I think you'd have to make a trip down to the city permitting/zoning office in person. 

I picked up materials on Monday , a 5 hour round trip to Lancaster Pa to pick up metal roofing .

This is because of all of the subs involved and trips to get parts.

I was out of town on a 15 day back country trip with no cell coverage so wife was forced to deal with this solo.  

In this situation we would be making frequent trips to the property. 

I live outside the duplex location area and am very rarely able to make the trip to deal with issues such as this.Any ideas of how to approach this?  

The hardest part was getting people to show up, managing the schedules, getting materials (100s of trips), and figuring out how to solve some construction issues. 

BetseyWe have listed our properties on Google Business .Since doing that, we are running about 50/50 of people coming directly to our web site and going through HomeAway ,VRBO or Trip Advisor or Flip KeyOur Season is almost 85% word of mouth. which really helps cut down booking fees.We have seen and been told that during season once guest find a place they book for the following year because if they don't they won't be able to get in.We have been doing this going on 3 seasons now, when we bought the place we inherited a couple of guest that have been staying on the property.

I live a few hours away now but I'll make a trip up and talk to the neighbors.

I'm blessed to work from home with my current job and that has allowed me to spend more time with my family, but it'd be fun to not worry about our finances as much and be able to take more trips and vacations.