Investing in real estate can bring enormous financial benefits. But being a landlord and managing tenants can be challenging. I soon found myself fixing toilets, tracking rent, and spending precious time responding to residents, making it a full-time job.

Just like many investors, I turned to local property managers for help but often found myself "managing my manager." They charge a pretty penny as management fees, and besides, the list goes on with maintenance markups, account setups and cancellation fees, periodic inspection fees, and so on. And without any strategy in place to maximize the returns, we weren't getting a real value for our money.