Advice on multifamily property management decision

[Lisa Kattenhorn]

I am under contract on a 4 unit and I think I got a pretty good deal.  It's not my first property.  I had a three unit that I managed myself and did quite well on.  We sold it for a really nice profit because we were moving our focus to a new area.  I also have two other units as part of a larger vacation property of ours that I manage myself because the units are low maintenance and we are there often.  This new house is going to be higher maintenance, with some tenants on section 8, and landscaping, plowing, etc that will need to be kept up with.  I spoke to a property management company that sounded great and has a great reputation.  They are maybe a little bit expensive, however - 10% of rents for management, $45/hour for maintenance or painting requests, 50% rent fee for renting out a unit.  But, they sound like they really care about their properties and their tenants.  We won't be making a ton of cash flow the first few years using them, but we can be completely hands off.  Can someone talk some sense into me and tell me to just pay the money to have the property properly managed?  I am so cheap, but then I end up spending tons of my own time managing and dealing with stuff that stresses me out and makes me not want to be in real estate anymore!  (Reminds me of Brandon talking about carrying a toilet full of poop himself because he didn't want to pay a plumber).   I think I could potentially also learn a lot from a good property management company that would help me expand down the road....right?  Advice, anyone?   I don't think it's feasible for us to really scale without this sort of thing in place considering I have a full time job and two little kids.