract, the caretaker is filling two roles at once, which increases the salary. That’s why we often see homes hire a caretaker couple instead.
The number of times you visit your property also matters. If you visit the property about twice a year, the house only needs upkeep and security, putting the salary on the lower end of the range.
A house you use most weekends needs someone to stock it before you arrive and stay on call until you leave. 26% of our briefs mention weekend work is needed for property caretakers, usually when the owners are at home.
This flexibility is what commands a higher salary.
As our Annual Report says, clients “get two full-time workers for the price of housing one couple.”
The real cost runs higher once you factor in employer payroll taxes and workers’ compensation. Our recruiters can walk you through the full number before you present an offer.
Source: 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report; Morgan & Mallet caretaker job briefs, all our offices, 2022 to June 2026. How we count
Where we place property caretakers
Sometimes homes sit empty for eight or nine months but then need to be ready on a week’s notice. Along the East Coast, our caretakers keep these homes ready, from the Hamptons and Nantucket to Martha’s Vineyard and Palm Beach.
We place caretakers in mountain lodges and ranch properties in Jackson Hole, Montana, and Texas.
We also staff lake houses and country estates that are outside of metro cities, working across the second-home markets around New York, Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Our recent searches for caretakers in the US were all for couples.
A live-in couple for a family home in Woodside, California (2023), a live-out couple in Beverly Hills (2025) and a live-in couple for a vacation home in Westhampton, New York (2026).
We get a lot of requests from families who winter in Florida and summer in the Northeast. One house is always empty while they’re in the other.
Our Annual Report also found that high-net-worth clients are relocating from Europe to Florida, Dubai and Switzerland for tax benefits.
Source: Morgan & Mallet US caretaker searches, 2023 to 2026; 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report. How we count
Why owners trust Morgan & Mallet with an empty house
Morgan Richez, our co-founder, has seen the risk of leaving properties empty while staffing vacation homes across the US and Europe.
As a butler in London, he lived in at his employer’s estate when the owner was away.
“When the famous Italian fashion designer was not in UK, I used sometimes to … [live] in just for security reason,” he says.
During his time as a butler and chauffeur for wealthy London homes, Morgan Richez also worked alongside the domestic couple who ran his employer’s London estate. That’s how he knows what it takes to be a good caretaker.
Since 2015, we’ve placed property caretakers and caretaker couples for private homes, country estates, and royal households.
The caretakers in our database have spent 7 years in caretaker jobs on average, and they come from 32 nationalities and speak 26 languages between them.
Laurine Mallet has seen what happens when the wrong person is placed on a big estate.
“We’ve got a land with 25 properties … it’s really big, it’s in south of France.
“If you place in this kind of property people who worked for one single property for [an] old couple, let’s say, he won’t understand …
“… also the new couple needs to communicate with the rest of the staff, which is really important,” she says.
We place equal importance on the personality of the candidate along with their qualifications during the hiring process. That’s how we find trustworthy and reliable property caretakers with a team-based mindset for your home.
To learn more about the people behind Morgan & Mallet, visit our about us page.
Source: Morgan & Mallet candidate database, June 2026 (3,693 caretaker and caretaker couple profiles). How we count
Frequently asked questions
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your property and a recruiter will get back to you.
What does a caretaker of a property do?
A property caretaker looks after your second home along with its systems and landscape. The property caretaker usually lives on site and keeps the home prepared for your visits.
They handle the day-to-day upkeep with repairs, plumbing, heating, snow and storm prep, and contractor work.
What is the difference between a caretaker and a caregiver?
In the US, a caregiver is a professional who looks after an elderly person or a person with disabilities. The property caretaker looks after your secondary property like an estate or ranch in your absence.
Morgan & Mallet finds and places candidates for both roles. For more information on caregiver placements, please visit our caregiver page.
Do property caretakers pay rent?
No, on-site housing for property caretakers is a part of the package. Accommodations come with utilities included and a vehicle for property use.
It’s important to have those terms in the employment contract, including what happens to the housing when the job ends.
Can you place a caretaker couple?
Yes, caretaker couples are one of the most common placements Morgan & Mallet makes for second homes and estates. Usually one handles the property and grounds while the other handles housekeeping and cooking.
We accept 14% of the caretaker-couple applications we assess. They are paid as a combined package from $100,000 to $250,000 in the US.
Our domestic couple page goes more in-depth on the hiring process and how the duties are split.
Do you place caretakers for ranches and remote properties?
Yes, we place caretakers for ranch and remote properties, matching them on practical experience. If you need someone to tend to your animals while you’re away, we ensure the candidate has previous experience with livestock.
We look for candidates who have previously worked somewhere isolated, because remote living suits some people and not others.
How quickly can you place a property caretaker?
For single-caretaker roles, the search can take anywhere from three to six weeks with a shortlist produced in two weeks. A caretaker couple or a caretaker for remote properties can take longer as the candidate pool becomes smaller.
Our ads for couples had 48% fewer applicants than our single-caretaker ads. We advise you to get in touch with our recruiters at least two months before you need someone to start.
Looking for property caretaker positions, including live-in and couple roles? See our current jobs here.
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your property and a recruiter will get back to you.