That's left up to the investors to manage, all five of them, and to haggle over the crumbs left after the sale and taxes.At the same time, the extremely solid place I'm buying is remote managed by an absentee computer guy who's just tired of dealing with his tenants and last visited his property from six states away five years ago.With competitors like these, who needs friends?

Eventually I'll hire a CPA once I get tired of doing my own taxes.

You may have 'missed the boat' on easy 1% MLS deals, but there are lots of high grass tired houses and plexes out there that need problems solved. 

I got tired of this and decided to build a buyers list of investors who have the funds, are actively doing deals and sat down with me to show me exactly where their numbers need to be.

Started talking to tired landlords while biking on the barrier island, picked up 2 owner financed houses on the island that I turned into STRs.  

Here are the average response rates we have seen based on our customer feedback as well as our own mailings throughout the years: Yellow Letters- average response rate of 8%-9%, all kinds of calls (angry calls, curious calls, tire-kickers, quality calls)Postcards- average response rate of .5%, mostly quality calls.Zip Letters- average response rate of 2%, mostly quality calls.

Bad tenant parties all night, good tenant says,"please keep it down, some people have to work in the morning"....Morning comes and good tenant has 4 flat tires.  

At some point, I imagine, I’ll tire of it and will probably look to outside management.

Letters, on the other hand see an average of 8%-9% response (angry calls, curious calls, tire-kickers, quality calls), and zip letters and greeting cards see around 2% on average (mostly quality calls).3) You are right, the amount does depend on your budget and what you can afford.

Some high repairs, new tires ($1200), etc.