We wanted to minimize the mistakes so we thought this would be a good strategy. 

Records indicates an average annual income of $169,000.

My “math” only took into account PITI, condo fees, and management fees at $850, $232, and $123 respectively.I did not realize that you also needed to account for vacancies, maintenance, and CAPEX on top of that to get a true indication of cash flow.Adding these to the mix, my actual cash flow was -$585/month.Yikes.Upon my move, I figured I could save some money by paying off the second mortgage which had a remaining balance of about $11k.This dropped my actual loss down to ~500/month on a $23k investment.My property, originally worth 115k, for which I paid full price, was now worth ~$90k.Mind you, my stock portfolio had also dropped significantly.For my next military assignment, the Air Force moved me to Edwards AFB, CA in 2009 which is in the Mojave Desert about 1.5 hrs.

Phil, property taxes in Philadelphia of $6K indicate that the property's tax-assessed value is $450K (AVI * 1.34%)... so something is off with your analysis.

The cost will be minimal. 

I have thought about that, but the risk is incredibly minimal.  

And (as I intended to indicate above) you have plenty of time to make some mistakes if you want to ;)If only I had stopped making mistakes after 33!

Let them know you do not pay for partial work so if they don't complete and you have to hire someone else they will get nothing as whoever else you hire will not warrant the work that has already been completed.These are only a few things and undoubtedly you will have a contractor issue eventually but these few things should help you minimize issues...

Supposed to indicate that you do not understand?

I agree with you that when they do not/will not answer or return calls it is indicative of potential trouble down the road if you ever gave them any business.I did give them the benefit of the doubt by calling twice just in case they had their hands dirty at the time my call came through.However, I think it is reasonable to expect that they should return or acknowledge the call  the same day or within say three business days max if they are really swamped.