Buying Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow (And A Better Life)

30Manage Your Rental Manager

I've owned rental properties in eight countries. The property is important. You need to buy right—right location, right size, right number of bedrooms and bathrooms, right furnishings, and so forth. However, at least as important as the rental you purchase is the person you hire to manage it. A good rental manager can squeeze a good or great return from a so-so property, but, if your manager is no good, you will not make money, no matter how ideal your property.

Finding a good rental manager isn't easy. In some markets, it's not possible. If the rental market is thin, no serious management industry develops. Whoever you find, even if they are experienced and professional, you'll need to invest time launching them and then you'll need to pay attention over time. Leave a rental manager on their own without checking in with them regularly (I recommend at least once a month) can lead to depressed returns.

Our first experiences engaging a rental manager were in Paris. We invested in an apartment with friends and were responsible for getting it rented. The agent who'd sold us the apartment told us she knew the best rental manager in the city. We didn't know any rental managers in this city, so we went with the agent's recommendation. We furnished the place, decorated according to the advice of the manager woman, and then turned the apartment over to her.

A month later, Lief noticed an unexpected transfer into our bank account. The money had come from ...