One of the great advantages of buying well located investment property is that in most areas it is fairly easy to find a competent professional management company to run your investment property. The usual fee for that is between 5-7% of the monthly gross of the property. For that fee you will literally be able to have the company handle all aspects of running your property and just send you a check and report every month. It doesn’t get much easier than that and the great news is you still retain 100% ownership of your property and you will be making all the major decisions concerning the property you just won’t have to deal with any of the day to day operation details. No calls about stopped drains and when there is a vacancy the company will take care of everything. I want to add that this transfer of the work does not relieve you of the responsibility of ownership and control of your investment. You need to do your homework up front and make sure you hire a good company just like you would check out any new employee at your day job. In addition, you will need to manage your manager. Most who can afford to buy investment property are responsible for managing many people in their day job so this is no different you will still need to stay on top of the manager and have regular meetings etc. The obvious advantage is that you are relieved of that day to day responsibility that will interfere with family time you get after work. I also suggest that as well as educating yourself on investing in general you find out more about property management. There are plenty of good books on the subject that you can buy. In addition, most larger cities have Apartment Owners Associations you can join. These organizations have tons of information and many offer management courses for members which can give you a lot of practical information. Marty Stone
