It's Official - I am Now Lording Over My Land

It's true.  I am now officially a landlord.  A scary undertaking, but due to the way the economy tanked the housing market we didn't really have an option to sell our house.  We of course bought our house at the height of the market almost five years ago and planned to sell when Oscar received his promotion.  I think we owe somewhere around $75K more than what its current market value is.  Which SUCKS. 

Becoming a landlord is scary because you just never know how someone is going to treat your house.  I have heard some serious horror stories.  Scarier yet was having a vacant house and not knowing just how long it would stay vacant and I would be left paying the mortgage on top of the rent that I pay at our new house.  Double bills on the same income really SUCKS.  We have all ready been paying double for all of January and February, and now March was quickly coming to a close.

Thankfully, this last weekend, my prayers were answered.  I found the perfect tenants for my house.  They had a pretty crummy situation that they needed to get away from with their landlord ASAP and they wanted to stay in the same school district.   Luckily for me my house was probably the only one they could find that was available immediately and in the right school district.

Even more amazing is that I absolutely adore the family!  They are a like just like our family only fast forwarded five years.  I get along so great with the mom that I can't believe it!  She is really nice and we see eye to eye on so many different life subjects.  I am really excited that fate brought us together because I think that they are going to be the best tenants and I hope that they are just as happy in our old home and neighborhood as we were.  I think that they will fit in with the neighborhood seamlessly, which is exactly what I was looking for, not only for myself, but for the sake of my neighbors.

For me, its a bittersweet process.  I am extremely happy that I found a family that met my standards in every way possible.  But I have to admit, I am a little jealous that they get to live in my house and I don't.  Obviously it is what it is, but it still stings a bit.  They started moving in their stuff on Saturday.  It was kinda weird seeing my home with other people's stuff inside.  I can only hope that they will have some great memories in that home just as we did with our boys.  I hope that they will stay there for a long while and enjoy it!

For now I plan to be the World's Greatest Landlord.  Which I think will be easy considering I have the World's Greatest Tenants, in my opinion anyways.

So what about you?  Would you ever consider it?  Have you ever been a landlord or are you one?  If so, have you had a positive experience or a negative one?