We bought a new home in Phoenix in 1982. The next year we needed to move 2000 miles away for career purposes. We decided to make the house a long distance rental. It wasn’t until 2002 (20 years) that we were able to sell that rental house for a price more than we paid for it.
Over that 20 year period, I would get a monthly statement from our property management company. Almost every month we received a surprise expense: clogged toilet, broken fence, roof blew off etc. And those expenses were just the ‘normal expenses.’ Sometimes we needed to replace interior doors because the departing tenants kicked holes in them or repair the A/C because an angry tenant destroyed it (he thought his electric bills were too high).
Don’t ever do a long distance rental. It ain’t worth the headaches.
