At what number of houses does management become more difficult?

[Gary Dezoysa]

At the local real estate meeting, one of the experienced investors, who has since reduced his portfolio, commented that he's comfortable at 50 houses these days. Apparently he downsized from 100 a few years prior.

I know this will change by area and tenant quality, and someone with a real bad tenant early on might have problems with a single house. But hopefully you guys could give me some insight on when the sheer amount of houses starts to require better discipline, systems, etc than what you'd been doing in the past.