Owning a Property Out of State

[Robert Laird]

Hello BP!

I do not know wether or not this question has already been addressed a lot on the forum or is a obvious question, but I couldn't find the answer so I thought I would open it up for discussion. 

This question is mainly for turn-key investors and out of state buy and hold people. If you regularly buy properties out of state properties how do you manage them? As in how do you find tenants and maintain the property? I assume a lot of people hire property managers to deal with the local stuff and then deal with logistical stuff via internet. I was just curious what different strategies people employed to deal with their properties remotely. I am really curious what someone like @Ali Boone does seeing as she invests mainly in turn-keys. How do you keep all those properties straight! Thanks for all the advice!

Rob

[Matt R.]

Good question Rob. I think self managing is much easier today than it used to be. There are so many online tools that can help like craigslist and mysmartmove for screening etc. You would still need someone on location, handyman, lawyer etc but it is more doable these days with the interweb. The choice depends on how much you want to be involved. I know there are some great PMs and turnkey companies provide PM services as part of the deal. I think some of this PM stuff might depend on how many you buy.

If I remember correctly Ali has 4 properties out of state and she only uses PMs for example. Most all repeat turnkey buyers use PMs and thus the name "Turnkey" should translate to much less work involved for the owner.

I have had 2 out of state self managed and I like the control. If I get upto 4+ out of state I might just use a PM too. For just one or two I found self managing easy to perform but that mysmartmove was really what made that possible. I do already have a small staff with my regular business so it is not actually me taking calls personally but I do oversee the managing part.

There is a nice gentleman on BP who runs the largest TK company in the country. Perhaps look him up too Chris Clothier, he has tremendous experience with turnkeys and posts on bp regularly. He manages 2700 turnkeys for investors and has seen it all in this turnkey space. 

 Good luck with your search!