I am going to move but I'm not sure I really want to sell m house right now. It seems like a bad idea at the moment. M only other option is to rent it out, which seems really scary to me. Has anyone done this before, and if so how well did it work out?

I have one in China.

Yes. No major issues though if you are worried about damage to your house its likely to happen in some form if you don't get the right people. I had a little bit of damage to the wall and a few cooking stains in the kitchen but overall ok.

I'm going to get one within the next year.

Do not rent it out. It will stink and be in a bad state when you kick out the tenants for not paying the rent. Also, you will have to pay for all the things that mysteriously break (i.e. they break but don't own up to). Fuck renting.

Sell the house. Live a hassle-free existence.

If it is to a non-Section 8 person, go for it, or you are able to screen for them, without being obvious that you are doing so, also go for it.

Run a credit check.

Well I would definitely run whatever background and credit checks I can. It's still a scary idea renting it to someone, knowing that it is hard to find a good renter. I was hoping I could find someone I know and trust to rent it. But that is unlikely. If you were to check on the house and they were not taking care of it, can they be evicted for something like that. Or is lack of payment the only reason you can evict?

Racially profile, too.

I may still try to sell it but it seems like there's a lot of costs involved in that and who knows if I'll get a decent amount for the house that would make it worth selling right now. I have only had the house for a few years so I haven't put much of a dent in what I owe.

You could have them sign a rental or residential lease agreement.

Here are some samples:
http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/C ... _lease.pdf
http://www.dca.ga.gov/housing/specialne ... eLEASE.pdf

Additional info: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/ ... 29776.html

First I would check to see if you can refinance if your rate is above 5%. Then if you can, do that. There are companies that you can go through that will rent it for you, which is what my friend is doing with his house. Just make sure the company isn't shady.

Or you can sell it. If you bought it after 2005 and before 2011? it should be worth more than what you paid for it.

You definitely need to racially profile. Don't let blacks, Indians or the Chinese stay in your place. It'll get beyond filthy. Don't let gays stay unless you want the next tenants to get aids. Fat people will ruin the floorboards. Be selective.

I bought it in 2010 and my interest rate is 5.5%. When you refinance don't you have to pay closing costs again or something? I also did not do a down payment when I bought it and the closing costs were added onto the loan. So basically I have paid off the closing costs, and my principle balance is just under what I actually paid for the house. Stupid, I know. I wasn't planning on buying a house when I did, I was kind of pushed into it and was stupid enough to do it. And I bought it where I did not want to live on top of that. I always had intentions on selling it after a few years. But now I kind of want to move quickly. If I put it up for sale what if it takes a yea or more to sell. I don't want to wait that long. Plus I'm thinking, whatever I expenses there are in selling it will likely eat up whatever profit there might be if it sells for more than what I paid. So perhaps in a few years from now it would be a better time to sell it? When I've paid off some more of the balance and hopefully home values will have gone up some. I really don't know anything about this kind of stuff.

Chippy, do you mean a property management type company? I was thinking of maybe doing that, but how affordable is that? When I move I will be 8 hours away, so I can't really go check on the house much myself. I hate to put the burden on my parents or whoever else. I don't know if they charge a flat rate or a percentage of the rent. You ate supposed to charge more for rent than the mortgage payment to have money set aside to cover anything that goes wrong with the house that you ae responsible to fix, or to possibly cover some damages right? I just wonder if I could charge enough to cover whatever it costs to pay someone to rent it out for me, and have anything left over in case anything went wrong with the house. Although the house is a newer house so hopefully things wouldnt be breaking left and right.

This is such pain in the ass situation I've gotten myself into. Just don't want to screw it up by making the wrong decision. It does no good to have gone through the trouble of buying a house if you get absolutely nowhere with it.

I bought the house for 78,000. My neighbor two doors down from me bought his house a year or two ago, which was listed for 102,000 and I believe he ended up paying 94,000 or 96,000. All the houses on my side of the street are basically the same. 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage, same square footage. So I'm hopeful that if I were to sell it I cold get between 90-100 for mine. But I think mine only appraised for 86,000 at the time that I bought it. I suppose it would be worth it to do an appraisal now?

Well if you refinanced, you would only have costs if your new appraisal didn't meet a certain price. You'd have to talk to whichever mortgage company doing it about which threshold you would have to meet. For example, my friend had to have his appraisal be over $130k and it came in at over $160k. So as long as your house is in good condition and you maybe fix it up a little before an appraisal, I would see no problem with you getting a $100+k appraisal, especially is the houses around you are going for that because that is what appraisers compare it to.

As far as the property management costs, I'm not sure if it's a flat rate or a percentage, but I would assume percentage. I'm guessing you pay around $600/month for mortgage? If you refinanced down to 4.25% or so (depending on your credit), your payment could drop to around $500/month. And you could potentially rent it for $800+/month. So you would probably be making $200?/month after management costs.

This is all just guesstimating by me, though.

My payment is $611 including the property taxes and insurance. The actual mortgage payment is $475 a month. Fixing things up on the inside don't increase the value really do they? Mostly outside things like landscaping? Or so I've heard.

I would say both are about equal. Depending on the current outside look of the house, if it's in good shape already, I wouldn't worry about it.

But my friend renovated his entire kitchen with new cabinets/tile/countertops and it looks like a different house. But that also costs a lot of money. Even if it's in the same condition as it was when you bought it, it should appraise higher than before.

Well I put hardwoods in to replace the laminate in the living room and hall. I put ceramic tile in the master bathroom, it was vinyl. Im getting new carpet installed within the next couple weeks. And I've put nicer ceiling fans and light fixtures in, and maybe some other minor things. I put landscaping rocks out in the front along the front of the house and plants some flowers and things. I never did get around to putting a patio in like I wanted to. That was going to be my first project.

In my "professional but not really professional" opinion, I think with all of those upgrades, you would easily get an appraisal over $100k. But you can always check zillow around your area and see what "estimate" they give you.

they don't have one on my house. I checked. Or at least not that I can tell. The one at the end of my street I think is like 102,000.

Oh man, I'm so excited. I talked to a guy at work that used to be a realtor or something. He asked what I was planning on doing with my house. I said I was leaning towards renting it. He has a friend that can tell me what my house is worth without having to pay for an appraisal, and will also know if its worth it for me to refinance it. He said he should smack me for not refinancing it when interest rates were way lower. Then the guy also does property management, so I will likely just go with that option I think. Sounds like it really would simplify things for me. I can't wait until the carpet get installed so I can get this process started and move.

Can't believe you guys can buy houses for 100k. You can't get anything half decent below 400-500k here. Horribly overpriced market.

China is the most over-priced market, in my opinion. Apartments is all you get, and they cost MORE than a house in the UK. In the UK, you can get a house for £100,000. It'd be small and not very pleasant, but it's still a house. In China, all you can get is a one bedroom apartment for that. Hence why I will never buy a property here.

I think I live in one of the cheapest places to live in the US. But I'm moving to Chicago where everything is probably 3 times the price. Lame.