You’ve posted a lot of good advice, that apparently you learned the hard way.
I’d question your advice against using a management company that has its own in-house maintenance, however. So many repairs are minor and can be handled by a good fix-it guy, that it may (stress on MAY) be cheaper than calling in a contractor/repair company every time.
Also, as to pricing of the rental, I believe in setting a realistic price based on comps that YOU do, perhaps with their help, and then going ahead with a full force advertising blitz. Craigslist is especially useful, if you use strategic pictures, carefully chosen bullet points to describe it, etc. Then rerun the ad every few days since many craigslist users look only at the last few days’ entries.
Then, if it doesn’t rent in a really short time period, and you or your company has had inquiries and lookers, then your price is simply too high.
The market is trying to tell you something. Listen to the market and adjust quickly. Too high a rent and a long vacancy period are a common mistake, and more costly to you in the long run.
