Necessity is the mother of invention.

I am not a landlord by choice---but only necessity.  

I am located in New England, so if there are any glaring things to be made aware of prior to purchasing a southern home, or a home located near the gulf, or local airbnb regulations, general landlord friendliness, ease of hiring a management company/cleaners, necessity of flood insurance, etc, please feel free to let me know.

I realize in your case, being out of state, having a PM is a necessity, but I'm speaking more in general terms.If this is the only complaint you have with the PM, I wouldn't look to change to a new PM. 

Repairs cannot be arbitrary: they have a checklist of very basic necessities, and if something doesn't meet that, they make you fix it.

But, how do you explain the necessity to invade their homes every 3 months?

They have dropped in cost and the Smartkey feature seems to come standard with most Kwikset locks now.The cost and the necessity ...

With the direction i am looking to go in now that is going to be a necessity.

Once you get over the $100 mark, then it becomes sort of a necessity. 

And if they do work as hard as I have, it will most likely be through choice, rather than necessity.