https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:59:59 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520499 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:19:33 +0000 sandy 520499@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yup...we rent out the condo I had before we got married. We've rented to a family friend for the past 2.5 years and now he bought a house so we found a new tenant and are hoping she will stay a long time too. The housing market sucks but there are a ton of renters out there...like other said, get a credit/background check, call prior landlords, verify steady employment, get a good security deposit, first/last month rent, etc... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520455 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:15:22 +0000 yoursilverlining 520455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>You also will need to carry insurance on two places, which is another additional expense. </p> <p>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. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520410 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:43:42 +0000 shopaholic 520410@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have our condo that we previously lived in. DH bought it in his bachelor days and it is upside down so we aren't selling it. We've been renting it out ourselves the last 2 years (for less than the mortgage and HOA we pay), but this year is kind of worrying me. Tenant is moving out next week and I still haven't been able to find a new tenant. The gap in between will have DH covering BOTH mortgages, HOAs, and we have to give back this tenant's deposit. All within a month and half of our due date! SO... to say I'm stressing about it is putting it mildly. </p> <p>With that said though, it's been relatively easy to maintain and rent out ourselves without paying a management company. It's still in the same city and our last 2 tenants were both very good and took good care of the place - just wish people would stay longer than a year! I think in a couple of years we should be able to break even, if not start making a little bit of profit on the property, so we intend to keep it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520408 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:39:33 +0000 Anagram 520408@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520358 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:14:17 +0000 littlek 520358@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have 1 rental property, a townhouse which is inside the beltway. It rents for a profit. The rental market in DC is hot. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520340 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:06:18 +0000 Smurfette 520340@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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. </p> <p>Not looking forward to being landlords but we really want a house for our family. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520325 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:50:40 +0000 Mrs. Yoyo 520325@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, we rent ours out. I would rather we sell it, because being long-distance landlords sucks. Our tenants could set the place on fire, for all we know. We haven't had any major issues so far, but I'm kind of always waiting for the other shoe to drop and something big and $$$ to go wrong!</p> <p>We did lock our tenants into a 2-year lease, so that helps alleviate some stress, and the rent covers the mortgage and a tiny bit extra. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520324 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:50:30 +0000 Dapple Grey 520324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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 &amp; story. </p> <p>Okay so anyway, </p> <p>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 &amp; the full cost.</p> <p>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.<br /> 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!</p> <p>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! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520320 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:49:11 +0000 BabyBoecksMom 520320@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH still has a rental property that he owns with his ex... That aside, I would never rent out just because f the history of renters DH had in the past 3 years. They will never take care of the house the way you will. As long as you keep that in mind, it's easier to be a landlord. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520305 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:38:50 +0000 chopsuey 520305@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520285 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:28:04 +0000 Mrs. Pen 520285@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think the biggest concern is that if you have a tenant who doesn't pay on time or skips months in payments, do you have that money in savings (say 6 months of mortgage payments) that wouldn't hurt you TOO much?? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520265 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:13:35 +0000 polkadots 520265@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@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. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520263 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:12:59 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 520263@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were landlords for a while. We wanted to get out of it because we had some tenants who weren't kind to our house :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520260 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:11:01 +0000 Mrs. Champagne 520260@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520249 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:06:46 +0000 heffalump 520249@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We rent out our townhouse that we lived in before we moved into our home. Dh bought the townhouse before we met, and when I got pregnant we agreed that we needed an upgrade NOW but owed too much to sell. </p> <p>We don't use any company's to handle things, dh finds people online to rent out and does background checks. The main stress is when something breaks down...... like the ac in the summer on a weekend because we live in Florida so we really have to get it fixed asap and that is expensive. So maintenance sucks..... but that's life. Knock on wood, nothing has broken down lately :)</p> <p>We charge enough to cover our mortgage and hoa fees so it comes out even. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520246 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:05:54 +0000 rachiecakes 520246@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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.<br /> We've been renting a townhouse since it sold, still looking for our next home purchase. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-anyone-own-a-home-they-rent-out#post-520242 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:59:35 +0000 Rainbow Sprinkles 520242@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH and I want out of our house. We are outgrowing it, don't like the neighborhood, etc. However, it was purchased in 2006 and is now worth much less than we owe on it.<br /> To make a long story short, our only option (if we want out) is to rent it out and move elsewhere. I realize we would have to rent for a while we saved up to buy a second home.</p> <p>Does anyone rent out their home? How does it work out? Is it stressful or a total hassle? Any logistics/tips you would like to share?</p> <p>ETA: The rent we would charge would be less than our mortgage. However, our mortgage is so ridiculously expensive that we would be able to rent our new house for much less and the total cost out of our pocket would actually be less than it is now. </p>