Ever wondered what’s at the heart of a leading property management company? At Weekender Management, our story is more than just managing properties – it’s about passion, evolution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. Dive in as we unravel the journey that propelled us to the forefront of property management in Northwest Arkansas and discover the ethos that shapes our services.
Our Founders’ Vision in Property Management
Garrett Ham and Stephanie Byrnes, a brother and sister team, founded Weekender Management in 2021. What started out as one property and an idea grew into one of Northwest Arkansas’s preeminent property management companies.Â
Garrett Ham’s Journey in Real Estate and Property Management
Garrett got started in real estate right after graduating from the University of Arkansas School of Law. His first job after passing the bar was in Walmart’s real estate department at the company’s corporate headquarters. There, he managed nonoperational properties, including both former store locations and future sites. He was later promoted to Senior Leasing Manager. In that position, he negotiated deals with businesses seeking to lease space inside operating Walmart stores.
After a few years at Walmart, Garrett left to go into private practice. At the same time, he began serving in the Arkansas Army National Guard as a JAG officer. Feeling further drawn to public service, Garrett became a Benton County prosecuting attorney. Then, he later cross commissioned into the active duty Air Force, beginning a four-year tour of duty.
Military Service and Property Management Experience
In the Air Force, Garrett served as Chief of Military Justice at two different bases. He served first at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. The Air Force then transferred him to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. In that role, he headed two busy military justice programs. As the Officer in Charge, he led a team of attorneys and paralegals in imposing military discipline and trying courts-martial.
He also served as Chief of Civil Law at Sheppard, where he helped manage government contracts and advise commanders. As such, he was frequently the liaison between the Air Force and outside civilian organizations. This included serving as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. In that role, he made frequent appearances in federal district court to prosecute civilian offenses committed on Air Force property.
While serving in the Air Force, Garrett maintained his love of real estate. He moved from being a real estate professional to becoming a real estate investor in his own right. He acquired multiple rental properties during his time in uniform. This allowed him to gain valuable experience as an investor and manager of real estate in the process.
Post-Military Pursuits and Property Management Challenges
After leaving the Air Force, Garrett began working toward a Master of Divinity at Yale University. While studying at Yale, he had the opportunity to take several classes in the school’s world-renowned School of Management. This further deepened his love of business and real estate.
While at Yale, Garrett decided to expand his personal real estate portfolio by purchasing his first short-term rental property. Yet the property was not located in the most desirable locations at the highest end of the market. Consequently, he found it difficult to find an Arkansas property management company willing to manage it. Not wanting to forego the financial opportunity the short-term rental provided, he committed to finding a way to manage it from over one thousand miles away.
Stephanie Byrnes: From Education to Property Management Excellence
Stephanie, our co-founder and COO, is a trained educator. She spent several years after college work as a full-time teacher. However, her love for travel and hospitality was insatiable. So, Stephanie and her family—which includes her husband and four daughters—decided to spend a year touring the country in a camper. (You can learn more about Stephanie’s adventure on her personal Instagram page.) The time afforded Stephanie extensive travel experience. It also gave her the opportunity to learn the importance of having a safe, comfortable place to stay. She began to fully appreciate the need to have a home away from home.
Upon returning home to Arkansas, Stephanie used her experience to start a “glamping” business. She traveled all over Northwest Arkansas setting up luxury tents for clients wishing to have a comfortable camping experience. Camp locations ranged from anywhere in the Arkansas wilderness to her clients’ own backyards. Stephanie created not just a comfortable place to sleep but an entire experience. In doing so, she was able to create unique and special memories for her clients.
In this role, she was able to learn the importance of hospitality and customer service. She learned the best ways to serve clients and anticipate their needs. After growing the company into a successful business, she sold it about the same time that Garrett acquired his first short-term rental property.Â
Property Management Beginnings: The Weekender Story
With Stephanie just selling her business and Garrett looking for a way to manage his new Arkansas investment from Connecticut, Garrett asked Stephanie to help him. She agreed.
As the two grew the property into a successful investment, they recognized how much they loved the experience of hosting guests and providing memorable experiences for anyone visiting Northwest Arkansas. Slowly, they began acquiring additional properties, and as they gained experience, other people began asking them for help in managing their own properties. So, Garrett earned his broker’s license, and Weekender Management was born.
Weekender Management Today: A Leading Property Management in Arkansas
Since then, Weekender Management has sought to provide the very best care and customer service to client and guest alike. We seek to be the preeminent name in hospitality with a stellar reputation for quality, convenience, and service. While we manage properties for a variety of different clients, we still insist on maintaining that personal touch, ensuring that no client or guest is lost in the shuffle or neglected. All properties receive individualized care at the highest levels of the company.
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Vacation Rentals
Weekender Management seeks to provide the most guest-centric rental property management service available. Anyone who books with us, whether directly or through third-party channels like Airbnb and VRBO, will receive individualized attention as we strive to provide the best quality care and hospitality. We insist that every stay be comfortable and every guest leave satisfied.
Anyone who stays with us comes into a property that is immaculately clean and comfortable, with ample furnishings and amenities to ensure the highest quality of stays. Even our more economical listings provide much more than anything to be expected at a comparably priced hotel. We strive to be the best in the business. We expect it. And we are never satisfied with anything that falls short of that expectation.Â
Property Management Services
Our goal as property managers is not simply to make your experience as an investor in short-term rentals easy, convenient, and hassle-free—although we do. It is to make you as successful as possible. At Weekender Management, we believe that nothing provides a better path toward financial independence than real estate. We are not satisfied with anything less than what will pave that path ahead for you.
Enhancing Guest Experience
Our in-house cleaning staff ensures that your property is well-maintained and sparkling clean for all your guests. We provide little touches—like welcome gifts—to guests to ensure that they think of your home when they think of a great stay. So, they’ll not only come and stay at your property again, but they’ll tell others to do so as well.
Pricing and Revenue Strategy
We monitor market pricing and set your rates accordingly to ensure that we maximize your property’s revenue while ensuring that your prices remain fair. We also charge you a commission, not a flat fee, for our services, so that we don’t make money unless you make money. Our success is your success, and we manage your property accordingly.
Flexible Plans for Diverse Needs
For clients who want to be more hands-on or would like to minimize commissions, we offer plans that cover every aspect of the management, pricing, communication, and listing of your property except for housekeeping. This allows us to offer our services at a significantly discounted rate and to clients with diverse needs. It also allows us to serve clients in areas our full-service plans are currently unavailable.
Our Promise of Satisfaction
We seek to provide different services to meet different needs. We strive to ensure the satisfaction of every client in every aspect of our service. To further ensure this, we allow clients to terminate our services at any time and for any reason with just two weeks’ notice. We want you to be successful and happy with your investment, even if that means you need to go a different route. We are a property management company founded by investors for investors. So, we want both clients and former clients to love their experience with Weekender Management.
This breakdown allows readers to quickly navigate and understand the different facets of services offered by Weekender Management.
Our Future
We at Weekender Management not only want to help real estate investors maximize their returns and move toward financial freedom. We also want to make real estate investing accessible to everyone. By offering services and education customized to the experienced real estate investor and novice alike, we intend to open the path toward financial freedom to more and more people.
The barrier to entry to real estate investing may be shrinking, but it is still difficult to take that first step. Whether it’s because of a lack of experience, lack of money, fear of failure, or a myriad of other reasons, getting started in real estate is a daunting endeavor.
We want to change that. Our current services are designed to help anyone get started in short-term rentals, and we encourage you to keep watch as we increase our offerings to better achieve our goal of making real estate investing more accessible.
We believe that there are truly life-changing opportunities available in the short-term rental market, and we want to help as many people as possible take advantage of them. As we grow, we do so with this goal in mind.
Real estate should be for everyone. Contact us to learn more!
If you’re interested in discovering how Weekender Management can help you get started in real estate, schedule a call with us today!
