SUCCESSFUL OUT OF STATE INVESTORS?

[Michael Seutin]

I tend to feed on positive people around me and I have seen a few posts claiming that out of area or out of state investors are not going to be successful.
So I am curious to know who on here is not only an out of state investor like me ( I live in northern cali, where cash flow is not good), and who are successful doing it, especially buy and hold investors. I 'd also like to know where you are from, where you invest and you general plan and profits, details, details.
I have also seen people claiming that paying ppty managers is a risky and takes too much of the profit.
Let me disagree on that, I do believe that even if my properties where a mile away from where i live, I think that managing your own property is inherently bound to fail if your goal is to retire on real estate.
Self managing is very limiting as far as the number of ppties one can acquire and puts a limit on success. As an extrem example, Donald Trumps would never be a billionaire if he self managed his properties.
I believe that delegating properly is what makes one successful.
Plus the 7% management fee I pay allows me less stress, and I would never be able to be as professional as my ppty manager.
Doing it myself I ll go crazy after 2 or 3 ppties. Having a ppty manager, I can sleep good and have 50 ppties or more.

[Mike McKinzie]

I am one of the successful out of state investors here on BP. I live in Colorado and just this year purchased property in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. I also have property in California, Virginia and Colorado. My philosophy on Real Estate Investing is just like stock investing. I don't visit a factory or an office of a stock I buy, so why should I visit a property I buy? Even if I owned 51% of a company's stock, I let the professionals run it. I am sure Warren Buffet doesn't visit a Coca Cola plant even though he has billions invested in Coca Cola.

I pay from 6% to 8% for property management and that is more than worth it. I manage the PM companies and they manage the properties. This gives me more time to do what I want to do. If you manage your own properties, it is like a 'ball and chain.' How do you ever go on vacation? You pay someone else to be 'on call' if a problem arises? If so, just have a property manager. My strength is accounting, not fixing a toilet.

Currently, my gross numbers are $30,000 a month gross rental income. About $10,000 in debt service, $2,000 in property management, $1,500 in property taxes, about $500 in insurance. Repairs and utilities can vary. Number of rental units is 30. Dollar amounts are rounded.