Zillow makes mistakes.  

Luckily the family in my rental is paying $9000/mo (3x my mortgage) so I am gaining signifigant wiggle room for mistakes.

@Yooni Choi managing from out of state (OOS) with ZERO previous landlord experience - probably won't go well.You WILL make a lot of mistakes that will cost you money.

Our company has designed over 100 flips for Real Estate Investors in 12 states, and one of the biggest mistakes that we see our investors (try to) make is always going BOLD with the design!

However, chances of making a mistake or overlooking an opportunity to save are higher when it comes to rentals.The dilemma is whether it's worth paying a professional in this case.

Or did your SO make a $50-100k mistake by not seeing that it did?

@Walter PinedaEven if someone give you a referral, what meets their expectations, may not meet yours.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

@Tannia CastroRecommend 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.

You can hear real-world examples of how others have built their investment portfolio and (hopefully) learn to avoid their mistakes.4.

Do not repeat any mistakes on the next investment.