Forced into the landlord world without a clue

[Jeremy Chandanais]

My family and I had to relocate across the country to keep my employment. With little time, we packed a Uhaul, threw the rest of our belongings into the pole barn and left MI. It seemed like fate, in that time our neighbors kids lease was up and they wanted to rent our home. Two months later we get a late night text stating they had moved out 2 weeks prior. Ugh! Our daughter was flying back for a visit so we had her check on house. 

Long story shortener: We had a verbal agreement (won’t do that again), they had removed property, we had locks changed, when daughter came to house to make notes one of the tenants was there removing more property after breaking in. Police were called, we have filed a 7day eviction per police request (this baffles me since they already moved and notified us). We have learned a lot the hard way from this. 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we should be doing now? I am financially unable to meet our rent and continue paying that mortgage. The house is now embarrassing to us, in it’s current state, for even offering it up to new renters.