I want income without a second job and this looks like a second job

I've been going through the passive-ish options and furnished corporate keeps showing the best spread on paper. In my market a decent 1 bed unfurnished is around $1,250. The furnished all-inclusive listings aimed at business stays are $2,100 to $2,300. That's a big gap and it's the first time a strategy has made me sit up.

Then I read what the gap pays for. Somebody hands over keys, somebody swaps linens between stays, somebody answers the phone when the internet drops at 9pm on a Sunday, somebody rebooks the unit every eight weeks. I don't want to be that somebody, and I don't currently have anyone to be it for me.

So the question I'm stuck on is what a manager costs on this kind of unit and whether it eats the entire premium. Long term management around here quotes 8 to 10 percent. The two places I asked about furnished mid-term said they'd want 20 percent plus a placement fee, and one of them said they don't take single units at all.

At 20 percent of $2,200 that's $440 a month, plus roughly $250 of utilities and internet, so I'm at $1,510 net before cleans, against $1,250 minus 9 percent, about $1,140, on a unit I never think about. That's $370 a month for the privilege of owning furniture and carrying vacancy risk between stays.

Maybe that's fine. Maybe $370 is real money and I'm being precious. What I can't tell is whether the 20 percent quote is normal or whether I got quoted the go-away number because I'm one unit with no track record.