I have been managing one rental at a distance for 8 years and another rental for 4 years. I have never used property management. You definitely need a handyman and list of service people. When something breaks, I call someone to get it fixed. Broken appliances are very easy to deal with because Home Depot/Lowes will install and haul away your old one.
I prefer to pick the tenants myself, so I do have to fly to the location to show the property. However, both of my properties are located near family, so I plan that around vacations to visit my family that would happen, even if I didn't have a rental. As a result, there is no real additional cost, except my time.
I typically spend about 4 hours/day, across 3 days to show the property. I multi-task and make small repairs in between showings. As a result, to show a property and rent it out, it's is about 15 hours of my time total. Most management companies charge one month rent, which would be $2325 or $1850.
I'm at the point in my life in which 15 hours of my time is worth saving $1850. If everything goes well, in 5-10 years it will no longer be worth my time and it will be 100% management.