Short Term Rental Property Management in Breckenridge

This blog post article is focused on Short Term Rental Property Management in Breckenridge. It will go over considerations and questions to ponder when deciding upon a vacation rental company to take care of your investment.

There are close to fifty property management companies near Breck in the Summit County area. Each one operates differently and there is no standard for operations. The author of this article, Stacy Sanchez, was originally introduced to the world of property management when a neighbor had a frozen pipe burst and then asked me to walk through his house on a regular basis to monitor the pipes.

I decided to do this as a favor at first, but then realized I had to dig out his walkway and maintain access to the home as well. When the weather was due to dip in the single or negative temperatures, I would put all the faucets on a steady drip, to maintain water flowing and to prevent pipes from freezing again.

After a few more friends asked me to do this, I became a trusted contact to walk through properties. After selling our retail business in 2015, we split and Dina became a realtor and I became a short term rental manager for a luxury property management company. After a couple of years there, I joined a company that focused solely on HOA duties, which did not offer interior management services, so as not to present a conflict of interest to owners. My final stint in STR (short term rental) management was with another high end management company that managed 80+ properties in Breckenridge.

I learned what best practices are being utilized as standards and what opportunities are being missed along the way. I can effectively analyze and help guide owners between the different companies in the area, and have even discovered a great set of questions that will help you figure out which may be the best fit for you, according to how they answer the questions. What are they? Here they are. This was taken from an article on VRM Intel.

Other good articles include:

• What Investors Don’t Understand about the Short-Term Rental Industry
• Vrbo Is Performing Better Than Airbnb for Vacation Rental Managers, But Direct Booking Still Number One Revenue Source . . . By A Lot
• Fact or Fiction? Mythbusting Hot Vacation Rental Trends
• Homeowner Tax Topics: Six Ways You Can Help Cut your Homeowner’s Taxes

13 QUESTIONS AN OWNER MIGHT ASK A PROSPECTIVE VACATION RENTAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY:

1. What will you do differently than others when it comes to marketing my property?

This is a chance to show owners how you differentiate your company. 

2. I see your commission is X%. What are the other fees I’ll incur, if any? What does your average owner end up paying per month when fees are added? How much are you going to get me for my property in a year?

If you (as on owner) ask for a commission rate and they (property management company) go lower, that’ a red flag! Giving a commission rate without seeing the property is another red flag.

3. Tell me how you handle (fill in the blank). Example, billing for changing a lightbulb, plumbing issue, shoveling snow.

Detailed questions are a way to understand what is important to owners. Their questions are how they learn about your company. Layout your baggage, and don’t sugar coat it.

4. Tell me about your employees. Are they located here in town? What are your hours?

Whom you deal with daily to manage your property does matter. Turn it into a strength and put it out there.

5. What do you take care of in-house, and what do you contract out?

Be prepared to explain how you handle housekeeping, maintenance, landscaping, and whether you use employees or contractors.

6. Do you inspect my home after every clean? What is done during the inspection?

This may be a question to answer with a question to understand their expectations like: Why is this important to you? What kinds of things are you thinking about regarding an inspection? Housekeeping is one thing, but a full-blown home inspection is another.

7. Why would a guest book with you versus another company or a private owner? What do you do that they don’t?

 This is where property managers can explain how they’re different. They should have a spark when they answer this one.

8. Do you know what your return guest percentage is and what would your goal be for my house in the first year and up to five years, and why it should matter to me as a property owner?

The answer is you care because those are return guests. That allows the management company to push rates up for your house, because there is less they have to fill.

9. How do you set rates and change rates based on market conditions?

When you ask this question, there should be a strategy revealed. If a company acts defensive, they are acting like they may not be flexible.  

10. What is your involvement in the local community?

It is important to be super involved, to be a leader, to know the regulators, and the town officials, and to understand how much influence you can have and how much you can change the course of your company and brand by being involved.

11. How do you get guests to book again?

When asked how I compare to a large company across many destinations and many states, I explain that a guest may book your house today, but the next time they book, that company may not care if they rebook, whereas a local company is trying to get them to come back at least to the destination again if not that same house.

12. What is your growth strategy? If so, what type of properties? If not, why not?

Are you associating with a large firm that wants to dominate the market? Or a smaller company with a personal touch? As for the type of properties, see if they can explain their brand, or are they taking all that comes?

13. How do you handle light night emergencies?

Do they leave a message? Is someone on call? Think about the guest experience. You want the guest to have an incredible time and come back to your house and back to this company, so that’s why you need to ask about the culture of the company and how it handles services.

Property managers beware: Once they have a management company in mind, Sarah encourages property owners listening to continue their vetting process by acting like a guest.

“Search them on Google. Do they come up on the first page? Go to their website and pretend you are a guest. Do they seem professional? Do they present properties beautifully? I think you should secretly call them, too. It doesn’t help to secret shop a little bit,” she says.