What should you expect your management company to provide in return for the monthly fee that you pay them? Forgetting rental bookings, as this is a separate issue, they should be doing the following to maintain your home in good condition:

- Making sure that the home is cleaned properly after each rental.
- Making sure that the grass is cut and edged regularly, and that feed is added if needed.
- Making sure that pest control treatments are applied properly and at the right time.
- Making sure that the pool is kept clean and properly treated.
- Making sure that the pool deck and furniture is kept clean.
- Making sure that everything works, from the air conditioning down to the light bulbs.
- Making sure that your rental licenses are up to date.
- Making sure that minor problems are identified and sorted immediately.
- Making sure that you know about major breakages or breakdowns, and acting on your instructions to deal with them.

Notice that job of the MC is to make sure about all these things, your job is to pay for them! The fee that you pay the management company covers their time in monitoring your home, it does not cover the costs of any of the activities, both materials and labor.

Several of these jobs, notably pool and lawn maintenance, pest control and home cleaning, will be charged on a standard basis. Repairs, replacements, and one-off activities like unblocking the drains will be charged separately at cost.

There is a general view that some management companies pay their sub-contractors (for example, the cleaning team) considerably less that they take off the owner for the job. This may or may not be the case. It is likely to impact on your business only if the sub-contractors are paid so little that they are unable or unwilling to do the job properly. This can be the case with end-of-rental cleans, which are usually costed down to the bare bones, so watch this area in particular.