Rent Out My Own House

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Lots of people are asking if they should rent out their own personal residence that they can't sell. Just so you know what to expect:

My next door neighbor was widowed and didn't like the price estimate the Realtor gave her to sell her house. So she rented it and moved away.

Yesterday, I noticed 3 deer inside the fenced backyard. I went over to chase them out and close the gate.

1/2 of the fruit trees were dead. All of the grass and all of the extensive and beautiful flowering plants were dead. Grapevines destroyed, roses dead, broken glass in the windows, a wall knocked out of a metal shed.

There was no sign of life, the extra family living in a travel trailer is gone, and there was a large flatbed trailer in the drive filled with ruined carpet, broken furniture, and garbage. For the first time in 2 years, all the weeds are mowed down neatly. So I am assuming that the tenant moved out and cleanup has started.

This is, unfortunately, the way that many tenants live. This often happens to rentals to landlords who don't screen intensely and who don't check on their property often.

Don't think that this is rare bad luck. This is very common tenant treatment of a property. If you rent your house out, it is going to be treated like a rental, not like a beloved residence.