I tend to avoid properties that have a need for a management company, but I am probably wrong to tar them all with the same brush. I rented an apartment for a few months a few years ago in a brilliant development in the city centre that had a fantastic MC. They had their own full-time manager/caretaker and the place was kept like a hotel. The owners paid a hefty yearly fee though.
I also owned another apartment in a development that was a total joke. Both of the original developers were still the directors of the MC (although both were deemed bankrupt). Half of the fees collected went to a well-known landscaping company just to cut the grass, as it happened the landscaping company was also owned by one of the developers. The rest of the fees collected barely covered the cost of the insurance and we had periods when the public lighting was cut off and the bins were not collected.
If I was buying somewhere that had a MC again I would be doing a lot of homework. Find out who the directors of the company are and what else they are directors of. If they are directors of construction companies and directors of several other MC's, then tread carefully. Ideally, the directors should be owners/occupiers of the development that the MC operates. Check their books to see if the company looks solvent and if there is a decent sinking fund. Check that they hold AGM's. Find someone that lives in the development and ask if there are any issues with landscaping, public lights, roads, sewage, water, etc.
Above all, find out what the yearly management fees are and what they cover. a few hundred is ok, but 2000+ a year will do a lot of maintenance on your own freehold property on a pubic street!