Hi Bryan L., thanks for the feedback. Since I'm going to be living in one of the units, I don't think it's worth having someone come out just to manage the two units. I'd really rather fix the toilet myself at 3am. I know I'll get up and fix it. I don't know that my property manager won't flake out sometimes and make me do it anyway! They're tiny 400-450 sqft apartments, so they'd be quite unpleasant for more than one person, but I see your point about how it could happen that someone might have family obligations come up.
I'm buying the property with one tenant already in it, a woman in her 60s on a fixed income. Fortunately, my day job is working with people in exactly that situation, so I feel well-prepared for it if only because it'd be extremely hard to tell me a believable lie about her situation when I do that kind of work professionally. She definitely knows I'm the owner since I've had to get permission from her to do the inspection and everything, so it's a bit late on that front.
Also, as a rule in my life, I don't do things like other people do. I've tried to operate like other people operate my entire life and it just doesn't work for me. Yes, it's sometimes harder to do things my way than other people say it is for them to do them their way, but things fall apart completely anytime I try to run things like somebody I'm not and betray my principles. I exist to be in relationships with other people, even when they're hard. I'd rather keep the personal aspect of treating people like people than remove it and be all about policies. Over the course of my life, that will almost certainly cost me millions of dollars. I don't doubt that. But it's also a trade-off I'm willing to make. And either I'm an excellent judge of character and truthfulness or I've just been extremely lucky so far, because so far, it's always, ALWAYS been worth it. I've found real people respond extremely well to other real people. I continue to be impressed how people respond when I treat them first as people with whom I'm in relationship, and only consider the other role they have in my life (client, tenant, whatever) secondarily. The human capital I've built with other humans is infinitely more important to me than any dollar level of net worth will ever be.
I know it's not for everybody, but it's how I choose to run my life. I'm very glad other people have developed systems that fit who they are and operate according to them. And you're absolutely right--I'm setting myself up for a lot of challenges doing it my way that you won't have doing it yours. But the challenges *I'd* face doing it your way are too much for me. Thank you for your feedback and concern. I appreciate your insights!
