All Forum Posts by: Sydney Munson

Thank you all for the very insightful replies. 

@Jimmy Chao - it was really interesting to read your comment because I can relate a lot to your thought process. While I definitely want to treat this as a business/investment property, I did think it would be a really good learning experience to manage my first property myself - now I may have to reconsider. Really fair point about potentially being taken advantage of price-wise if a contractor learns I am out of state. 

@Scott Passman - great point about PMs having less incentive to thoroughly screen the tenant if they know they will hand over management duties shortly after. Other than having a higher cash flow, self-managing really appealed to me because you do have more control over your investment (if done right). I've read some horror stories about people needing to "manage their manager", so definitely need to make some calls to find the best PM.

@Ola Dantis thank you! I will be looking into this idea further. 

Hi all - I am about to close on my first out-of-state single family home and am going to self-manage the property. I am planning to use Cozy to collect payments, and am comfortable with the idea of advertising and screening potential tenants. However, I’m not sure how to accomplish certain tasks while out of state, such as performing a walkthrough with the tenants, handing over the keys, etc (or, maybe these aren’t needed…comments welcome!).

I have read about the “lease only” service that some property management companies offer, which seems to be a good option for initially placing the tenant. Once the tenant is settled in, I would be able to switch to self-management. However, it would be ideal to avoid this cost (typically equal to a month of rent) if there are only a couple tasks that seem challenging to do remotely.

Has anyone had experience placing tenants while out of state without using a property management company? Wondering if there are other options that I have not yet looked into for a couple quick 'boots on the ground' tasks.