Also, don't assume all contractors and tradesmen are dishonest or crooked.

If you have no money, who takes the loss if the property doesn’t perform as expected or if you end up hiring dishonest people who take your money and then take off?

You should also not allow dead equity to sit in your properties, this will encourage unscrupulious individules to file frivilious and dishonest lawsuits.

It isn't the fault of the new person, but they will go without the help, because of one dishonest person.

If they are dishonest or have poor workmanship/leaking roofs they very likely will not be around that long.Wishing you success in all your future endeavors.Ken

Sounds dishonest to me.

something that helped me was to get a great PM on your side before you pull the trigger (hence promise them your future business), they will keep you out of the wrong side of town, give you realistic area rents and tell you what's trending, meaning what are young families looking for etc...then after everything is in place go the extra mile and spend time locating a local handy man you can pay yourself independently, typically an older gentleman who works for himself, make sure he's not affiliated with your PM, he'll be the guy you send to look at things to make sure your PM is keeping a tight ship, essentially another set of eyes, who can look at the bigger ticket works orders before you order them...so just tell your PM you have a friend who you like to send over to see the bigger issues...for example: i can tell you that i've avoided $4k HVAC replacement orders several times, given some AC people are dishonest...an issue arose at a house they sent the AC people and they wanted to replace ...but I call my guy before doing anything, so my guy goes in and identifies and even fixes a much simpler issue, in 2 cases replacing the Capacitor ...a $30 battery pack that fits onto the outside Unit...that's just one example...cost me $100 all told, these issues will kill your cash flow, and your PM may simply not have time or bandwidth to double check everything etc...

It's a total scam, imo, and those who deny it are being dishonest.  

Protecting the public from unscrupulous and dishonest practices is an ongoing battle.

I think everyone will learn a lot by seeing what happen to all the dishonest HOA members in Las Vegas, Nevada.Joe Gore