Are you putting any money into the property for maintenance, repairs or utilities? 

Investing out of state can be difficult, however if you can utilize all of your current knowledge and now just partner with a talented, sophisticated, strong track record Turnkey provider, this will be a breeze and in-fact may turn into a new lifestyle for you. 

I have a retirement account from a previous employer. It contains around $23,000. I was considering trying to use this money to help in purchasing my next property. However, this account, while I'm no longer contribut...

Seriously, I learned as much here in one year of reading and interacting as I did in 5 years of doing it myself (with my wife, that is).Again welcome, and check out the REX (Real Estate Exchange) meetings on "Meet up", I believe there's one coming up next week.Good Luck!

I want your honest opinion on short term rentals vs long term rentals I've read the pros and cons to short term rentals were you get a daily rate they tend to generally make more money but the owner is responsible for utilities .

(BTW, the owner is completely broke to the point where he had all utilities in the home turned off at least for the past year bc he cannot afford to pay them.

I have no clue how much this bill would be in your area)Trash $- Heat/Utilities $- HOA $- Cap Ex and Ops $200.00 (This the fund that will replace common hallway lightbulbs and the roof eventuallyInsurance $125.00 (assumption)Mgmt Fee $300.00 (10% of total rents.  

Hi Scott,There isn't a whole lot of information to work with in your post without knowing where the home is located (to see if your rent estimate is good), whether the maintenance cost is reasonable given the age/condition of house, etc.The two main questions I'd have on the info you did provide are whether you're accounting for vacancy, utilities, and property management costs, even if you're initially expecting to self-manage.Regards,Mike

I look forward to interacting with everyone here and can't wait to be the old-head passing on wisdom rather than the noob on the sideline :)-D

You definitely don't want them cutting off the utilities for that long.You could also ask for the rent up front for the time he will be out.