In practice, a manager can handle day-to-day execution (guest messaging, cleaners, routine issues), but the owner needs to perform and document meaningful owner-level work—pricing and policy decisions, vendor selection/oversight, approving repairs and invoices, listing strategy, bookkeeping/financial reviews, and compliance tasks—because if the manager logs more hours than you, the “100+ hours and more than anyone else” test becomes difficult.

It may take some time to get the deeds re-issued so I'd ask for the task to be done as a project rather than billable hours - or find the highest rated title company in the jurisdiction that has an attorney on staff.

You can Google almost every maintenance task about how many hours it should take.

Love the idea — visual boards work great for self-managing.Simple layout that works:Columns:This WeekScheduledWaiting (tenant/vendor)CompletedUse one row per property or color-code tasks by property.

It’s documentation.It’s hours tracked.It’s tasks performed.It’s proof.I’ve seen investors actively managing their STRs — messaging guests, coordinating cleaners, handling pricing — but never actually tracking their time.When you can’t prove participation, you can’t defend the position.The strategy itself isn’t the problem.Sloppy records are.If you’re relying on STR rules to offset income, this is one area worth tightening up before tax season.For STR owners here — are you consistently tracking your hours, or just assuming you’d be able to recreate them if needed?

For those managing rentals at scale, where has AI already: reduced admin work,improved response time,or eliminated repetitive tasks?  

It definitely helps with repetitive and time-consuming tasks. 

What daily tasks have you fully automated, and how?

I use a hybrid -- Google Sheets for the master budget tracker and Asana for task/timeline management, but honestly the system matters less than discipline.What actually works: One spreadsheet per project (acquisition cost, estimated ARV, rehab budget by category, holding costs, exit assumptions).

I've created a daily schedule and habit tracker that fully aligns my daily habits and tasks with my longer term goals.