Property Management for new investments

[Scott Kimberly]

I have listened to a lot of the podcast and also browsed on here to know that this might be a foolish question.

How "unreasonable" is it to want property management when you first start out? Even with something like a 4-plex?

I have spent a lot of time (probably stupidly) convincing myself that "I can't be a landlord right now". I don't have the time due to a job and growing family and don't have the desire to deal with headaches or property maintenance (like snow/ice in the winter). But soooo many people don't make excuses like that for themselves. I feel like this inner debate is largely distracting and a huge disservice to myself, so I want to share it with others to see if my current feelings are misguided/based on inaccurate information.

My goal is to not have to work when I'm 40, and I just turned 30. Based on my expenses and my state, I should only need 30 units to accomplish that goal, assuming they all cash flow correctly. Not that I would stop there. 30 units in 10 years seems incredibly reasonable, based on what I've heard around BP. I could start considering quitting my job and going full time at 20 units, but it would be close.

This leads me to my inner debate. 20 units feels like a lot to maintain on my own, even if its 5 4-plexes. Which is where property management would play a huge role. I would love to have systems in place where I can just acquire property and collect money, but that will take time. I would love to manage a property manager while they managed from 1 to 30+ properties for me. The problem with that is that most people don't recommend having a manager to start. I think another issue is that most managers won't deal with only one property, which is out of my hands (and frankly makes sense, its just not financially worth it for them).

These are my rambling thoughts. I need someone to just grab me by the head and shake me. And please don't worry about analysis paralysis, my timeline indicates my investing cannot really start until January 1st, 2020.

Thanks