Should I invest in first Multi 1.5 hours drive from home?

[Charles Mangum]

I currently have 7 rental houses and I am looking to make my next investment purchase a multifamily. I toured a 24 unit about 1.5 hours drive from my house.  It is in a small town (population 7,600) but numbers at first appear to be very good and I believe it would be a pretty straightforward transition from c to a b property.  Ideally I'd like to buy 50+ unit multifamily to get the economies of scale of an onsite manager, but again this one seems to work numbers wise and meets all my return objectives.  I have a full time job and 3 kids so of course time is a factor.  I think this might  be a good stepping stone to the bigger properties and raising money.  Thanks for your insight.

[Hattie Dizmond]

@Charles Mangum I know some folks who do it very successfully.  They use a "tenant manager" who gets some or all off his/her rent for providing the onsite management.  Then they use a local realtor for the leasing, listing, screening activities.  The realtor also does a monthly drive by just to ensure the tenant manager is doing their job.

The good thing is that at 1.5 hours it isn't prohibitively far, if there is something major that needs your approval.