one of my clients that has a pretty big PM company.. had a unique way of doing this.He offered 50% of the first months rent or 500.00 minimum.. he would have 4 or 5 agents at the weekly meeting handout the list of vacants .. each of them would go place a sign in the yard and first come first served.. he found that potential tenants would call the first sign if no answer they called the next one until finally someone answered.. it worked pretty awesome for him. 

In some older neighborhoods especially historic districts, the tenants look for older houses - they preferred the art deco bathroom tiles, the thick plaster & lath walls over granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.but class D neighborhoods are easiest to tell. 

:-) From a property managers perspective, I also think its great that you've decided to take on out of state self management for very legitimate reasons...Nothing is void of a few challenges, as we can all attest to, so as you embark, I wanted to share a few top reasons our owners choose to hire a management company. - As @Jonathan Klemm mentioned, passing on this load so that you can be more present and attentive to your family and not be essentially working  24/7, on-call for the needs of tenants and property emergencies... can be worth the management fees. 

This also begins YOUR title seasoning, so that when you're ready to take out a traditional mortgage, you can refinance and pay off the seller without a title seasoning issue. you can buy title insurance from the title company at closing. this is a good idea. 

I'm a managing partner at a holding company that does things a little differently, and we have a one stop shop for everything.

Thanks,Harish. this would be typical of a larger commercial transaction.. what you can do is pay the appraiser and the Phase one company direct.. its usually done that way.

I have no personal experience with them but they are the only company I know of that are built more for self managers and small portfolios. 

Cash flow is definitely the biggest challenge; both in terms of finding properties to buy that cash flow with a loan on them and just company wide given interest rates and labor/material is up and, at least where I'm at in Jackson County, MO, taxes are way up too. 

It was all really quick, and the time to complete everything happened a lot faster than I expected (which was a good thing).I was worried at first that I had to use all the partners that Rent to Retirement had, but it was really easy for me to shop around for different lenders with different terms and rates, insurance providers, and property management company.

One strategy is to pursue properties (in your preferred markets) that have been listed for sale for over 90 days (even longer is better).