[HeyLaughingBoy]

When I did this (rented out the suburban single-family house I used to live in), if something needed repairing, I'd just drop by after work and fix it myself since I only lived half an hour away. I set my rent based on the market rate.

It turned out that insurance on a rental property was less than on an owner-occupied one, which made no sense to me, but I wasn't going to argue with MetLife :-)

Basically, the floor of your monthly rent should be your existing costs: mortgage, insurance, property taxes, average annual repair costs, etc. In markets I was familiar with, this was always well under what rent would cost. Also, bear in mind that repairs and other expenses like property taxes and mortgage interest are now deductible since the rental is a business.

IIRC I had around $1,000/mo in cashflow from the rental before factoring in savings from the additional deductible items. I sold the property after three years since I didn't really want to be a landlord, but it was free money.