Re: Management fees, you get what you pay for. Personally, I wouldn't want the cheapest management company, just like I wouldn't want the most expensive management company.

You might think the property manager works for you, but they don't in reality. They want to get a tenant as quick as possible and keep them in the property to make sure they collect their percentage every month. Anything that takes their time costs them money, so they look to minimize any interaction with you. It's not really a question of, "is this the best tenant for this property?" - if the tenant sucks and trashes the place, it's going to be on you to repair everything and pursue them in court. Given that you won't be local, you'll have to rely on whoever they line up to do the work and won't have a ton of leverage regarding pricing and timelines.

If you're really not interested in being a landlord, then personally I don't think keeping the property as a rental is worth the headache. I say this as someone who rented out a house with a management company for a few years in a down market while waiting for things to recover. I'd not do it again unless I was ready to invest the time to handle everything myself.