Caretaker
We have used Dee Parson of Let Dee Do It 4 U for the past two years as our caretaker. (A word of caution - A "property manager" must be a licensed real estate agent. They would handle everything including receiving calls from prospective renters, sending the renters a lease, and collecting payments. A "caretaker" takes care of everything related to the property and the renters except inquiries, booking, the lease and payment. We had a property manager at first but we quit using him when we found out about this requirement - He wasn't a real estate agent.)
Our caretaker checks our renters in and out and makes herself available to them and to us 24/7. She does all the cleaning and light maintenance. (She just rehung a shelf that needed drywall anchors.) She has handled problems such as linoleum repair, golf cart tire repair and battery replacement, replacement of a window pane (under warranty) and refrigerator repairs quickly and effectively. She has gone out of her way to help our renters including taking one couple to Wal-mart to get food after they got lost when arriving at 11 o'clock at night. She has also made recommendations to our renters for restaurants, activities, etc.
Dee also does our weeding for us which has been a huge help. Before we started using her, we tried doing the weeding when we were there and found that it would take us days to pull all the weeds from the shrub beds.
We handle the advertising, lease, collection of the rents and payment of the 9% "transient rental" tax.
We believe Dee's rates are fair. In fact, she apologizes when she charges extra for something she does that's not within her normal scope of duties. (Half the time I don't think she does charge us extra for those things. I have to watch so that she doesn't short herself. In fact, I gave her a raise because she wasn't charging enough for cleaning.)
We think she is great, but more importantly, our renters think she is great. They are thankful to have someone on call and on-site.
walkr
|