Never Landlorded, What makes you do it over paying a PM

[William Huston]

Hello All, 

I am going through growing phases in learning how to properly invest in real estate. For the last 12+ years i purchased properties and turned them into rentals as i switched duty stations in the military. Over the years i have never land lorded any of my own properties, but i did house hack for about 3 years of that. Currently i have 5 rentals and in 5 different states, so im forced to have 5 different PM's and 5 additional states i have to file taxes in. I am currently contemplating selling some of these properties since they are near peak in each area and would net me enough in equity profit to purchase new properties in my local area here in Florida and make more cash flow if i 1031 exchanged, which i have never done before. 

So, i am on the fence about doing the property managing myself, currently i am a Registered Nurse who works 3 days a week (Night Shift), so i have a good portion of the week im free to things and im pretty handy with things from learning over the years fixing my own primary residences, my last rental property i bought it was a fixer upper and did all the work myself outside of dry finishing. I did the painting, replaced the roof, hung the drywall, replaced the kitchen cabinets, layed new tile in all 3 bathrooms, put wood engineered flooring in house and replaced the water heater myself. So i have gained experience in many of the common repair areas in housing, so its been a thought to take over the management until i become larger. 

Reasoning im thinking of doing self landlording:

1) I have gained a lot of experience with home repairs over the years, im not a professional, but i feel like im pretty handy. 

2) I am currently paying nearly $900/month in PM fees on 5 properties, so i feel like that would be a huge savings if i did the management myself. 

3) $900/month could pay for another rental property....