Background check/market rent/tax implications

[Rob Grove]

Ill try to make a long story short. I inherited my dad's place I sold him two years ago. Owes 88k still. Listed it for 94900 and got an accepted offer. I have a will but the title company says it needs to go through probate and will cost me 1-2k but there's no money in this place and even as a realtor it's eating all the commission.

I called an attorney and numerous title companies and they all agreed it has to go through probate. 

now I'm faced with 3 options. Go through probate with this buyer and lose money and he may even walk cause it will take another 6-8 weeks.

turn it into a rental. Market rents look like itll be 6-700 but it's really a guess. When I do research on other rentals, they all rent out these houses by the room for 400 causes it's college town. There are some 3 beds going for 1100-1300 but there's really know 1, kind of 2 beds for rent (you have to pass through the basement bed to get to the laundry but it has a closet and egress so idk what the official ruling is) mortgage is 612 with everything in escrow so it includes tax and insurance. The long term ROI is there but it's an hour away which isn't a big deal.

not something I initially wanted to do until I was faced with the probate issue and thought more long term. I wanted my first rental to have cash flow. 

Last thing, my friend says if I let it default, when the bank sells it at whatever price lower than what my dad owes, I'll have to pay taxes on that as a gain even though it's forclosed on. Any idea If this is accurate?

Any thoughts on what I should do? If renting, any other way to accurately assess market rents when there's nothing similar now? Would I start high and decrease or just go what I think and see what hapoens? Who do you use for background checks and electronic rent payment.