All Forum Posts by: Joe Provateare

Tenant tried to have a cat without putting on the lease. I confronted the tenant and we decided she'd pay the cat deposit and monthly pet fee. Cat is now spraying as it wasn't fixed. They have since taken cat in to be fixed, but feel damage is already done and smell is bad. Am I stuck in this scenario until lease is up, since I allowed tenant to keep cat even though she originally broke the lease agreement? Will be visiting with my attorney on options, but curious if others have ran into this scenario. This is within my apartment complex in IL and is impacting tenant below.

Thanks Jennifer, this is great advice. Is it typical or possible to have property mgmt only involved with cleaning and any service calls? Or it be more a handyman and cleaning company that I need? I like running it, just want to ensure I'm responsive to guests needs and being 3 hours away will make that difficult.

Gotcha and thanks for the info, this helps and I'll go this route.

Thanks Michael, we're actually building, so everything will be new and hopefully minimal maintenance needed. Have you ran into situations where you were refunding the guests due to issues you couldn't solve in a timely manner?

I do prefer to self manage and know whats going on with my tenants as i do with my long term rentals. Just knowing I'm 3 hours away, getting calls to help solve 5 min problems is not realistic and so it sounds like a reliable handyman is key.

In the process of starting a STR that will also be a place my family uses throughout the year about 3 hours away from where we live in Iowa. Based on initial analysis I'm thinking I'll be trying for 20-40% occupancy with little issues. I'm not sure what to expect on property mgmt fees and if it's typical for someone to pay only when the property is being rented out or for entire month knowing you only plan to rent out 1-2 weeks a month. Property mgmt will be doing house cleaning as well. Does it make better sense to have a handyman rather than property mgmt. This will be first STR, so learning as I go.

Have an STR that is going to be roughly 3 hours away in Iowa that will be both a vacation spot for my family and various STR guests. Trying to set up my team to help manage the property as I'm expecting roughly 20-50% occupancy based on analysis and my family needs.

Have contacted a property mgmt group local to the area that could help with cleaning and turnover for stays as well as other needs or issues that arise while guests are visiting.

Trying to understand what I should be expecting for property mgmt fees if they'd really only be on tap when rented out roughly 1-2 weeks a month. I expect a cleaning rate, but not sure if I'm better off getting a handyman to be on call and just pay when needed. Thanks for the input