I've had mixed results, both with myself and other people I've used, and part of the difference is focus. If you're a remote developer for one company, with one set of tasks, I've found it's easier. If you're doing remote contract work for multiple clients, you've just added in some more hurdles.

I'm considering taking on a full-time developer to help out with my work, and while I'm OK working for people remotely, I'd probably prefer this person to be local and we get an office, at least for part time meeting space (if there was a coworking area nearby I'd use it). The difficulty I've had is finding other developers who are communicative with emails, ticket systems, phone calls, whatever. I've worked with a couple dozen devs over the past few years, and can count on one hand those that were strongly professional in their attitude towards communication - documenting things clearly, keeping in regular contact, knowing when to ask questions, preemptively helping out with ambiguous issues, etc.

Certainly "working from home" can be great, but you do need an emphasis on "work" rather than the "from home" to be successful with it. I know people see what I do and say "awesome, I'd love to work from home". The reality is, many people need the structure that going to an office provides (I wouldn't even mind it myself now and then).