My entire family lives in the area in which I'm considering buying, which is just a bonus in the fact that they could drive by - otherwise I would obviously look to outsource management of the property.

As your business grows, do less hands on and outsource more. 

It entirely depends on what you are looking to get outsourced and what operations you would want to take on yourself! 

Currently , I only have one outsourced mgmt company, but I have a personal asst that oversees that company.

Of course, these could be outsourced via contractors as well.This is how mine is set up and takes less than an hour a month to manage.

@Cristin Andrews this is why we believe owners should ask a lot more questions about a PMC's tenant applicant screening PROCESS, as well as all their processes, before hiring them.Many PMC's are outsourcing their screening process and/or solely using technology to approve applicants.

Since we are a bit larger we have a local area rep who can help with these things instead of the outsourced support. 

If you do purchase a house hack with a partner, the easiest way to structure it would be to outsource all the work to professionals and split the cost equally. 

Just don't pick a place which has everything outsourced to call centers in the developing world, or your refinance will go sideways five ways from Sunday - other than that your lender shouldn't really care that much who you use if you don't want to go with their default go-to.When I present the option to select their own title company on a refi, most people have no idea what I am talking about, which is why lenders generally do not present that option. 

If you're doing less than a couple hundred then doing it yourself is ok but after that you're much better off outsourcing the work.