Converting primary residence to rental

[Nav Anand]

We currently live in a 1250sqft 3bd 2 bath bungalow with basement and double garage.

It’s come time to upgrade and rather than sell which will cost quite a bit I’d like to rent it out.

Here’s my initial breakdown:

$1290 mortgage

$300 taxes

$50 insurance

$150 vacancy and maintenance

So to break even I’d need to charge $1800/month. Best I can tell is I should be able to get that in todays market. But is there anything I could do to raise the units appeal or even increase the rental rate to $1900/month?

[Shane Willis]

Renting out "could" make sense. Here is the question. Are you going to have a Debt to Income issue because unless you have other rentals, the bank will more than likely not count this income form the property for you. Meaning you will need to be able to handle both mortgages without any help from the rent. After you have a year landlord on taxes (ie sched E) then you can start counting some rents. Just a thought to be aware of. 

I agree with @Scott Jensen on looking at the comps and figure out what they are offering