Hellobee Boards

Before we sold our house in NY we rented it. We rented it to a real estate agent and she was great! When she moved out we decided to sell it.
We've been renting a townhouse since it sold, still looking for our next home purchase.

My only concern would be that because your motgage is so high, if you have a few months where you don't have tenants, will you be able to afford your high mortgage, and the rent on the new place? Say if you sign people on for a year, but then they leave and it takes a few months to find new tenants. Just a thought!

@Rainbow Sprinkles: we are currently going through the same thing! We are considering rent to own or just renting our place now. Our home is worth less than what we owe, so we're trying to get creative! If we rent it we will also have to charge exactly what we owe or even less than what we owe and the rest would be out of our pocket.

We rent our place out. We found a property manager and he takes care of everything! Every month we get an auto deposit from him into our bank acct

We do. We bought a house in college and have been renting it out for income....it has its pros and cons. We bought in cash and it's in a gated community, so it sucks because we pay HOA fees and yearly property taxes out of pocket ..but thats a different headache & story.

Okay so anyway,

What I don't like is being responsible for the tenants and everything inside in terms of wear and tear--its like being financial babysitter to a property at times so it cuts into what you actually take home each month. Think about all the appliances and things that can break...you are responsible 9 times out of 10 for timely repair & the full cost.

I know the biggest deal is finding good tenants. So get in with an agent you trust who has clients with great track records. Make sure your to require background checks, pay stubs, whatever you need in terms of interviewing to make the best decision possible.
Or even consider section 8 if its an option in your community. Your never have to worry about money because the housing authority is on time and should offer direct deposit as well. Everything is monitored and more often than not there are decent tenants, you probably only here about horror stories!

Yeah, so pardon the novella. It can be a great option, but never put your full trust in it, so always have some backup funds to cover your monthly needs!

We are in the process of this. DH bought this condo about 6 or 7 years ago and now we can't sell it for any where near what we owe. We are closing on a house on Feb 1st. We are looking for a renter. Just trying to break even, except we will still pay insurance and then additional insurance for having renters. So far we have had good interest. We are running a background check on the tenants.

Not looking forward to being landlords but we really want a house for our family.

I rent my old townhouse in Texas. I don't use a rental agency--I rent it through Craigslist, and before this townhouse, I did the same thing with my first condo. Between the two places, I've rented to maybe...6-7 people in the past 4 years. I find the people myself, and I haven't had a bad tenant yet *knock on wood*. I've never had a late payment or any major damage to a house.

The positives are that someone else is paying my mortgage, and I can keep it off the market until either the market gets better or I pay down the principal a little more. I still have to pay the HOA and some of the bills though.

I'm very picky about who I rent to. I don't rent to people with pets of any kind, I only rent to professional, white collar singles with steady paychecks, and I heavily favor females. I'm mean and don't even respond to the waiters/waitresses/students/people with pets/people with kids just because I really want the rent paid on time and the place to be pristine. So far, that's worked for me. When I finally sold my old condo, after owning it for 7 years (me living there for 5 and renting it for 2), I didn't even so much as have to repaint the walls. The hardwood floors were still great, and the paint was great. No damage, whatsoever.

The negatives are what other posters mentioned. Being a long-distance landlord SUCKS in terms or repairs. I've had small issues with the refrigerator, the thermostat box, and the garage door opener just in the past 6 months after moving to NY, and I'm not there to see the problem myself, so I *have* to hire someone to go look at it/repair it, when it might be an easy job that my husband could fix (if he were there).

We rent out our condo. The rent covers our mortgage; but whether it would or wouldn't I would definitely not recommend getting yourself into multiple rent/mortgages unless you have enough cash on the bank to cover both rents/mortgages for at least 6 months.

We don't use a management company and screened our renter ourselves. Background and credit checks are a must IMO, and you need to be a selective landlord (while complying with all laws). The management companies in our area charge about 8-10% of your monthly rental as a fee, depending on what they have to do.

You also will need to carry insurance on two places, which is another additional expense.

Make sure you understand basic landlord/tenant laws in your area, write up a decent lease and hope for the best. We've had good luck so far, but i wouldn't think about doing this unless you cam afford to carry multiple properties by yourselves.