National STR Property Management companies are good, sometimes necessary, but also prohibitively expensive.

So an ideal would be to get something for $250-300K put 50-75K in rehab and get a house thats 350-500K.Thank youHey Daniel, totally can relate with you being from an expensive real estate market - I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

In terms of taking on more liability, it boils down to what insurance will be less expensive and looking at what we are having to pay through the HOA (for insuring the aggregate of all units), it will likely be cheaper for owners to purchase individual HO3 policies to cover their units (as townhouses) as the carriers would not be taking on the risk of the entire $100M+ in aggregate replacement value, and the owners can take out policies for individual units with a whole range of carriers vs the HOA trying to get coverage through the secondary market.  

As I started entering expenses, it occurred to me that there were more expenses than I thought. 

First, the cons of C-class, aside from section 8, C-class has more fluctuation in price, more tenant problems (vacancy expenses, evictions, etc), and local crime.

Make sure the rental income comfortably covers your mortgage, taxes, and other expenses.

Im too far away to deal with this and its getting expensive. 

Hey Jay, I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

I think with 8 units you have more income cushion if you have a vacancy or an expense like an HVAC issue.

My thoughts are 1) I will have a fixed rate and not worry about it changing every 5 years thus helping me control my expenses a little better (of course aiming to secure a good rate whenever the rates hopefully come down), and 2) it will be amortized over 30 years and if I get a good rate, then my cash flow should increase by a decent amount.