More and more homeowners are finding themselves in a position of owning a home they can not sell, and moving to another state to take employment. Some questions are: Should they personally manage the rental of their home or hire a home property management professional? How to deal with unexpected vacancies or major repairs when needed? How to deal with repairs from long distance if they personally manage the property?Home owners who do long-distance property management run the risk of letting their homes fall into disrepair if they happen to rent to bad tenants. They really need to have a friend or family member keep an eye on their property to ensure that the tenants are taking care of the home.Just as there are good and bad tenants, there are good and bad property managers. A reputable home property management professional will charge approximately 10% of the rental amount as their fee. It is important to understand that reputable managers will interact with your tenants to oversee the condition of your property. On the other side, check internet forums and you will find many instances of home owners who were let down by property mangers who never checked on their properties. They collected the 10% fee and let their clients’ homes suffer major damage by bad tenants.No matter if the property is management personally or by a home property management professional, there will be vacancies and major repairs from time to time. These expenses need to be covered by the home owner. So they should plan to have at least six months rent in reserve to cover these contingencies.If the home owner decides to manage the property, the question is how to repair their home when they live in another state. This can simply be accomplished through a home warranty company. A typical arrangement is for the lease to require the tenant to pay the deductible to get the warranty company to respond, and then the deductible amount would be deducted from their next rental payment.