Converting Primary Residence to Rental

[Joe Schriever]

We recently listed our primary residence for sale. We have no other real estate holdings YET. We recently started executing a plan to start our REI business, and the first step was to get rid of our primary residence - it's costing us too much money that could be spent on investing (thanks, Rich Dad Poor Dad). We wanted to sell our home, free up some cash, then start buying rentals.

Our home has only been on the market 3 weeks. No offers yet, but someone recently offered to rent it from us for 12 months since they are new to our area. Turning our home into a rental never really crossed our mind - it's at a price range where people don't normally rent and in an area where prices are too high for us to start investing. However, if the numbers work, we are strongly considering it. 

We also intend to purchase another home after this one to live in - a new primary residence. 

A few questions 

1. Are there any 'gotchas' when converting your primary residence into a rental?
2. Do you evaluate rentals at high price points ($3k per month rent for single family house) the same as lower price points? 
3. We built our current home and the majority of items are still under builder warranty - do I still need to put aside 5-10% for CapEx and repairs?
4. How do mortgage lenders look at this situation (keeping current home as rental and buying a new primary residence)? 

Thanks BP!!