Thinking of Being A Landlord? Read This Tenant Horror Story

A lot of people want to become landlords - especially in this market:

1. They want to buy investment property at today's low prices and rent it out.

2. They want to buy a new home because prices are down, but they want to rent their old house and sell it when the market comes back.

Either way, you must realize that being a landlord is not a source of passive income, where you only deal with paperwork. You have to deal with real humans.

Here is a cautionary tale called "The Tenant From Hell: The Stripper With The Dirty Feet".

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Should You Rent Out Your Home Instead of Selling It?

With the current housing slump, should you slash the price of your house to sell, or should you rent it until prices come back?

Unfortunately, many people have chosen to rent out (rather than sell) their homes. This has created a renter's market - which means that, if prices take time to come back, you might lose money anyway.

You might not be able to charge enough rent to completely cover your monthly expenses, and you may have to consider renters with damaged credit. You will lose a few month's rent per year to tenant turnover. You will have to hire a handyman and deal with repairs.

Finally, your home owner's insurance might go up and you will have to spend at least 1% of the selling price to fix up the house for sale after renting it out.

For these reasons, some real estate experts advise you to "take your lumps", slash your asking price, and sell.

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