Property Management 1 year+ Second Home Mortgage

[Sam Michael]

We have a second home mortgage on a property we bought in 2020 - so it is past the 1 year mark, and using the 2019 Fannie Mae Second Home rider (As seen at https://singlefamily.fanniemae...)

We are considering  doing some short term rentals on it as we won't be there as much as we'd like this summer, but want to make sure doing the "right way". Though, to be fair, I am likely overreading and overthinking this of course!

Serviced by my original lender, but now owned by Fannie Mae. My reading of the second home rider shows that we are good to rent out as much as we want for short-term rentals (and would have been even in first year), as we only needed to keep it primarily for us for one year by the last sentence in clause 6.

That said, my question is on the management clause:

"will not subject the Property to....
agreement that requires Borrower either to rent the Property or give a management firm or any other person
or entity any control over the occupancy or use of the Property."

I was trying to do the right thing, so at the advice of my acccountant, I called into the servicer --- and the customer support rep (And her manager) said I am good to go and can do anything I want, including using a management company after the first year, but wouldn't give me in writing. Definitely a reading that benefits what I want to do, so great!

That said, anything else I could/should do to protect myself? (especially as I need to change insurance to cover STR, as my current one won't let me - since it's escrowed, I want to make sure the change of insurance doesn't trigger questions at the lender as well)

Alternatively, anyone get definitive insight on the definition of a management firm here ? i.e. if I use a property manager to help with marketing, posting, maintenance, support, local coverage (our area requires someone nearby), etc but I can control dates of when available, and no minimum # of days in our contract, am I not really seeding control of occupancy or use and this doesn't really apply anyway?