In a lot of Europe, however, buying property that you don't live in is really just a place for very wealthy people to park money because you don't make the kind of returns that you can make in the US.

I don't think for 3% you would get a return phone call from the PM company

The current tenant historically fell behind on their rent, and would catch up every year with their tax returns.

If you think about it, the PM is required to do the move out inspection, record damages, and return the security deposit within 30 days (your state may require something different).

@Cody James Cressey, the question from this side of the pond is "on what tax return is that property being reported on"? 

I can collect fees and then try to return for those that I don't run a background check on, but this could be a hassle and I don't want to take people's money away from them for a period of time while they would need it to get another place if I don't choose them.

Once you narrow it down look at pricing , taxes , rental rates etc. get a good return calculator to figure out what you will cash flow .3.

One simple yet extremely powerful thought quickly flew into my mind, "return to the basics".Okay, what does that even mean?

The turnkey companies are advertising properties with high cap returns in zip codes where a lot of PM companies dont do work at all.

(Again, I know some of you are thinking BRRR, and I'll return to that below).