Peering out the window of the plane, all I could see was desert. What had I gotten myself into? I was about to land in my new home in the middle of China!

I wanted to go and teach English to university students for a year. Just a year and a half earlier, I had purchased my first property. I decided to enlist the services of a property management company to take care of the place while I was gone. Here were three problems I faced:

1. Vacancy - Despite taking out ads in the paper, online advertising, and several other channels, the property management company was not able to find a tenant for months. Not only was this costing me in lost rent, but I was still having to pay the mortgage each month plus advertising and background check fees. I thought about self-managing, but this would simply be impossible from a distance and I didn’t want to put this burden on family members who were in the States.

2. Screening Tenants - I simply didn’t have the tools to do this on my own and once again was reliant on the management company. I wondered who would occupy my property, what their credit scores were, how long they would stay for, and what kind of care they would give to the property in my absence. I also know that if I owned rental property long enough, I would likely have to deal with an eviction.

3. Management Fees - Not only was dealing with the management company a headache, but I paid them a fee for that headache. Placing tenants can be as much as one month’s rent for some rental companies, regardless of how long it actually takes them to find a good tenant. Although I was hoping to make some money while I was out of the country, after one month I found myself with a one month rental loss, a one month mortgage payment, and a one month management company fee! What would the equivalent of three months’ rent be in today’s dollars?