Why spend 12% for someone to manage a property in good shape where you just collect rent and respond to an occasional need?

If you have an older home that requires a lot of maintenance, you probably want to avoid the manager who charges a markup.I recommend shopping around occasionally to see if your PM is procuring fair pricing or just marking you up to make money without justification.As for expectations, you need to read the PM agreement and understand what is charged and why.

. :) I learn a lot more from my mistakes than what I (very occasionally) get right on the first pass.

Those occasional lunch/coffee sessions probably won't be enough unless some experienced investor is willing to be harassed by me every single week.

Or set prices manually occasionally?

Those things can and will hurt your monthly KPIs occasionally and sometimes for long periods. 

.- Inspections: Some programs require annual property inspections to ensure compliance with their standards, which can occasionally be demanding.- Damage Risk: As with any tenant, there’s potential for property damage.

We do this by risking 1%-3% capital per trade because of 10% occasional drawdown that will come with that, mind you. 

All of that said, I just want to get together occasionally to give my wife a break from me talking about real estate all of the time.

mibextid=wwXIfrThere are occasionally some REI meetups in Anchorage as well held by the team of Vested North AK (Jamie Rose, Nick Bruckner, Tyler Cobb).