Out of State Property Management

[Josh Darley]

Hi BP,

I've been managing my own rentals locally for the last 4 years and believe heavily that the burden of doing it myself outweighs the cost of paying a property manager. I have six SFH's that are occupied 98% of the time and they are all relatively newer homes with less required maintenance. I live within 30 minutes of each of them, but have only needed to go see them two to three times a year to check up on them, and once in a while during tenant turnover.

 I haven't been able to expand my portfolio in Phoenix because the market is ridiculous, I can't fathom going into bidding wars over something I don't necessarily need.  I have been thinking about buying something out of state now, and have found a few markets that seem to meet the 1% rule at first glance.  That being said, has anyone else recently progressed from managing locally to buying out of state?  How has that experience been?  Is it possible to hire a PM to only find a tenant and during turnover?  I feel that most of the maintenance issues that come up even here in my hometown, I don't have to be physically at the house to work with repairman, so could I do the same from out of state? I have a very liberal work schedule so I could always fly in and handle something locally in an extreme emergency.  Any insight would be appreciated.

Josh