We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

@Troy AnthonyHi Troy, Mid-term rentals can usually be covered under a policy that allows both short-term and mid-term uses.

Based on my calculations, even with house hacking, I'm only looking at 50% being covered if that. 

This part of town seems to offer more affordable options while still being relatively safe and convenient for students.The goal is to:Provide housing for our daughter and her friends starting January 2026 (spring semester).Structure the purchase as a primary residence, so we can qualify for better mortgage terms.Include myself, my husband, and my daughter on the mortgage application to strengthen our position and meet the owner-occupied requirement.Convert the property to a full rental down the road once she graduates.We think the $30,000 should cover a 5–10% down payment plus closing costs under the primary residence structure, and the property would serve as both a short-term housing solution and a long-term investment.Would love advice from the community on:Does this sound like a smart way to combine student housing with a first-time real estate investment?

You'll want to all be paying market rent so that if you sell or move out the property still covers all of your expenses.

Here's the response on each of them:1) Indie broker, wanted to stop covering all of his brokerage fees, and join another firm. 

I talked to an insurance agent who is having trouble getting insurance that covers both rental and living in the duplex. 

Original owner covered up a few issues that we had to deal with.

Sometimes the extra rent more than covers it, sometimes it takes a while to break even.It really comes down to your goals, if maximizing cash flow is the priority and you’re okay with being more involved, it could be a solid move.

There’s been a lot of debate on what markup you need to keep your payouts whole.If you want to offset the entire 15.5% fee, the correct markup is 18.34%.That’s because you’re covering the full fee from scratch.But here’s the key: most hosts (myself included) were already absorbing the old 3% fee as an acquisition cost.In that case, you don’t need to markup that part again — you only need to offset the extra 12.5%.Example:Old rate = $100Airbnb takes 12.5% → you’d only get $87.50To get back to $100: $100 ÷ 0.875 = $114.29That’s a 14.29% markup (multiply rates by 1.1429).So which is correct?