Buy an hour from my house and self-manage, or buy 600 miles away and hand it to a manager?

I'm at the same fork and the thing that tipped me was realizing I don't know how to evaluate a manager yet. Six hundred miles away, my only information about the property is whatever the manager types into a portal. If they're mediocre I probably won't be able to tell for a year and a half.

@ember that's the actual risk and it's not small, but it's fixable by hiring on referrals and checking work order history, and it doesn't fix itself by driving an hour instead.

My pushback on shape one, @kestrel, is the fee you think you're saving. You underwrote a 6 percent gross yield and you're comparing it to the far market without management priced in. Put 9 percent plus a leasing fee into both and see which one still clears. If the near duplex only works because you're working for free, you've bought yourself a second job with a mortgage attached, and the day you get busy or move, the deal breaks. I own the local stuff and I still underwrite every property as if I'm paying full management, because someday I will be.

Voted nearby and self-manage, for a reason nobody's said. Six months into research I still can't tell a good turn scope from a padded one, or a reasonable make-ready timeline from a slow one. One year of doing it myself is how I get calibrated enough to actually read a manager's statements later. Expensive tuition on a 6 percent yield, sure. Cheaper than three years of being overcharged from 600 miles out without noticing, which I've watched happen to a friend.