Keeping "property manager" illusion with neighbor-tenants?

[Jennifer Rogers]

Hello, my name is Jennifer.  I am new to BP and my partner and I are in the process of buying our first duplex in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I wanted to introduce myself and start with a question.

Some of the books I have ready (maybe it was Heather & Brandon Turner's "The Book on Managing Rental Properties," or "Landlording on Autopilot") suggest that it can be helpful to hold yourself out to tenants as the "Property Manager" and avoid telling them you are the ultimate owner/landlord. That way you can let the theoretical "owner" be the bad guy and say you are just following the policies.  

The duplex is only half a mile from our house, in the same neighborhood but far enough away that the sellers or other people on that block are not "neighbors" that we know.  If we end up with neighbor/friends in common, they may easily learn from these common contacts that we are not only the property managers, but we actually own this duplex.  (We have told a few of our friends and neighbors, being excited about getting our first property).  It feels weird to purposely refer to some fictitious "owner" if there is a decent chance they may come to learn the real owners live nearby too and are in fact ourselves.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, and how did you approach it? 

Thank you!

[Jennifer Rogers]

Thanks for your suggestions, Chris. We might hire a property manager in the future but I want to start out managing to get to know this property and learn the ropes. We don't have plans for an LLC yet but that is something that we might do in the future. Your ideas made me realize that my concern may only be a temporary issue, until we do one or both of those things. I may have to decide whether to play the property manager part with our first tenants, but m aybe it won't be an issue with future tenants if we hire one. Thanks again!