You find the house completely trashed with missing appliances and cabinets, tenants were cooking meth, windows broken, etc. 6-8 months of unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, thousands to empty the abandoned property and trash, $50,000 to completely renovate the property and make it rentable again, plus all the time, energy, and stress along the way.I would actually argue this is pretty common and not even the worst-case scenario. 

It literally costs you more than paying a manager.

This PM will be trusted with the accounting, collection, and transfer, of tens of thousands of your dollars, or more.

Is $175 worth losing potentially thousands. 

☝️Don't be cringy...That's literally what an attorney said on a recent REI Zoom.

Which interestingly enough now they can actually define themselves as literal human-cat's and even demand a litter box and it will be done.

Literally, there is no best option, only what fits your goals based on the info we know now! 

If you’re about to make $10+ thousand dollars and have no emd money, wouldn’t you have someone lend it to you for a fee then miss out on all of that money?

I'm going to reduce my rent by $100 as this ratio seems abysmal (quite literally a 0% ratio in view-to-application). 

So you are literally losing one month’s interest.