One of the purposes of this trip would be to look for a more competent PM.

I'm immediately suspicious, so I make a trip out to the property and find all the locks changed and the blinds closed.

To paraphrase Quentin, When people pull up to your STR, do they see a sign that says "Float Tube Trips?". 

I have since tried to schedule as many back to back appointments as possible so the actual trip isn't wasted.  

Oh BTW make sure your new electrical panel has extra spaces for the future, is equipped with breakers that trip on both thermal and magnetic overloads and is permitted. 

I talked to Mike Hills from Real Atlas a while back and will probably be visiting him in March when I go to Colorado on a ski trip.  

PS we are in Phuket this trip... and off to Singapore for 8 days after this.. now there is no 50k real estate in that city state...

The properties are rented in the same year as they were purchased and I have deducted my mileage log for trips daily for working on the homes as well as trips to big box stores for materials. 

However, my manager is now asking to be in office every day starting in June (3 hour round trip commute), even need to work on weekends and my wife's company policy now allows her to work from home most of the time.

I have two rental houses that are 400 miles from home.I understand that to deduct overnight travel expenses, I must spend over half the trip working on a rental.