What About Property Management?

Whether they live down the road or thousands of miles away, owners of vacation property typically work with a company that manages their property and sometime assists in securing rental bookings.

One of our jobs at Team Donovan is connecting you with the right company for your needs. Here are some things to consider: 

1. If the house you have purchased has been previously well managed by a company, we recommend staying with their services (at least to start) if the current owner is happy with the service being provided as this company knows more about the home then any new company will. 

2. If your house has management company placed bookings for rental, those bookings will likely only transferable if you stay with the current management company.

Assistance with the details

There are a lot of rules and regulations (such as maximum occupancy, signage and emergency lighting) governing short-term rentals in Florida. A good property management company will make sure that your property complies with all of them. Most property management companies have pretty standard charges for their services. Typically, charges will run about $300-$400 a month, which will include weekly pool cleaning, weekly grass cutting, monthly spraying for bugs, plus the company's fee for filing the required monthly sales and tourist tax returns on short-term rentals. In addition, they also generally keep an eye on the property for you and in many cases will make sure your bills are paid. In addition to your management fees, you’ll need to pay your utility bills and for the cleaning of the property each time a guest departs the property, should you rent the home. Finally, if you have a mortgage to pay, we recommend you pay this directly to the bank personally. If your management company is paying your bills, be sure to get a obtain copies for your own records.

Your involvement is key

Even though your property management company is capable of handling all of your bookings should you wish to rent your home, we strongly recommend that you have some sort of personal involvement. For example, don't just leave the sourcing of rentals to your management company. Instead, try to get some of your own bookings through friends, colleagues and perhaps a website of your own. This will increase the number of weeks your property is rented and therefore will increase your bottom line. The more involvement you have, the more likely you are to increase your return.

Let us know when you are ready…

When you’re ready to connect with a suitable property manager, rest assured that we will partner you with a reliable and recommended member of the Central Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association. Most management companies pay referral fees, we however do not accept ANY referral fees or any incentives to recommend a particular management company or any other service, and this allows us to give you the best possible experience and not have any financial benefit cloud our judgment.