AMA – Remote Management

by | Feb 23, 2026 | Uncategorized

AMA - Remote Management-Real Estate Remote Management


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AMA – Remote Management

Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot at what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. Today is another AMA episode, that is Ask Me Anything. I love to answer your questions, and if you have a question you think is going to be of broad interest, send it in. I’ll answer it live on the air. Send your questions to victor@victorjm.com. That’s victor@victorjm.com.

Today’s question comes from Joseph, who writes, I’m asking for your advice and my goal is to seek your perspective on the situation. I purchased a 6‑month‑old single family home in the Poinciana area in central Florida in mid‑2020. I refinanced down to 3% a year later, and I would consider the home to be in a B‑class neighborhood when we purchased. It came with a tenant, and they left after about 9 months with normal wear and tear.

I live in California and use a local property manager. After two renters left, each one doing considerably more damage, I changed to the highest‑rated property manager in the area, hoping for a better vetting process. The recommendation was to raise the rent $50 a couple of months ago, and then that triggered the current tenant to leave. Not only that, they left and left the property with significant damage.

So I’d like to get your perspective. I think the demographic in the neighborhood has declined. I’m wondering if I should cut my losses since I already have a decent rate of return from the purchase. If I was to sell now, I might make a modest profit. I’m concerned about the ongoing high maintenance cost. Even if I get more low‑quality tenants, I’m going to be digging a deeper hole. I’m wondering if you’ve had something similar happen to you, and what was your thought process in your decision?

Well Joseph, this is a great question. Unfortunately, you have experienced what I would describe as the curse of small assets located far away. Early in my career, I made a similar mistake. I purchased an eight‑plex south of Phoenix in 2010. It was fully leased, and I thought all I needed to do was hire a decent property manager.

What I discovered is that irrespective of tenant screening, properties in certain locations tend to attract a certain type of tenant. They figure out pretty quickly that the owner is not local, and that there’s a minimum of oversight and minimum recourse to behaving badly. And so they do.

Now, of course, a good deal badly managed is no deal — that seems obvious. But every business process involves quality assurance as a necessary step. It’s important to hire a high‑quality property manager, but it’s not enough. Imagine if software was shipped without ever being tested. Imagine if a new car got shipped with no quality assurance. Would you even get behind the wheel of that car? Imagine if a rocket went into orbit with no testing. I mean, none of it would work.

Remote ownership is not the problem per se. Poor systems are the problem, and the absence of quality assurance. Now, when you’re not local you lose the benefit of casual observation. That is an informal type of quality assurance. You can’t swing by and see if the landscaping is slipping, or if the parking lot lights are out, or if the tenants are moving in an extra roommate. These are all informal types of quality assurance.

So the game becomes: how do you replace proximity and informal quality assurance with some process?

So let’s start with the most important principle. Your property manager is not a vendor; they’re a key partner. If you treat them as a commodity, they’re going to give you commodity results. Now I’m not saying you are, but oftentimes property managers don’t develop a strong relationship with the owner.

The best practice, number one, is by selecting the right manager, and that starts with alignment — making sure that their goals are, in fact, aligned with yours. A lot of property managers maximize their income on the back of the owner. That, unfortunately, is the vast majority of them. Then there are a few that are owners as well, and they behave like owners, and they recognize that the path to maximizing their revenue is to maximize the income for the owner. They’re much in the minority.

You want to assess that property manager’s process of dealing with the tenants, but also their process of dealing with the owners. You want to insist on a cadence. Remote management fails when communication is inconsistent. You want a fixed rhythm. You want weekly exceptional reporting for urgent issues, a structured monthly asset review that covers occupancy, delinquency, unit turns, all of that kind of stuff. You want that on a regular heartbeat.

And you want to standardize that reporting. You want the same package every month in the same format delivered on the same date. You want to build localized in‑ears that are independent of the manager. That is that quality assurance piece. It might be a trusted handyman, an inspector that you hire quarterly, a broker who’s looking out for you. You want an independent set of eyes. The point is not to spy, but it’s to verify — that is quality assurance.

You want your maintenance plan to be a program, not just a series of surprises. You want a preventative maintenance plan. You want limits. All of these things form part of the systems, and you want everything to be in writing. You want to have a shared folder for leases, warranties, vendor agreements, before‑and‑after photos — you want all of that documented.

This is the difference between delegation and abdication. Remote owners who succeed stay engaged at the level of decisions, not at the task level necessarily, but your job is to set the standards, measure the outcomes, and make capital allocation decisions. Your manager’s job is to execute.

Remote ownership can scale. But if you’re only doing the single property, you might be better off doing something that’s closer to home.

Those are my thoughts. I want to thank you Joseph for an awesome question, and for listeners at home, have an awesome rest of your day. Go make some great things happen. We’ll talk again tomorrow.

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