What do you look for in a vacation rental property manager?

[Monika Haebich]

Hi everyone,

I work with both vacation rental homeowners & property managers, and I had a few questions about how you all have found your property managers. 

How did you find your property manager? How did you compare your local options? What did you look for when choosing someone? And if you're self-managing, would you ever use a property manager if they could guarantee what you're currently netting? 

Would love to learn more from all of you! :) 

[Peter R.]

Originally posted by @Monika Haebich:

 And if you're self-managing, would you ever use a property manager if they could guarantee what you're currently netting? 

Hi Monika,

I've been contacted by someone from your sales arm recently and I applaud your marketing engine.  I'm being serious too.  The property your sales guy called me about isn't that old and he knew enough to ask quite a few correct questions. 

That said, I think you may be missing a key selling proposition here. The pitch was money.  And it was a pretty good pitch.  It got me to bring it up to a few people.  

Nothing about reputation though. When I manage my properties I know what kind of reviews I'm going to get, within reason.  But when YOU manage my properties, what happens when your manager is crap?  I can solve short term complaints from renters because they communicate to me directly.

But the long term effects of a bad management company won't get back to me until the renters leave reviews echoing through Airbnb, VRBO, etc.  Reviews that will last as long as the internet.

I could talk at length but to answer your question, no, I wouldn't use a manager if they could only guarantee what I'm currently netting unless they could also guarantee what I'm currently rating.