How to analyze your own house as a rental property?

[Roger Schiller]

My family is moving out of state and we're trying to decide whether to sell our current home or keep it as an investment property. How would I go about doing that analysis via one of the Bigger Pockets calculators? 

[Jaysen Medhurst]

From the outset, @Roger Schiller, understand that many, many residential properties do not make good rentals. If your home is worth more than $130k or so, it most likely is not a great candidate. That's the point at which home values and rents tend to diverge and no longer hit the 1% rule. 

I would run two calculations: Cash Flow Analysis and Return on Equity (ROE).

Cash flow is pretty straight forward. It's simply:
Gross Scheduled Rent (GSR)
  - Vacancy (5%)
- Maintenance and CapEx (15% combined)
  - Management (10%)
  - Property Taxes
  - Insurance
=Monthly Cash Flow; I like to see $150-200/unit/month. 

To calculate ROE: [Yearly Cash Flow / Total Equity = ROE] where Equity is [Fair Market Value - Mortgage Balance]. Ideally, you probably want this to be 10% or higher. If it's down around 8% you need to give it some thought. Every month that the property goes up in value and mortgage get paid down, your ROE decreases