iving in Nebraska...buying investment property for my retirement

As a landlord for over 25 years, my advise is "long distant landlords" don't work. If you have a GOOD property management company, then you might be able to get through it till retirement, But personal experience is that for every good property management company, there are 30 bad ones... If you can afford to purchase it now and use it as a vacation home, great... If you've never been a landlord, your in for a good time... WilliamAcres.com

Managing Rental property long distance is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, which is why IF you want to pursue this, you would need to start interviewing RE management companies to find a really good one. Get at least 4 different references from each. Keep in mind, they are not going to give you the names of clients they don't think will give a good reference so one of the questions you would want to ask each reference is: "Do you know of any other clients they manage for?" Check for complaints with the Department of Real Estate and BBB. A good PM can make long distance land lording feasible. Off the top, you will pay a "finders' fee" (typically 10% of the annual rent), for finding the tenant, then a monthly fee than generally runs 10% of the rent. In addition, you will be billed for any costs incurred by the management company for upkeep, etc. I personally would never consider a condo or townhome as a rental primarily because the HOA dues are usually fairly steep, and this is an expense you will incur every month rented or not. If you have someone that you know that is in or looking to live in the area you are thinking of buying, they might be an option to rent from you, or assist you in looking after the place.