House Hacking with a Property Manager

[Kevin Osborn]

Hello Bigger Pockets,

I was searching through the BP forums and came across a post by a Marcus Coleman about 12 months ago.  The original post only received a handful of replies and I wanted to get some more opinions on the matter.  He asked the following:

Has anyone tried house hacking with an outside property manager? If so, how'd it go? Any advice for someone interested in doing this?

For example, buying a four-unit apartment building and and paying a property management company to handle finding and managing tenants.

I am wanting to purchase a 4-unit as my first deal but I don't quite have enough capital for the down-payment and extra cash reserves. I don't NEED a new place to live but with the FHA loan I would only have to live in the property for 1 year and I could get a much lower down payment (right?), enough to be able to afford a 4-unit rental in the short term. I personally would like to hire a management company because I am already attending school full-time and working a part-time job. I know that managing myself would save me a lot more money, but I don't think I would have the time nor energy after my other commitments. I would love to hear other people's opinions on the matter though.