Proper tax planning involves diagnosing your situation the quantifying the strategy.

It's kind of like diagnosing your cancer and treating it yourself from WebMD.

And like @Chris Watson stated, being there in person and staying for a few days gives you intimate knowledge of the property so you can work out any kinks, and it's much easier to answer guest questions, diagnose and solve problems, etc, when you personally know the property inside and out.

Some work that comes to my mind is:1) Managing tenants to get rent paid2) Diagnosing a repair issue and getting the right team to make the fix3) Fielding messages from prospective tenants on advertised rentals4) This list goes on...I've found a company that automates rent collection and income/expense tracking for free, but I'd like to replace my property management portal altogether and feel I'm only half way there (certainly a tenant facing chat bot would close the gap).

Repair guy diagnosed said have to replace washer.

This actually happened once to me in a hotel room, but thankfully I was able to diagnose the intermittent problem and replicate the conditions for the worst of the odor, and thereby got my hotel room changed.One more thing...were any of the plumbers who visited (and apparently mentioned nothing about any of the possibilities that have already been brought up in this thread) involved in the renovation?

I can see that...time to inspected/diagnose issue, get parts, and labor to install.. 3 hrs total is reasonable....If it was 3 hrs for each...... you got screwed.

You or contractor/handyman come out and diagnose issue and order part.

I had an emergency water heater issue, here how they treated  me1) They have few plumbing companies they deal with who have horrible reviews and you have to go with them and wait for atleast a week before they can approve you.2) Once their tech diagnoses it,  Now AHS says installation is not covered and they want to order a water heater themselves which would take many days.

You have no liability if the router needs reset and you're in Europe for another two weeks - you don't have to interrupt your vacation to get a vendor to go into your home and fix/diagnose, or get to the secure part of a building where you store that equipment.