Long story short, the last family I rented to did a tremendous amount of damage to the house and I ended up putting about $20,000 into it to get it back in move-in condition (May-Sep 2011).3) House has been listed for sale since Sep 2011.

Important to consider proximity, beds/baths, condition when making any comparison.Also, you need to consider selling costs.

Harder way is going through a lawyer, but normal people would not make troubles with agreement they have signed up on.This way you have a paper on it.

Even if your lawyer (or someone on BP) tells you that you are not breaking the law, you still might be accused of abusing the system.They also hint at the tricky ways they will nail you.

That home was in much better condition, but had much less land.The land this time is in 'shale country' and they did get an offer for a drilling lease which they turned down - so that may add some value, but not much, gas prices have plummeted since and I think the gas companies are not running around leasing every inch of land anymore.They plan to upgrade the homeowners to 'vacant homeowners' in case the pipes and wiring are stolen - but it would still be a huge hassle.I know for sure they have no problem that a purchaser might be getting 'a deal'.

As always, consulting with your landlord/tenant lawyer would be a very good idea.I think you have two choices:1) Tell the tenant she created the problem and she needs to deal with it.

Long story short, you don't need exact comps, but you want them to be relatively close in terms of age, condition, size, style, etc.

i don't want to get too political, but unfortunately, business is politics...my biggest complaint owning apartments was how the government would support tenants til death and shun the landlords...have had several code violations properties, where i fix everything, but tenants do the damage again, and we go back to environmental court with the code inspector..even when i have pics and proof, it's still an expensive pain lawyering up when the government provides free attorneys to tenants..i guess i don't have it as bad as others...in some states it takes months to evict, and in others if the tenants don't pay the city water bill, the government can lien your property...all this does is put more pressure on landlords and take responsibilty off of tenants..to me, that is a huge pain!

As far as getting a lawyer involved, I'm note sure if it's worth it in my case.

. - What is the condition of the house?