They WILL treat our place as good or bad as they treat their current place.

Effective Jan 1st though of 2012 leasehold are treated differently and will be reviewing the new treatment when tax season is done.

I want to rent them out and I plan to treat them like any of my other rentals.

We usually treat it as what goes around, comes around, and try to help where we can.

So treat her with kid gloves and they get upset if they think they need the kids permission, so tread carefully finding out.At her age, an annuity income might be a better bet for her than a lump sum after taxes (state if any).

The children were treated as employees during the course of building the "empire" with no input or incite as to how or why the family business decisions were made.

You need to treat the guy as a guest but you can add him after you qualify him, if he doesn't qualify you may have eviction/collection problems if you hold him responsible under the lease, what if the other two take off?

I would, however, like tenants that would treat the property as their own, and hopefully stay long term (wouldn't every landlord?).

The second home route allows tax benefits for interest deductions without treating the property as an investment.You can charge rents, doing so may cause different tax treatments depending on charging market rates or nominal rents, but not the mortgage.

Remember, though, that every property has problems - so don't get overwhelmed or scared- just treat it as an expense and factor it into the cost.