You should seriously consider hiring a professional to manage your property.

I have made it from my long term process to short/mid terms and I have found myself in a predicament as I am investing from out of state (Atlanta GA) and have purchased a str that I will be staying in 1 week a month (Liberty MO north of Kansas City MO).Predicament All property management companies I have done my research on have horrible reviews, as most of them do, and with STR it’s not exactly passive but more hands on in my experience with investing in ATL.Does anybody out there have a recommendation for PM companies I can work with that are not from the horror story days that I have heard all the way back from when Josh Dorkin was hosting?

We are a small vacation rental company that manages short-term rentals for homeowners in Los Angeles.

I've received 2 full months of rent (minus property management fee.) 

You think you can save 10% by not hiring a property manager, then you lose far more because you don't know how to handle bad renters.

In the end my friend needs to manage the manager. 

I am a Real Estate Broker/Property Manager in Florida and I often target buyers and investors out-of-state. 

My company works directly with 2000 of these contacts and they are considered our "VIP Buyers" and 62,000 of these contacts are vetted active buyers our dispo managers have added to their list.

But, a funny thing happened on our way to the Forum: we were able to learn first hand how to manage properties, deal with renters (including the House from Hell and the Renters from Hell on our 3rd property), what to look for in deals, etc. 

House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience.