Hey all,
We are planning to move out of our current place (co-owned with my parents who live elsewhere) by year end and I have no prior experience renting to tenants. Initially, it's overwhelming trying to think of everything that would need to be done to get the ball rolling. But one thing I'm curious about is if you guys think using your realtor to help with finding a tenant is a good move versus trying to DIY it, especially if you've never done something like this before. Or if you think just going with property management would be a better thing to do. We will be moving to an area that's about half an hour south of where we're at now, so I'm thinking property management probably isn't necessary. My realtor, who is a good friend of ours and has been helping us in a prior home search, also helps fill rental units as well and said he charges $800 for complete service (which I believe includes getting the listing up, background checks, reference checks, credit score checks, the contract, etc)
As far as *why* we're doing this - besides not wanting to live in a bottom unit ever again, it's to guarantee entrance for my son into a public school in that area with a very good dual-immersion language program. He will be turning 5 towards the end of 2020. We can play the lottery but if we don't make it, I think we may regret it an awful lot. So we figure we will just bite the bullet to get him in... but instead of looking to buy a place straight-out in that area and going 100% all-in, we felt it might not be a bad idea just to rent a place down there temporarily to make sure it's a good fit before committing. That said, we want to rent our current place to help offset the rent we will be paying at the new place. The current property that we live in and are considering renting, for all intents and purposes, is paid off in full.
Anyway, just wanted to get some feedback and opinions. Or if anyone has any other related suggestions, ideas, or advice, feel free to chime in.
Thanks!