My advice is don't do it.. Duckster has stated some very valid points. Direct contact with the tenant creates a familiarity and leads to problems.
If your determined to do it, despite the above. Please make any contact between yourself and the tenant in written format ie. text, email, letter, fax, unless for emergency maintenance. Please make sure you have a PO Box for correspondence – do not let the tenant know your home address.
You can't afford to take people at face value. if you find you need to find another tenant do your reference checking thoroughly.
And remember agent fee's are tax deductible. We self managed and it ended very badly just recently. We just signed up with an agent who we researched. Even after his fee's we are still $80 a month better off.
