Property management out of state

[Nicholas Polson]

Hi! My name is Nick, and I am planning on buying my first rental property before I graduate from college. 

I ran into a little snag, and I would like to get some input from the Biggerpockets community.

For the next 5 years I will be jumping between New York and Idaho for school. Obviously I can't drag my rental properties with me, nor do I want to sell my properties every year.

So I was wondering if you know how to, or have had any experience with, managing properties out of state?

[Account Closed]

Hey Nicholas, my wife and I live in San Diego but have two rentals in Western Nevada that we manage ourselves.  Both are rented to fellow military members so we have a kinship with our tenants and ask them to help take care of certain small things in our absence.  But we also have connections with local service providers, like a landscaping firm who winterizes and spring-izes the irrigation system every year to make sure it's done right.

Otherwise our strategy is that we have home warranties on each home so when the water heater springs a leak in one of the pipes we simply call in the warranty company, pay the $60 deductible, and they dispatch a plumber to take care of it.

If you're going to travel back and forth between areas where you own rentals you should be able to manage them yourself, in my opinion.  As an added bonus, you'll be able to write off the trips as expenses.