Tenants moving; now what? (renters, house, fees, landlord)

[narnmacon]

Okay, let me explain the situation first:

About three years ago, my in-laws bought us a house in GA. It's a great house, too! 5/3 w/2car garage...gourmet kitchen...you get the drift. Eight months later, my husband got orders- to TX! We decided to rent the house out instead of selling it immediately. We went with a local property management company, and paid all our fees. They immediately had a couple move in. Everything was great until our assigned property manager decided to start selling realestate instead of managing it. The newbie we got stuck with sucked. After she gave our phone number to the tenants and proceeded to basically fail at her job, we fired her. Our tenants were great- the never missed a payment until March of this year. I feel I've gotten to know this couple pretty well, and perhaps I'm naive, but I really feel this couple has had financial hardships out the wazoo. I offered to lower the rent, blah blah blah. Well, the straw that broke their financial backs occured today and they called to give me 30 days notice. They are still two months behind on their rent.

More concerning to me is I don't want to leave the house sitting there vacant. That's just asking for trouble. How do I find new tenants while I'm so far away? My dad lives two hours away from the house and will be doing the current tenant's move out inspection. I don't know how to advertise for wanted renters or anything. I have software that does background checks, generates applications and other forms, etc., so that's not a problem. Advice would be appreciated. I hate the idea of a vacant home in an upscale neighborhood for more than a couple of months.

[ESFP]

I would think that your house would attract a large family with many children. Hence, it may sustain accelerated wear-and-tear. Is your upscale neighborhood in an association where you may find buyers/renters of the same culture "in-house"? Otherwise, one of you needs to go to GA and take care of business yourself. Personally, I'd get a great realtor and sell it. You'll probably never live there again. Is your husband military? Well-to-do officers are always looking for large, nice houses.

[narnmacon]

Yes, he's military. That's only part of the problem. Due to BRAC (Base Realignment and Closures), the two military installations with reasonable commutes to the house are closing. We've contacted a couple of real estate agents and they all said the same thing- it will sit on the market or we will lose a lot of money selling it because the market is so bad in that area. We would love to sell it, but not at the risk of making the in-laws mad because we "gave it away." No, I doubt we could find any "in house" tenants. All the houses in the community...sheesh, in the immediate area, are large. Ours is actually considered one of the smaller ones! My dad is willing to be temporary property manager (he has tons of realestate experience as seller, buyer, and manager), so that takes a bit of the pressure off. I'd much rather not have to rely on my father long term, though. So, how do you find a good property manager?

[ajzjmsmom]

If your Dad has alot of experience in real estate maybe if you hired him and paid him what you would pay a property management company then you wouldn't feel like you were relying on him and have someone who has your best interests in mind. Then when the market picked up you could sell.

[aragx6]

I feel like you have to have a PM if you're an out-of-state landlord. There's almost no other way to ensure your home is being properly looked after.

I liked the idea of having your dad do it for a PM's fee.