OK, I'll bite.The property manager's role is to protect your investment, your income stream, and your time.Let's run a scenario.

I am also rebuilding my credit so I can one day land a solid line of credit to invest so traditional sources are going to be tough right now and I don't know a lot of folk with private money that I can ask to invest.I am primarily looking at duplexes, 2 income streams, one mortgage which usually means a faster pay off.

It's as easy picking a list, picking a pre-written card or letter (Or customize it) and choosing the day or days you want it to go into the mail stream. 

If you can learn to pick the right tenants and the home is located in a desirable area, you may just be able to get a nice stream of income.

We started with ads on craigslist, paying people 11 an hour and got the worst quality work you could imagine- people didn't nail siding down, spilled paint on shingles, some even stole money...it just didn't seem worth going the cheap route.

Once you receive your first check you can quit your part time job and now you have just created an additional income stream.

I really like promissory notes for people in our age group- reliable payment stream with  good ROI.  

You need to invest time and energy in broker relationships, and when you do buy and "hand" off o the management company, you still have to manage the manager.you need to ask yourself, do you want to create a business and leave your current work situation or do you want to create some type of passive stream of revenue.

I started my realestate company about 8 months ago and have since had a some what steady stream of off market deals.

It's hard to build a good cash flow stream with less, it simply takes too many units.The greater Milwaukee area offers a wide range of choices: the general rule of thumb is that higher cash flow (or cash on cash returns) come with more headaches - essentially the investor is earning the additional cash flow by dealing with more issues.