re: Becoming a landlord

With some property management companies, you can pay them just to do the advertising of the rental and screening of candidates (background and credit checks) and insure that you're meeting Fair Housing and Community Reinvestment Act regulations. They may also assist you in writing a lease agreement. This fee is usually half of the monthly rental amount but you can probably work out a fee if you don't use them to manage the property ongoing.

If you're local you can handle repairs and calling for repair services yourself, saving yourself the 10% management fee each month.

But I've done the DIY version of advertising and screening, and it's generally worth the $300-500 you spent to CYA.

ETA: again, depends on if you're local as to whether it's worth it to have them advertise and screen. I wasn't local when I rented a house out, so I needed someone to show house, set up tenant, etc.