Second, financing and insuring is a complete pain.  

After doing this for 10 years, I've learned if they are a pain before they even move into the house, they will be a pain the whole time. 

Now he has disappeared and I was told he no longer has a license and the permit renewal never happened.

I STILL hear from my coworkers I'm gonna loose everything, my ideas are no good, it's going to be a pain in my backside when I retire.

We had to provide all of the documents above and involve several different people.Newbies, if you don't have a good architect, land use attorney, and a good surveyor, this process will be a lot more painful.

Initially, I liked the idea of keeping this house forever, and it'd be paid off a year before my first kid hits college--easing the pain of the college's financial burden.I've read around that having a lot of equity just sitting in a rental isn't doing much for you.

I feel your pain 100%.

However there are scammers and thieves out there, so learn how to recognize the red flags early, before they book your property.What I've learned is to have sparse furnishings, periodically take comprehensive photos of the inside and outside, have a place for everything and put everything back in its place between guests, keep an inventory (especially of kitchen items), expect that some items will get damaged or will disappear and plan for that when you establish your pricing, establish a security deposit. 

Hubzu can be a pain to deal with as all agents are overseas.

I immediately sought the services of a previous property manager to list the home (I have used him in the past) which he did but it was painfully, terribly frustrating communication with him and it was slow to get things started.