Advice on hiring Property Manager vs doing it yourself

[Trevor Alexander]

I'm converting my OO residence to my first long-term rental property. Advice/pros/cons on hiring a property management company or doing it myself? Cash flow will be approx. $1,000 without accounting for property management fees or repairs. The house is only 1 year old. Going rate for property management fees where I live are 8-12%.

My main concern are doing upfront tasks myself (running background checks, screening, application, proper legal forms, etc.)

I know BP has forms I can buy for $99. Does that have everything you need to place a tenant and then from there it's just fielding calls and performing any repairs as needed?

Appreciate any insights!

[JD Martin]

If you are local, find a good PM and then give it a shot yourself first. But become educated before you do.

If it is out of state, you are almost always better off to get a good (and I emphasize good, I'm getting ready to fire my OOS PM) property manager because you need trustworthy boots on the ground to keep things running smoothly. You can find a bunch of boots yourself or just find the one person who knows all the boots already.