A good PM can help protect you from a bad decision.

and it isn't about protection from defaulting...  

An LLC does not provide much legal protection, it acts as a legal firewall to separate assets.

Pro Tip: Airbnb provides a level of protection if you end up with a "problem" tenant.

Akron is not LL friendly, they were the first in NE Ohio to pass a rental registration ordinance (in the 90s), in 2021 added source of income as a protected class - so you can no longer rule out S8 applicants, and passed STR registration last October (and nearly a year later still haven't been able to enact anything).  

The US has consumer protection rights that should apply to this space. 

You might want to consider Columbus OH - evictions are quick and won't take 12 months and we have good landlord protection laws.

This is a more affordable option but only protects against named events.Comprehensive Coverage: Often called “all-risk” coverage, this protects against most unexpected events, except exclusions like flooding or earthquakes, which usually require separate policies.

It does feel like there is likely a major market correction coming, but due to limited inventory of vacation-rentable units in Maui I feel like I should be somewhat more protected from the effects of said recession.

I'm biased and can provide reasons and data to show that using an agent will protect you, get you more money, less stress and so on.The reality is you can do it yourself, but tenants generally don't cooperate with showings and that causes lots of problems for buyer to access the unit to show, inspections, appraisals etc.