Rent, Sale, or Manage Myself

[Camille Carrion]

I’ve been going back and forth on whether I should manage my own townhome for renting out. So a brief backstory: army spouse, business/accounting background, moving several states (two time zones) away, four young children (6 and under), do not plan to work when we move (not anytime soon anyway).

My husband and I only have this 1 property that was built in 2013 but will be looking to invest more down the line. Mortgage + HOA is ~$1450/month. Rent for the area is ~$1650. Property manager I spoke with would have fees of 7.9% and 1/2 first months rent on a new tenant.

Is this the perfect time to manage our property or should I leave it to the professionals to save time and headache? If I should manage myself what are some good tools to use for background check on tenants, rent collection, etc.?

I’ve only heard of Cozy so pros/cons of different tools would help also.

Purchased for $205k and current sale price is ~$300K.  Would this be a good time to rent or should we sell?