I am not in the same state as the property anymore and both are extremely keen to take the lease for more than a year but i am struggling to decide between the two candidates. can you guys share your thoughts to help me decide ? 

Unless it's going in your forever home and you have a keen eye for detail.

I do have contact with another investor here in Australia - I worked with him on the purchase of my rental property near Chicago - he is keen to work with me and partner with me on some deals, and he has many established contacts in the area. 

., they have this keen intuition.  

Also for everyone who's replied so far, feel free to PM me directly as well (: I'm not 100% keen on all the forum post rules just yet.

Of course I can always use more investors, I do have a keen realtor, one day I'll be looking for contractors, etc. so it seems to me that this community is going to be very helpful.Please do stop by and say "hi". 

Especially in TexasI have had this happen to me personally with several retail flips.. all our comps and such say one price and the appraisals come in low a few days before closing.. so your just stuck and because the buyers are usually FHA they simply don't have the funds to make up the difference even if they wanted to... for those reasons I am no longer keen at all on Texas as a market to flip in..So I can see MI getting ahead of this.. especially in Texas...

I am not keen on property management companies.The recent weakness in equities has me interested in owning more dividend stocks, and more financial type investments as opposed to more RE.Never put all your eggs in one basket.I'm retired, have more than I need, and see no need to chase the carrot.

Would be especially keen to find out how much Irish banks are willing to lend buy-to-let investors these days.

@Mogen Keene welcome to the site.