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In May last year we bought a hobby farm and have been remodeling the house there and plan to move there. The house we own in town we want to sell, but our town is so small 500 people, and there are already 19 houses for sale. its Crazy, our little town doesnt offer anything, all it pretty much has left is a elementary school.

SO there is the question. How do we sell, get rid of this house in town. If we let it go back to the bank will that hurt our credit to bad? We could rent it but who do you trust to keep it decent and to pay the rent.

You could try going through a real estate agent and have them list it for rent. That might be a better way to find quality tenants. Also, landlords ask for a security deposit so if there is any damage that money pays for it, plus the incentive to the renters to keep the place nice is that they get the security deposit back when they move out.

You can set the rules (professional couple, no pets, no smoking etc...)

It's something to look into. Good Luck

Have you thought about selling it on a real estate contract? You could ask for a small down payment or zero down if you don't need money out of it right now. It's basically a long term purchase agreement. You set the terms for the real estate contract like you would a purchase agreement and ask that the buyers be in a position to refinance themselves out of the REC in 2 or 5 years (I've even seen some for 10 years) however much time you decide to give them. They make payments directly to an escrow company that then pays the mortgage payment--you're not in the middle of it collecting payments, etc. They pay homeowner's insurance and pay the property taxes through the escrow company as part of their total payment--that way you are insured those bills are being paid and the house remains insured. The buyer is on title as well as you remain on title. If the buyer defaults you know immediately and can evict them quickly, they don't have the same rights as a tenant--easy to get them out if they stop paying. The upside is you tap into a buyer's market that is out there--people that really want a home but can't qualify for any type of loan program. They may not have enough down or their credit score may be too low right now. You just need to find out when the buyer would be in a position to refinance out--perhaps they need a couple of years to clean up a credit issue or something like that. The other upside is you avoid closing costs--you will just have to pay minimal title work stuff and escrow set up which both parties could absorb. The other upside is that if they can't refinance out in the agreed time per the real estate contract, you could either agree to give them more time per an addendum added to the contract--always put it in writing--or take the house back which would have had the mortgage paid down for the time that they were in it. Food for thought -- they work really well for a lot of people.

thats interesing LA, I will have to check into that.