Own a house, want to rent out while in grad school.

[phku]

So I own a house in the city which I did my undergrad.  I am moving literally across the country for grad school.  I'm pretty confident I will be able to rent my house out, but it still scares the hell out of me knowing that I will have to find tenants that are willing to take over the property at the exact time I am supposed to leave.  Does anyone have experience with this?  If you do, what month (or date) did you start advertising your house for rent?  Did you do it independently or go through a property manager?  Craigslist?  etc...

 

Thanks in advance!

[queenleblanc]

I own a townhouse near my grad school this fall (I am returning to it, thank goodness), but after school is over and we want to move again, we plan to contact a property management company and let them take care of finding a tenant and manage the repairs so we don't have to think about it once we move again. Since you will be so far away as the owner, it would be in your interests to have someone local to the house manage any repairs and advertise/walk-through potential tenants. Now, if you KNOW someone personally who wants to rent it, that's great, private rental may be better, but if you don't, the property management company can do all the legwork to do a background check on your tenants, etc. Just something to think about.

I would start advertising around 60 to 45 days before you want to move and post the "availability date" in your advertisement. But that also will depend in your local market, so check with other rental listings to see when they are listed versus date available, that may give you some guidance to follow.

[lewin]

I daresay it's impossible to manage a property if you don't have somebody local (e.g., a property management company). What if the house needs repairs? Or has an emergency? You'll need somebody nearby.

 

Otherwise, get very familiar with the rental laws in your area. Renting is a business and you need to be serious about it.

[phku]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions! Yes, my parents live only about 2 miles away from my house, and my brother even closer. So any tenants will be under watchful eyes and repairs will be taken care of when necessary. I was more wondering when a good time to start advertising was, and it looks to be about 45-60 days beforehand. Any more suggestions would be great too!