My house was under-water as well, so I rented it out for awhile at more than twice my mortgage payment, went full-time RVing, and enjoyed getting the extra rental money for almost 2-years. The tenants were good and their lease was up on February 1st so now I am putting it on the market for sale. I will leave it on the market 90-days and if it does not sell then I will once again rent it out for a year or two until the market somewhat rebounds. The rental market is very hot and I’ve found it rather easy to get reputable tenants. You may or may not want to hire a property manager to manage your rental. My property manager is also a real estate broker and handles both my rental and the sale of my house; he only charges $75/month to manage my property and that comes out of my rental income. Still there is a lot left over, after paying my property manager, mortgage, and HOA dues, that I do have some discretionary income. The extra money is great and once my house is sold I will have a lot more discretionary money every month from not having a mortgage, HOA dues, property taxes, etc.
