Although we don’t anticipate any issues, we had a proper agreement of sale, mortgage and note, and we are closing with a title company (so there was a title search and we have title insurance) and will be using a loan servicing company to avoid any confusion about payments, balances due and taxes.

There are many national companies, in addition to your loan servicers, that perform these types of actions.

MI City has 40,000 people, no large employers, and is primarily a service/retail based economy.

This is how I got my start in Property Management - cold calling FRBO’s and offering services and building my business from there.

Vendor service and pricing is so different with larger or more properties...plus other people (staff or management companies) handle it. 

We tried to entice him to do owner financing, but after some thought he declined.

Try a skip trace service. 

My wife spent some time in Columbus Ohio and ended up purchasing 3 single family homes in some of the working class neighborhoods, now the work begins. 2 of the homes already have tenants in place, I wanted to ask if anyone had recommendations for a Property manager, handyman, contractor, housecleaning services, etc. for the one that is vacant?

I was using 39$ a day because that is what they charge for no add on services so that would be the worst case.

If you can consistently deliver on time - you will be in high demand.Cost of legal services has not been a frequent complaint, by the way.Best luck!