Managing night/weekend/vacation-time calls

[Paul Witte]

Question for self-managing landlords:

I'm just getting started managing rentals.  To me 10% of rents to PM seems like it would be a weight off my shoulders, but I also have trouble justifying the expense for the limited amount they do when things are going smoothly.  Probably I'll use a property manager, but as I look further into the future and consider self-managing, I'm curious: how do you keep tenant and building issues from intruding into every area of your life?  Most things can wait or systems can be set up to only send/receive messages during business hours, but what about when you're away for a while or an off-hours emergency comes up?