Hi folksI'm an investor up in the Washington DC area, where the returns on a holding strategy are small to nonexistent...

One recommendation would be to house hack a duplex or 4-plex on your return to the states.

That said, you can expect this property to have problems like: no functioning HVAC, electrical problems, old water heaters, low rent, old appliances, worn carpet/torn linoleum, leaks, etc.Sometimes the rents are not able to be raised for that block, or you may not be able to justify raising them enough for a good return after repairs.  

@Abel SanchezYes I recommend writing a letter providing them a notice of Non-Renewal of the lease agreement and sending it as certified mail with a return receipt.

Thanks to Jay Hinrichs I discovered the beauty of syndication deals for passive income, diversification, and heavy hitting returns.

Over all though, it pretty much always makes sense to re-deploy equity as your return on equity goes down every year you own a property. 

In addition, at that low of an offer, he likely won't return your phone calls if you want to negotiate further. 

Wondering what the typical returns are?

When they return in September, they already know where they are going to live and they start the semester and the house sits vacant because you didn't put in on the market from Feb-May.

This begs the question of whether it's more profitable to do long term rental leases or short term vacation rentals or even an Airbnb setup for these properties.The main reasoning here of course is the still very depressed prices offering high potential for return.