Thanks so much to you both for responding. I won't write too much now, as I'm about to go to bed. I'm in New Zealand, and my properties are in Memphis, TN USA, so I don't have the option of managing them myself.
I changed agents earlier this year, and some of the expenses I'm incurring now are due to the mishandling (poor tenant selection and total absence of inspections) by the former managers. I do trust the new ones. I had already dealt with them, as I purchased some of my properties from them. But there are issues. They conduct quarterly inspections, but in some cases don't follow up with the necessary maintenance work for months. I have raised this with them, and they have just taken on an in-house maintenance man, and they said this will improve things. The other issue, which I have also raised with them, is that their inspections do not give me an idea of foreseeable expenses. I just had a quote for a rehab between tenants, and there are jobs there that I had no idea were coming up from the inspection reports. They only seem to mention urgent problems like water leaks.
Knowing in advance might not make me feel better, but at least I would know whether or not I can safely retire.
I own 14 properties. I had 4 tenants leave this year, and 3 of the rehabs were around 6-7k. I don't think that is sustainable. In two cases, the tenants had only been there a few months and hadn't paid much rent.
I'm 45. I've never had a very high income, but I've always saved and I'm used to living on a budget. I'm self-employed, and after 'retiring', I plan to continue earning about 8k USD, for reasons related to pension contributions, but I don't want that to be a financial necessity long term. My partner will continue working and sharing expenses. I don't drive. We also share a rental property in New Zealand, which brings in net income for me of about 3k USD. I think I need about 23k USD per year in total, so it's really not much I need from the US properties, but I've got scared by the big rehab bills.
Advantages I have in NZ are that there has already been an exchange rate movement in my favor and there should be some more to come. And bank interest rates here are good, so if I make some gains on the properties and sell them in a couple of years, I should be able to put most of it into term deposits and easily live on it.
Maybe I did write quite a lot in the end. Thanks for bearing with me.