Kristy_Sea;381017 wroteMy family has had a large number of rentals for literally generations.
A few things to consider:
1. You would need a property manager at that distance and THAT is literally pissing away money.
2. Repairs are constant. I remember a tenant of my Grandmother's who actually called to have light bulbs changed. If you aren't prepared/too far away to do this yourself (or have a big enough rental to pawn this off on a super) you are gonna get ROBBED. $1000 bucks to repaint between tenants, $300 to fix the inevitable hole in the drywall, $300 to hire a cleaning service...the list goes on...exterior maintenance, rough usage creating constant replacement etc.
3. At best, you should expect an 80% occupancy rate.
4. The ongoing degradation of the property by non-owners eats into the inflation of property price somewhat, and affects your long term ROI.
That being said, there is money in rentals..just buy in driving range (my parents write off their gas, etc) and be the type of person who wants to work HARD every, single weekend.
Kristy is bang on here. I hate to say it, but renters destroy properties. I rented for decades (bad idea I know) and I always left the place better then when I arrived. Most don't. I've repainted rentals 3 times in two years around here. Full repaints, all cielings, doors, trim, walls, etc. Property managers don't care, they get their commission every new tenant.
One place I just repainted from 6 months after having painted had 192 screw, nail, otherwise holes in the walls. We started counting when it got silly. Person who left told us "they said we could put some pictures up"! I also sanded what appeared to be an entire bowl of petrified beef stew off of a wall.
If I was a landlord I'd end up in the pen.