Investing in a house -- Do I need to be Home for Contractors/SubContractors?

[Brandon Cao]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post, and I am a newbie trying to get into Real Estate investing hopefully in late 2012. A little background, I would be living approximately 30-40 minutes away from my investing location in Philadelphia. I have a full time job that I must focus on, and I was planning on hiring a property manager.

(Assuming I don't have the property manager yet..)
My question is if I buy a house that requires low to moderate work, would I have to be present to give the keys each time or oversee the work each time a contractor comes in? Or would one key-hand off of a duplicate key be sufficient? I assume by paying per contract rather than per hour, I would be salvaged from gross expenses (since I'm away from the house). By the way, I would not be renting until the work is complete, so the house should be empty.

(Assuming if I did have a property manager)
Furthermore, a similar question, would a property manager coordinate the low to moderate work on the house? Or would they refuse and only perform basic repair/maintenance.

Thanks for any advice!!