Flying out to see the property

[Kenny Oliver]

Hi guys so I'm flying out to see a property in New Jersey today. It's a duplex one unit is being rented one is vacant but set to be occupied in April. I'm going to see the vacant unit with my agent today but I had a question regarding the process. Once an offer is in place and the seller accepts and it's under contract. Do I need to be there for the inspection or can I have the inspector go at it alone? This will be my first multi family property out of state. So any advice or tips are appreciated.

[Trudy Pachon]

Just to add my $0.02, I just sold a property in Savannah GA and, although I love the area, selling that property was such a relief. Here's my brief tale of out of state woe.

I managed it myself from San Diego at first. Then the air conditioner leaked due to not draining and cleaning some condensation thing on it, it leaked all over the ceiling and the ceiling collapsed on my tenants' stuff (thank God not my tenants weren't home). It was such a simple thing that needed to be fixed, but I had no clue about it.  It did a bunch of damage and luckily my tenants had insurance. So I decided to get professional help!

My first property manager seemed great, good reviews etc. and everything was great for a while. But then something happened to him and when a tenant moved out suddenly, he didn't get on the turnover, he kept saying he was etc, didn't market it, blah blah. Anyway, it went vacant for FIVE MONTHS! It was funny (now) because I got so frustrated with him that I put an ad on Craigslist to try to rent it myself from San Diego. One girl called me and said there was a beehive on the front porch, so I had to call an exterminator. (Of course I couldn't trust my manager to do anything at that point.) He really did a crap job of doing the move out fixes but he did find someone to rent it finally when I told him I was going to take time off work to fly out and rent it myself. 

So I fired him and got another manager. He was OK, but the stress of owning the property and not being able to see and monitor it was not great. When the next tenants he placed in the property moved out (after only 6 months) and the house still needed a bunch of work, I decided to sell since the market was up there and I knew I could sell it "as is". 

What I learned was: 

-no one will care for my property like I do

-people seem great at first, but then stuff happens, management changes and things can get bad quick

-to sleep well at night, I need to know I don't have raccoons, bees or meth labs in my property due to poor management or lack of oversight

-buying local is expensive, but has more value to me because I can manage my own property and can make sure it's being cared for

-travel is expensive-I owned property for 10 years and went out there three times. It will kill your profits. Every time I went, I found things that needed to be done. 

Good luck with whatever you decide. Only you can make the right decision, but I wanted to share my experience with you!