Anyone rent out your house?

we own a 3 bedroom townhouse in Bay Shore

We have a 2 year old and want to start trying for another baby soon

We are tight with all his toys, etc so we want to buy a house. We have money for a down payment, etc

However, if we sell, we will barely break even on this house. I put over $65,000 down on this house 5 years ago (it was mone from a settlement. I dont want to walk away from that money.

DH & I were thinking of renting out the house. We talked to our Real Estate agent and figured out how much we can ask, etc. We would rather hold onto the house for a few more years and hopefully get our money back or make a profit, etc

Anyone do this? Im just skeptical about this...

I know that if something goes wrong, we would have to come and fix it etc

How do we deal with the gas, electrricity, etc. Do we have them changed to whomever rents the house? We were thinking that cable, internet, phone, gas and electric would be the renters responsiblity

An advice, etc would be appeciated

TIA!!

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

I won't be too much help, but we rent a house so I can help with some LOL.
We pay for everything... LIPA, Oil, Cable, etc. The only thing we do not pay is the water bill... our landlord said it was just easier to keep it in her name rather then changing every few years. When there is an issue with the house, we do let her know... she used to be real good at getting on it, but lately, with her Mother being sick in the nursing home and all that she hasn't been too great on remembering everything...and we just feel bad asking again so we usually just end up doing it ourselves...CHEAP! So it may not be the "right" fix all the time, but it's something. Like we were waiting almost 6 months for a new window in the basement...so finall.y DH just cut a piece of wood and put it there b/c wild animals were making our basement their home. If rent is a decent price for the amount of space, then you can most certainly have the tenatns pay for everything else. We pay less then what a 2 bedroom apt would be in a complex... so we don't mind paying the extra things... but I did hear it took her a long time to find us. Best of luck!!

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

we rent our condo in boston for similar reason- we would have taken a big loss on it

one note - make sure you have as low an interest rate prior to moving out - otherwise you need to have 35% down to refi a rental property - we ran into this with our property when we want to refi this year

for us we cover most of costs so it works out well - we got a tenant through a broker and the renter paid all the fees - he has been renting our condo for over a year and pays on time most of the time - in ma can't charge interest till rent is 30 days late - but he is never that late

our condo was only a one bedroom and we wanted to move to LI so this was the best oppurtunity for us

eta - our tenant pays for cable and electric - thoase are the only two utilites at our condo - rest part of condo fee and that is included in rent
good luck

Message edited 11/16/2010 10:31:37 PM.

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

If you get the right tenant it can work out great for you.
The utilities go in the renters name - we keep the oil in our name because we want to make sure it is getting serviced annually, etc. They pay for all of the oil we just pay for the mtce contract.

Good Luck

FM if you have any questions.

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

I think renting the house out is a great idea! My parents have a tenant in their house and that extra income really helps alot, its like found money. Real estate is a great investment.

Only downside is you really have to make sure you get good tenants. I have heard some nightmare stories about bad tenants. Thats prob the biggest gamble you will have to take on through renting.

Good luck though!

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

completely random, but if you do decide to rent it out, would you be able to let me know what you would like for it? DH and I are looking to rent a house until we are able to buy, and would be looking to stay for at least 3-5 years

Re: Anyone rent out your house?

we are doing the same thing - we listed our house on mls as a rental (Massapequa) and have had several people check it out already. I am keeping my fingers crossed we don't experience any nightmares with tenants but figured we'd try it, and if it was a total pain we could sell the house in a few yrs when the market looks better.

I'd def. suggest having a realtor help you and then running credit checks and thorough background checks on your possible tenants (references, employment verification, etc)