A person who has spent his 2000 to 4000 minimum CPA practice hours doing foreign currency conversions at Deloitte for a Belgian energy company may not know the first thing about real estate or anything else.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

The specific assistance organization, the screening of the tenant, the property, and the PM company that should be communicating with the tenant all play a role in the success of your investment in regards to tenants.

@Jake AndronicoI’ve looked into them but have never executed one.Let me say they will be expensive and complicated.I think what you will find if one is trying to defer $50,000 to $100,000 in gain, it’s not going to be worth the time and trouble.On the other hand, if client is trying to defer gain of $500,000 to $1,000,000, it’s worth the time and trouble.I use First American Exchange for my own account a dozen times and they have been right on the money.Google them and reach out.Arn

Will you be managing this yourself or with a local company?

They are a horrible company with unethical billing practices.

Second piece of advice is to have a trust worthy title company that can guide you.

you say they have insurance for their pet,, they need to give you a copy of that and you need to verify with company policy is up to date, give a copy of that to your ins company and let them know your working to have them move out and have given them notice to do just that. 

I would start speaking with residential / commercial agents and property management companies close by and get a feeling if something closer by will meet your criteria.

We sign leases with nonprofit and for profit companies who provide structure and services to people in recovery.