Frequently Asked Questions
What is Standart Consultancy?
A residence governance practice for significant private residences in Türkiye and the Eastern Mediterranean. We manage residences directly, support the teams already running them, and inspect — always on the owner’s side of the table. We are not brokers or contractors.
Who is your client?
The owner — or the family office or trusted representative acting for the owner. Our fees, and any supplier relationships, are set out in the contract.
Are you a property management company?
We manage residences, though not as a conventional property management company. Within an agreed scope, Standart runs the residence — staff, maintenance, vendors, readiness, expenditure and open work — and reports to the owner or family office with full transparency. Where a house manager or family office already runs the home, we support them instead; or we inspect. Our role and responsibilities are set out in the contract.
What is Standart Residence OS?
Standart Residence OS is the residence operating system in which we track findings, work, responsibilities, expenditure and approvals together. It supports Standart’s direct management, or the advice and follow-up we give an existing team. Hikmet’s assessment works inside it — what matters, in what order, and when a piece of work can be considered closed. It is not sold as standalone software.
Where do you operate?
Türkiye and the Eastern Mediterranean, with particular depth on the Aegean coast — Bodrum and its surroundings.
When is Standart most relevant?
When a property is valuable, seasonal, technically complex, privately staffed, vendor-dependent — or exposed to risk through owner absence, staff turnover or fragmented communication.
Do you work with family offices?
Yes. Evidence-based reporting for family offices is a core part of the practice: visibility for the office, without burdening the owner.
Do you oversee renovations?
Yes — through Renovation & Project Representation. Inspection establishes the problem and the intervention it needs; we then run scope, quotations, programme and follow-up of the work on the owner’s behalf. Design and construction stay with the architects, engineers and contractors appointed for them.
How does an engagement begin?
With a first conversation about the residence: whether it needs management, support for the team already there, or an inspection. Use the contact page to begin.
Do you publish prices?
No. Every residence is different; engagements are scoped after the initial review.
Discuss Your Residence’s Management →
What is residence governance?
Residence governance is the owner-side discipline of running a significant private residence through defined standards, documented knowledge, controlled vendors, preventive routines and clear reporting. It covers who holds decision authority, how approvals are given, who is accountable and how control is kept: it decides what standard the work must meet, verifies that it does, and reports the truth of it to the owner. It does not conflict with running the residence directly — it is how a residence is run accountably. Its purpose is simple: the residence’s condition, costs and risks stay visible to the owner, and the operation survives changes of staff, vendors and circumstance. Governance is what allows trust to be verified rather than assumed — and it is the reason two comparable houses can age in opposite directions. Read the full article →
What is an owner representative?
An owner representative is the one party in a residence’s operation who acts solely for the owner. Their role, fees and any supplier relationships are set out in the contract, so the owner always knows whose interest is being served. In practice, the representative defines standards, controls vendors, verifies work before acceptance, surfaces risks early and reports to the owner or family office in plain, factual terms. Every other party in the house — manager, contractor, broker — has its own economics. The owner representative exists so that at least one seat at the table belongs, without qualification, to the owner. Read the full article →
What is the difference between residence management and property management?
Property management is execution: cleaning, repairs, staffing, coordination. Residence management, properly understood, adds the governance layer above execution — standards, vendor control, documentation, preventive routines and clear reporting to the owner. The structural difference is accountability: decision authority, approvals and reporting are defined, and the owner sees the same picture as the people running the house. Standart can manage a residence directly within that structure, or support the team already in place. The question that reveals the difference: who is obliged to tell the owner what has not gone to plan? Read the full article →
What is a residence operating system?
A residence operating system is the structured framework through which a residence is run and remembered: the operating manual, inspection routines, preventive maintenance calendar, vendor records, asset inventory, incident reports and owner reporting — held together so that knowledge belongs to the house rather than to any individual. It is not primarily software; it is method. Software can carry the method, but the discipline is what matters: every item has a place, every intervention leaves a record, every season follows a plan. Standart Residence OS is our own implementation, used for the residences we manage or support. Read the full article →
Why do family offices need residence governance?
Because residences are usually the least governed significant asset a family owns. Portfolios are reported quarterly, companies have boards, yachts and aircraft run under audited management agreements — while the homes are managed locally, opaquely and on trust. A family office cannot operate a house in another country, and should not arbitrate between housekeepers and contractors. What it needs is what it has for every other asset class: an accountable local structure, defined standards and evidence-based reporting it can file alongside the family’s other affairs. Residence governance gives the office visibility without operational burden — and gives the principal a home that simply works. Read the full article →
What is the difference between an estate manager and residence governance?
An estate manager runs the residence day to day — staff, vendors, budgets and maintenance. Residence governance defines the standard the operation must meet, who decides and approves, how it is verified and how it is reported to the owner. The two are complementary: Standart can take the estate manager’s role directly, or support the estate manager already in place. See the definitions of Estate Manager and Owner Representative.
What is a residence operating manual?
It is the written constitution of a residence — standards of readiness, housekeeping specifications, technical routines, seasonal procedures, etiquette and privacy rules. It converts “how we do things here” from oral tradition into a document that survives any individual, and it sits at the heart of a residence operating system.
What is a residence SOP?
A Standard Operating Procedure written for a private home: the defined, repeatable way a specific task is performed — opening the house for the season, readying a guest suite, testing a safety device, accepting a vendor’s completed work. Collectively, SOPs form the operating manual. More terms are defined in the Residence Governance Glossary.
What is preventive maintenance, and why does it matter on the coast?
Preventive maintenance means servicing systems and building fabric on a defined schedule tied to time and use, rather than waiting for failure. On a coast of salt, sun and humidity, it is the difference between a house that ages slowly and one that fails days before the owner arrives — a risk we examine in Water Is the Quiet Risk.
What is predictive maintenance?
It is the anticipation of failure by reading the early signals in a residence’s own data — a pump drawing more current, a slow pressure loss, a system cycling more often. Predictive maintenance is preventive discipline given foresight, and part of the future of residence operations.
What is residence memory?
Residence memory is the systematic record of the house — warranties, drawings, equipment registers, vendor histories, decisions and their reasons — held so that knowledge belongs to the residence rather than to any one person. It is what makes a home robust to the departure of a long-serving caretaker, a problem we describe in When the Person Who Knew Everything Leaves.
What are seasonal opening and closing?
Seasonal opening is the structured process of bringing a seasonal residence back to full readiness before use — systems tested, deep cleaning completed, safety verified, stock replenished. Seasonal closing secures the house at the end of a season so it survives the months of absence without damage. Both are run to defined procedures rather than improvised.
What does owner reporting look like?
Periodic, factual, evidence-based reporting: condition against standard, work performed, costs against budget, risks surfaced and decisions required — brief enough to be read and evidenced enough to be trusted. We describe what a family office actually wants from it in this article.
How do you control vendors and procurement?
Through defined scopes, written quotations, inspection before acceptance and a maintained record of every vendor’s history with the house. Good vendors are essential but, on their own, they are not a system — a point we make in Good Vendors Are Not a System. Governed procurement replaces verbal, opaque commissioning with an accountable, documented process.
What is a residence inspection or audit?
An inspection is the examination of the residence and its work against a defined standard, reported to the owner — as a standalone engagement, or as part of a residence we manage. An audit is a deliberate, comprehensive review of an area — finances, vendors, safety, condition — producing findings and an action plan. Both are how governance becomes evidence rather than assurance.
Do you use technology, dashboards or AI?
Where it serves the owner, yes — but always in service of the discipline, never as a substitute for it. Sensors, dashboards and AI can speed memory, surface risks earlier and make reporting cleaner, but a house full of technology is still run on trust if no one governs it. We set out that principle in The Future of Residence Operations.
How do you protect privacy and confidentiality?
Discretion is the first duty of everyone who serves the house. The owner, family, guests and the internal order of the home are never discussed outside; personal information is used only for duty purposes; and photography, location sharing and social media use are strictly prohibited. Privacy is treated as a governed standard, not a matter of individual goodwill.
Where can I find definitions of these terms?
In the Residence Governance Glossary — a living reference that defines the vocabulary of the discipline, from owner representation and residence memory to preventive maintenance and seasonal protocols.
Residence Governance Glossary
The vocabulary of an emerging discipline. These definitions are maintained as part of the Residence Governance Knowledge Base and will grow over time.
Residence Governance
The owner-side discipline of running a significant private residence through defined standards, documented knowledge, controlled vendors, preventive routines and clear reporting. Governance covers decision authority, approvals, accountability and control; it decides the standard the work must meet, verifies that it does, and keeps condition, cost and risk visible to the owner. It stands to property management as a board stands to a company’s executives: not a replacement, but the layer of accountability above execution. The term describes a field that has long existed in fragments — great houses have always had constitutions of habit — but is only now being defined, named and held to standards. Related terms: Owner Representative, Residence Operating System, Family Office. Full article →
Family Office
The private organisation through which a wealthy family manages its affairs: investments, legal and tax matters, philanthropy, succession and, increasingly, the family’s significant residences. Family offices are governance institutions by nature — they exist to give the family visibility, control and continuity across everything it owns. Historically, residences were the exception: managed locally and on trust, outside the office’s reporting perimeter. In residence governance, the family office is the natural counterpart of the owner representative — the office defines what visibility the family requires; the representative provides it from the ground, in evidence rather than reassurance. Related terms: Residence Governance, Owner Representative.
Owner Representative
The party in a residence’s operation who acts exclusively for the owner. The representative’s role, fees and any supplier relationships are set out in the contract, so the owner always knows whose interest is being served. Their instruments are the defined standard, the written scope, the inspection before acceptance, the risk surfaced early and the factual report. In corporate terms, the representative holds the owner’s seat at the table. Whether that role sits alongside managing the house is defined in the contract. Related terms: Residence Governance, Family Office, Residence SOP.
Residence Operating System
The structured framework through which a residence is run and remembered: operating manual, inspection and maintenance routines, vendor records, asset inventory, incident reporting and owner reporting, held together as one coherent method. The defining property of a residence operating system is that knowledge belongs to the house rather than to any individual — the departure of a caretaker or manager does not take the residence’s memory with it. It is method first and software second: technology can carry the system, but the discipline of records, routines and standards is what constitutes it. Standart Residence OS is one implementation, used for the residences we manage or support. Related terms: Residence SOP, Residence Governance. More →
Residence SOP
A Standard Operating Procedure written for a private residence: the defined, repeatable way a specific task is performed — opening the house for the season, readying a guest suite, testing electrical safety devices, accepting a vendor’s completed work. A good residence SOP specifies the standard to be met, the steps, the frequency, the responsible party and the record to be kept. Individually, SOPs are modest documents; collectively they form the residence’s operating manual — the written constitution that converts “how we do things here” from oral tradition into an artefact that survives any individual. SOPs are where governance becomes daily practice. Related terms: Residence Operating System, Residence Governance.