Managing Properties While Out of State?

[Erica Larence-Penna]

I have a four-unit in Rhode Island, where I currently live, but I am moving to Florida at the end of the year.  We have good tenants and have not had any major issues since we bought the property in October 2019.  I was considering getting a property manager when we move, but the property currently grosses about $3,275 and I am a little hesitant to pay someone 8%-10% of that just for collecting rent each month.  I am also worried about handing over the reigns and giving up some control of my own property.  I could possibly have a family member assist when I move and I'd pay them some sort of fee.  Does anyone have experience with managing their own out-of-state properties?  Should I just suck it up and pay a property manager?

[Cassi Justiz]

Hey @Erica Larence-Penna, 

I went through a similar situation. I moved from Texas to Oklahoma and turned my primary home into a rental property. At the time I had never done anything more complicated than renting to my roommates, so the thought of being a "landlord" from another state terrified me. I hired a property manager for 4 years and just took back over management this month. During that time I acquired a handful of properties locally and have been self-managing them with no issues. The hardest part of property management are the turn-overs, so if you have someone that can help you with that then you shouldn't have any issues. You also need a solid list of contractors that you can call when issues arise, but it sounds like you may already have that in place. 

My big deciding factor to take over management was looking at my rent rolls/maintenance requests. That house was built in 2003 and I've already replaced several of the "cap-ex" items. Over the last 3 years, I averaged about 1-2 maintenance calls a year on this property. My property manager was taking home almost as much as I was to make a couple of phone calls a year.  

I'm in the middle of a make-ready now and it hasn't been bad at all. My parents are helping coordinate the make-ready and I'm paying them an hourly fee. They are taking care of stuff that has to be done in person like putting the lockbox on the door, checking up on the contractor weekly, etc. Everything else I am handling remotely. I'll be doing self showings for leasing and e-signatures for leasing. 

It's definitely something that you can handle yourself, but you'll just need to decide if that's something that you want to do. It would be much easier for me to just collect rent checks, but for me it's worth the $2000+ a year to handle the management and leasing myself.