This post is probably going to be something different from the normal posts to come.
Anchorage, Alaska has around 300,000 people, living within a bowl surrounded by the Chugach mountains and Cook Inlet. These natural features make it beautiful, but limit the living space. I own a rental property in Anchorage. It's the house I lived in before moving to Fairbanks.
My house is small. By today's standards, very small. However, it is a single-family house, not an apartment, not a duplex, not a townhouse-style attached home, but a real, honest-to-goodness house, with a nice fenced backyard. Thus, it commands a pretty nice rent for a two bedroom. I allow pets on approval, so advertising on Craigslist has netted me around 12 responses during the first 24 hours.
All this is well and good, except that I don't live in Anchorage, and I don't care to pay 10% of my rental income (it would negate any "income" from renting) to a property management company. So far, all of my tenants have been good, and have shown the house to prospective new tenants when they move out. This time, however, I'm starting to feel the pressure of living 7 hours away, and trying to manage applications. I feel bad having the tenant schedule and perform viewings. When the last couple moved out, I made a long-weekend trip down to clean, touch-up paint, etc. I even managed to mow the lawn one last time in October, and snow was beginning as I finished up. This time, it's March. I don't want to drive down there in March.
I'd be interested to hear in the comments about other people's feelings on this. Is landlording from 400 miles away reasonable? At the moment I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it.
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