,katai i k

For a price, David Tisdale's new company
will take care of your home.

D

ALAN ABRAMS
Special to the Jewish News

avid M. Tisdale's new service is so exclusive
that you almost wonder if it should have an
unlisted phone number.
Simply put, if you own a $2-3 million
home in Oakland County and you just got back from
Florida and found that your pipes burst, who you
gonna call?
Tisdale hopes it will be him and his new business,
the Caretakers.
"We saw a niche there, an opportunity to take years
of experience in commercial real estate and provide a
service that was missing. Owners of large homes often
have difficulty in finding someone to work on their
homes," .said Tisdale, a veteran of 30 years in commer-
cial property management as the owner of David M.
Tisdale and Company in West Bloomfield.
Indeed, the scenario holds true for either multi-mil-
lion-dollar commercial projects or the equally luxuri-
ous homes of their owners.
But as personal residence managers, the Caretakers
will also provide services to homeowners that may be
lacking for Tisdale's commercial property clients, unless
they negotiated a great contract.
Beyond contacting plumbers and arranging for lawn
maintenance or snow removal, the Caretakers will
arrange to have a client's pool maintained, theater tick-
ets ordered, groceries delivered, dry cleaning picked up,
personal shopping handled and even have someone on
hand to wait out those interminable hours until utility
workers show up for their appointment.
Tisdale's service will even get your shoes shined,
your art appraised, your pet boarded and, if you need
it, some massage therapy.
Indeed, the services are reminiscent of those per-
formed by a concierge at a fine European hotel, a fact
not overlooked by Tisdale.
So what will all this cost? If you have to ask, you
probably can't afford it. Exclusivity has its price, and
here the minimum is $1,500 a month.
Will people be willing to pay that hefty fee? The
Caretakers has already signed its first client, whose ser-
vice began with the arrival of the millennium.
Now, Tisdale is looking for 49 more clients to keep
the service exclusive. To belong to this club, clients
should earn between $500,000 and $1 million a year,
he said.
So far, the five communities Tisdale has targeted —
West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield
Hills, Franklin and Orchard Lake — have more than

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3,000 homes with a state equalized value of
greater than $1 million. Initially, Tisdale is
seeking homes with a market value of $2
million and up.
Tisdale has spent almost a year setting up
a network of 100 contractors to serve his
clients. Those contractors agree to provide
priority service to his clients as well as
adhere to a code of conduct that includes .
everything from not smoking and drinking
on the job to not making any personal
phone calls and maintaining the client's
confidentiality.
The vendors are checked for crimi-
nal backgrounds, licensing and
Better Business Bureau com-
plaints, as well as credit wor-
thiness in terms of liens or
bankruptcies. Those who

•

survive the vigorous screening procedure are
issued ID cards, said Tisdale. Inclusion
among the Caretakers select list is also a
badge of confidence for a vendor, said
Tisdale.
Vendors fees are separate from Tisdale's
renumeration, but Caretakers Accounting
maintains and pays all the monthly utility bills and
invoices for the client. Billing is consolidated, and
the client's funds are held in escrow by the
Caretakers. Tisdale stresses that the Caretakers does
not accept any compensation from its vendors.
"That breeds distrust," he said.
Tisdale, also executive director of Temple Israel, is a
Detroiter and graduate of Mumford High School and
Wayne State University. Residents of West Bloomfield,
he and his wife Yolanda have two daughters, Risa, a
lawyer, and Jennifer, who attends rabbinical school in
Jerusalem. ❑

Clockwise from top:

David Tisdale
sees a high-end need.

Matthew Van Der Ave and
David Tisdale examine blue-
prints of a client's home.

Jean Gordanier of Farmington
Hills and Matthew Van Der
Ave of the Caretakers do a
checklist on the initial visit.

