Investing Remotely / Property Management

[Chris Horne]

Hi everyone,

My goal is to buy multi-family properties for long-term, passive cash flow. I’m in New York, but the local real estate market here seems impossible right now for someone like me, so I decided to invest remotely in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve often heard the following advice: if you’re just starting out and want to get into multi-family, look for a 4-plex or a small multi-family property. However, I’ve also heard that you need to have at least 40 – 50 units in order to hire a good 3rd party property management company.

How should a remote investor reconcile those two statements? Do people start small, self-manage remotely, and work their way up to 3rd party management? If so, how do you manage a small multi-family property remotely? Or is one of those statements not necessarily true: maybe it’s possible to jump straight to a large property, or maybe it’s possible to find good 3rd party management even if you only own one small multi-family property? Thanks in advance for any advice on this.