How important is management? For out of state investors, it’s at least as important as simply getting a good deal on your property in the first place. Especially for inexpensive homes, because, while the margin maybe great – 15% ROI is great – the actual income per house is in the hundreds of dollars.  That means that the effect of vacancies is much greater, and, worse, that it’s easier to eat away at your monthly profits with seemingly small expenses – a rent collection visit, various repairs, call charges, equipment charges, even drive-by check-ups for trash. Let’s face it: managers of these properties might only be making $75 a month handling your property. And what we’ve seen in general is that even good management will tend to charge you more of these various when they have to venture into bad neighborhoods and spend too much time with the property as compared to other, easier, more profitable properties. Also, vacancy rate will kill you. Those properties which make you 15% don’t look so good at  50% vacancy.