Newbie in Lancaster, CA

[Nick Knight]

Hello, my name is Nick Knight and I am moving out of my house and am looking to rent my single family home out and begin my landlording career. There is a lot to consider and my basic math on the income/expenses seems to show that I wont have an income from the property and all of my gain will be in equity. But I am a bit worried about the possibility of the housing market tanking in the next few years and than taking even more years to recover. I'm not currently interested in making any direct income as of yet and any profits would be saved for future real estate endeavors and cushion for repairs/maintenance. I am interested in managing the property myself but that leads to its own hassle, but oddly the reason I want to go into landlording. The most difficult task I foresee for myself is just finding a tenant, screening, showings, and placing the tenant in the home as I'll be living about 1.5 hours away (2+ hours pending the Los Angeles traffic) and work a full time job. I will be taking on this endeavor completely solo as well.

Knowing all this and based on an estimate of what I would make if I sold now makes it even more difficult as to what path to take. Sell now and save for a better property and lose out on any possible equity gain but avoid a possible housing market tanking or rent in the hopes of making a lil something and some equity at the risk of losing equity but not much else. The home after all would be getting paid for by the rent at least.

I am interested in feedback and I have a lot of questions, several that I cant seem to find an answer for in books or internet. Would be great too, to hear from people in the Antelope Valley area that could give me insight on the market.

Thank you all for reading and for any comments, suggestions and greetings.