SO I'm moving to a different city than my house is located in and I'm dead set against selling it (just yet). I've rented to people in the past to help with the payments but have never made a formal lease agreement or anything legal. I haven't gotten burned yet. My plan is to have a property management company help manage the screening, collection of rent, etc, use their legal and maintainance co. for small stuff and possibly contract with a lawn care service as well. I've just refinanced again but have left enough equity in the house that even if the market in Bellingham tanks 30% I won't get stiffed. I won't start looking for a new house until 08 but I really think it'll take me longer than that to move on a house in a higher cost market. Of course, I'd prefer to keep the house forever as income but will probably sell in the next 1-2 years to provide down payment on a new house. I'm just wondering if any of your experience or background might shed some light on this new endeavor.

As astrological as I'm not, I'm a Taurus and extremely bullish about my financial decisions. I've been in the house since 2001 and am the sole owner. I don't make financial decisions without about two weeks of heavy thought. Any thoughts on this, bud? I'm really curious to hear stories of people who've been burned and what you learned from it, if you'd ever do it again, what you'd do different. I'd also like to know from the financial professional's prospective if this is a huge red flag and fuck no don't do that. I've spent the last month prepping this move, have met with a company I feel comfortable with to handle the property while I'm miles away and feel like I've got a good enough handle on it to move forward. What say you housing guru?

Thanks for providing this service/sounding board to bounce ideas off of BB. It's appreciated.