And you do have a heart. As well as a brain!

Good luck!

And, if you feel like it, keep us informed!

It would sure be great if it worked out!

Good luck!

But when it became clear to me that I wasn't going to sell the place without taking at least a $12,000 hit, it made more business sense to lease it until housing prices improve or until I become more wealthy.

I agree, selling would get rid of a lot of headaches, but 12K is a pretty big hit.

She might turn out to be an ideal tenant. For your sake, I hope she is!

Keep us posted!

It sounds like this could be a very sweet win/win.

Hope this works out and you get regular rent checks.

We went the route of turning a house we couldn't sell for the price we wanted into a rental in 2011, hoping
for the market to recover. This was a house in a college town (Chapel Hill)
where rentals are snapped up. Well, we decided last winter that we'd relist
the house--knowing we'd take a hit anyway--since the tenants were agreeable to us showing it
all spring before they moved out in May and it took 6 months--August--to get one offer
that was $17,000 LESS than we'd been offered by an investor in 2011. We took the offer
and booked a HUGE loss on the place--ending up getting only $5K more than we paid for
it in 2008, but getting NOTHING back on all the remodeling and adding on, updating
we'd done to it.

So...if you have a steady tenant, you may have to keep it for longer than even 3-4 years IF
the market recovers.

Good luck!

but, boy, if you can help someone, such as this woman, that is extra awesome!!...

because I work on the road I had rented my house out and always tried to rent at a good price to someone in need... when it works, the feeling is great knowing you can help... just keep in contact w/herand keep control of the situation... best of luck to you!