It depends on the company. My company, no you do not need to be home, all we ask is to remove everything off of the front porch and whatever we are cleaning, if there is a grill on wheels we can work around that. Or, if something is to heavy we can help with that. Lastly, Please make sure if you do have a fence, just to make sure both gates are unlocked so we can have access all the way around your home. When you get home you can inspect the work done and call for any questions that can be answered over the phone. And we can accept Credit Cards then or through the invoice sent to your email.