Moving back to UK - rent or sell house in USA???

Hi all, we are moving back to the UK towards the end of August, we have put our house on the market on Friday, have had two viewings already but no offers (it has only been a few days!). We have to go at the end of August as I have a position starting at the start of September, and my daughter will be starting school. It is very likely we will not be able to sell our house in time, and we are wondering if we should just organise it to be rented. Has anyone else rented their house in the USA from the UK? Has anyone tried Rent to Sell?

Thanks so much

Rachael

We've rented our house out. It was a bit of a hassle at first -- our international movers came the day before the tenants wanted to move in -- but they seem to be settling in nicely.

We used a company to find our tenants. They knew what questions could and could not be asked, how much security we could charge, how to do a criminal background check, etc. It also made things easier when it came to getting landlord insurance and when it came to signing a lease. The company charged us one month rent to use their services.

We left a large binder with copies of instruction manuals and warranties on everything in the house. The originals are with my parents, who are acting as property managers.

The big thing is to make sure you can charge enough in rent to cover everything -- mortgages, property tax, insurance and association fees if you have them.

Sounds good. We were worried about being sued for random things which happened in the house, tripping over etc. We also don't have lots of savings in case anything major goes wrong. But it is great to hear someone else doing it. Good luck with the move!

I rented out my house for two years, and am now selling it (from the UK). Assuming the sale goes through, it will have been a pretty painless process (hassle-wise, not so much finance-wise). I used a management company to deal with finding the tenant and collecting rent, which worked reasonably well (getting ahold of them from England was a pain sometimes). My realtor has been really good about keeping in touch, so that's a plus.

How did you make the transition fom renting to selling - is the house shown while tenants are living there?
Thanks for your message, it is beginning to seem like this may be possible!!

I just thought of a couple more questions - hope you don't mind! Did you have someone manage the property? How much were you charged to find the tenant and collect rent?
Thanks!

My tenant's lease was up in early June. I spent a couple of weeks fixing/cleaning up the house (painting, new carpet, getting an inspection done, etc), and went on the market in mid-June. The tenant did agree to do viewings during the last 2 months of her lease, so in theory I could have listed earlier, but I wouldn't have been able to do any of the cleanup/repairs.

The management company normally charged 8% of the rent to manage. For me they charged 9% because they had to mail my check separately to my bank (rather than mailing it to London - which they probably would have charged more for anyway - and then me mailing it back to the US). From what I've read, normal fees are 8-10%. They also charged $200 upfront for marketing/listing, and if I'd had more than one tenant there would have been $200 in between tenants to re-list.