Meet Jason Mitchell and his wife, Katherine, owners of Mitchell's Beach Condos and OwnerRez users for over eight years. What began as a way to afford a beachfront condo in Panama City Beach has grown into a family business built around strong guest relationships and direct bookings.
Can you tell us a little bit about your history?
I’m originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but I’ve lived in the Atlanta area for more than 40 years, so Atlanta is definitely home. I’m married to Katherine, who grew up in the Atlanta area, and we’ve been together for 31 years. We have a 23-year-old son, Jacob, who recently graduated from college and moved out on his own, which, depending on the day, we’re either very proud of or still trying to adjust to!
What is your background?
Neither of us started out with a grand plan to become real estate investors or vacation rental operators. I started working in the fast-food business when I was 15 and went on to build a career in the restaurant industry, working with globally recognized brands. Katherine spent more than 20 years in the food manufacturing industry.
Today, Katherine manages our vacation and residential rental portfolio and our real estate investment business. She also leads the operational side of another family business, Naz Tree Service, where she is a partner. So, somewhere along the way, two people from the food business became real estate investors, vacation rental operators, and entrepreneurs. Life has a funny way of changing the plan!
Were you always in vacation rentals or property management, or is this a second or third career?
Vacation rentals definitely weren’t the original career plan. We got into the business because we were trying to figure out how we could afford a little condo at the beach. In 2012, we found one in Panama City Beach, Florida, scraped together just about every dollar we could find, and bought a unit with an incredible view. We immediately fell in love with it.
Then came the small detail of figuring out how to pay for it. That’s how the vacation rental business entered our lives. Since then, we’ve bought several properties, sold a few, learned a tremendous amount along the way, and today we own three beachfront vacation rental units in Panama City Beach.
Are you from the geographical area where your properties are located?
We don’t live in Panama City Beach full-time. Our primary home is in the Atlanta area, about 300 miles away, but we spend several weeks in Panama City Beach throughout the year. One of the great benefits of being in the vacation rental business is having a legitimate business reason to visit the beach frequently. At least that’s the excuse I use!
What drew you to the area?
Panama City Beach has been a special place for both of us since we were kids. There’s just something about the area that has always drawn us back: the beach, the water, the memories, and now all of the experiences we’ve had there as a family. Over the years, it has become much more than a vacation destination for us. It’s part of our family story.
What do you love most about the vacation rental business?
It allows us to spend time in one of our favorite places in the world while also running a business and, hopefully, making a little money along the way. There aren’t many businesses where you can occasionally conduct a “property inspection” while looking at the beautiful Gulf! I also really enjoy the relationships we’ve developed with our guests. A large percentage of our business now comes from repeat guests and direct bookings, which is incredibly rewarding.
What do you dislike the most about it?
Probably my biggest frustration is dealing with some of the large booking platforms. At times, their rules and communications can make an owner feel less like the owner of the property and more like a participant in someone else’s system. That experience is actually one of the reasons we’ve worked hard to build relationships directly with our guests. Today, many of our guests are repeat visitors or book directly with us, which gives us much more control over the guest experience and the business.
How do you use OwnerRez to manage your business?
At this point, I really can’t imagine operating our vacation rentals without OwnerRez. There are a lot of moving parts in this business: reservations, guest communications, payments, properties, channels, calendars, reporting, and all the little details that have to happen correctly every single time.
OwnerRez brings those pieces together in a way that is organized, intuitive, and easy to manage. When we first moved to OwnerRez years ago, being able to see and manage everything across our properties in one place was a game-changer for us. As our business has matured and our direct bookings have grown, it has become even more important.
What is the most useful feature OwnerRez offers?
It’s difficult for me to pick just one feature because the real value is how everything works together. If I had to choose, though, I’d probably say the automation combined with having one central place to manage the guest journey. The system handles so many repetitive steps consistently: communications, booking information, payments, agreements, and all the other details that are easy to miss when you’re managing multiple properties.
That lets us spend less time administering reservations and more time actually running the business and taking care of our guests. And perhaps most importantly, it gives us the ability to operate much more independently rather than having our entire business dependent on one of the large booking platforms.
By focusing on strong guest relationships and direct bookings, the Mitchells have built a business that's set up for long-term success. We look forward to seeing Mitchell's Beach Condos continue to grow!
