We are considering renting both condos long term and hiring a rental management company to collect rent and manage. 

This is more tax efficient as the interest you collect would be subject to ordinary income (outside of an IRA, whereas in an IRA, there’d be no tax on this.

@Kevin Lorick are you getting a monthly Owner Statement showing how much they collected and what was deducted?

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

The Federal Trade Consumer’s Bureau of Consumer Protection stops unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices by collecting reports from consumers and conducting investigations, suing companies and people that break the law, developing rules to maintain a fair marketplace, and educating consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities.In all other industries consumers are able to rate the performance of service providers and potential investors have a right to have these insights.

Make sure to collect the RPD and LBP from the sellers if possible.

@Patricia Via you do NOT have to accept cosigners, so if occupant can't qualify on their own, you can deny for income.The #1 question with cosigners is - how can you collect against them?

Do you have a contract and collect rent separately for each person?

I am new to RE investing, and hoping to tap the collective power of this awesome group in starting my RE journey.

They will think you are running a tenant screening/tenant application fee collection scam.