--Here I am looking at their body language and to see how confident and knowledgeable they are about taking on the job.

(Understanding that managing the place yourself is arguably the best way to do it, how much of a headache is it when you live far from your investment property and your job keeps you close to home such that you can't personally ensure that the property management company is managing the place well?)

Occupancy in A has fallen 20% (Houston and oil industry jobs getting hurt, microcosm of a bigger downturn in the U.S) while B/C occupancy stayed about the same at 92 to 93%.  

@Evan Ventura,People here on BP have also successfully used the cheap IKEA countertops (around $75-99 for a piece). at that price they where treated as expendables (one per tenant), and some even reported getting the install time with demo at 2-4 hours.for the other, you need to "waterproof" the common points of water entry:-caulk between the wall and countertop-use varnish on points contacting sink-use good glue near the oven/range since the usual pressure-activated glue does not fare well with heat

Great job Robin!

I use tenantsbackgroundsearch.com and have found it to do a good job.

I actually joined BP a little less than a year ago so I am not new to this site, but, this is the very first post I am posting, so, I am very glad to introduce myself here.I've recently quitted (finished my last day two days ago) my full time job in the heavy construction industry, which I had worked in for the past 10 years as a construction safety manager.

There are some things they have in common, others differ.

I have two part time jobs and I'm saving money to invest.The thing is, and I'm glad I've finally found myself, that I love learning.

But you must stick to your numbers. hard money is expensive and if the job goes sideways you need as much cushion as you can get to cover the carrying costs.