How to find property manager for high-end rental in Las Vegas

[Carly Bryan]

Inadvertently, I am about to become a landlord due to a three-year overseas work assignment.  My company will pay property management fees to rent out my home, but they highly discourage employees in my position from selling their homes (because if we don't have homes to come back to when we repatriate, the company is on the hook for temporary housing until we do).  My home is not a million-dollar property, but it is in the top few-percent of home values in my city.

How do I find the right property manager for this house?  I've talked to several property managers with good reputations.  Some won't even take the listing because they deal in lower-rent homes, so with my house, they see a lot of work to list a house that is "unlikely to find a tenant."  How do I locate a good property manager who has the right advertising reach and tenant base?  Since PM fees are paid for, and I will be living overseas, I have no desire to manage the property myself.

Here's what I've done so far:

1) Asked "rich people" and people with high-end homes I know for a referral (no one I've talked to has rented their home or been on a similar assignment).

2)  Done rental searches on realtor.com, Zillow, etc. for rentals at or above my rent rate, then taken note of the listing agents.  I cannot find many repeat listing agents.  Most seem to be real estate agents who were trying to sell a high-end home, and when the house didn't sell, listed it for rent.  I can't imagine that your typical buy/sell agent necessarily makes a good property manager.  I found one agent that markets himself as "Luxury Rental" property management, but he was a little too slick with a very unattractive contract (most of his properties are Las Vegas strip condos).

3) My relo company works with a property management company called Dwellworks, who is an option I can use.  Reviews online show that both tenants and landlords strongly dislike Dwellworks.  I am not surprised that a company surviving on a steady stream of payouts from big corporations can get away with mediocre service.  I won't be using them.

I appreciate your help.  Thank you for letting me into your community of wisdom.