As a property manager I've built up a rolodex of reliable professionals that I provide for all my clients, however in self-managing you will have to invest some of the time in finding those professionals for yourself.

Someone recommended a small lending company to get a mortgage for a buy and hold property.

For owners with a small portfolio (1-3 STR), how did you decide between self management vs hiring a vacation rental company?

Finding reliable contractors for out-of-state investments can indeed be challenging.

Make sure to ask for client referrals and interview more than one company in Flint.

This is not the utility company's responsibility.Your lease should state the tenant is responsible for maintaining utilities.

I’d love to hear about the crime rates or any other issues (which we cannot guess from the online stats), and how easy or hard it is to find reliable tenants and property management companies.

They make their money off of real estate agents, but real estate agents are the worst people to make money off because they are highly unreliable and in and out of the business when the market changes.Their target should be the consumer with higher levels that they can subscribe too for data, since Zillow is linked to the MLS now which makes their data somewhere more reliable.

If anything they are even more reliable.

Honestly, it seems like you’ve got more skin in the game than I do since I’m just getting started as a bird dog, but I really admire your approach.I think your focus on tax-efficient strategies and building a reliable team is spot on.