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Renting a house you can't sell or can't sell for the price you want -- might sound like a good idea. But it's not.

We understand why a growing number of homeowners might be tempted.

You've got to move and it's taking longer than expected to sell your house. Maybe a lot longer. Weeks drag into months, your neighborhood is a forest of 'For Sale' signs and buyers aren't willing to pay as much as they were just a few months ago because home prices have probably peaked and interest rates are higher.

So why not rent for a year, make some money and see if the market improves?

If you can't afford to buy a second house then you'll have to rent until you're ready to try and sell again. That could be a jolt after the comfort and convenience of living in your own home.

Even if you have enough money to buy a second home, becoming a landlord is like getting married -- not to be entered into lightly. It carries responsibilities you may not want, costs you may not be able to afford and tax consequences you're probably unaware of.

Experts advise you make your decision with emotions in check and a clear understanding of the pitfalls and complexities.

Start by asking yourself if your house really has declined in value, or is failing to sell because it isn't fairly priced.

'Some people have a very fixed idea of what they think their house is worth, and that may not be backed up by the market conditions,' says Ron Phipps, a real-estate broker in Warwick, R.I. Price escalations have been dizzying in many parts of the country, and owners who saw their houses soar in value, then decline somewhat with the leveling of local markets may be seduced by what Phipps calls 'phantom equity,' the real-estate equivalent of paper gains. A house may well recover its previous value, but the burdens of being a landlord are enough that a reality check may be in order.

Prices have already fallen, and the number of unsold homes grown the most, in cities with economic problems notably Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and other industrial areas.

'A house that isn't well-priced, or has market-appeal weaknesses' a bad kitchen or yard 'won't sell in these markets,' he said. He advises getting multiple opinions on price, and considering them carefully, before making the decision to ride it out with rentals.

Robert Haskins did all that. But the bottom line was sobering. He bought his house in Gardiner, Maine in 1993, at what turned out to be the top of the market. When his job as a computer systems manager took him to a neighboring state five years later, he was left with a house that had declined in value by an estimated 10% to 15%.

'I just wasn't willing to go to a real-estate closing and pay money to sell my house,' he said. Haskins decided to rent, and became a long-distance landlord from his new home, 90 minutes away in New Hampshire.

Haskins did what more experienced property managers suggest.

'Go in with your eyes open and prepare for the worst,' advised Hans Stahl, who manages corporate home rentals in the Detroit area. 'Take the emotional aspect out of it, and then you can be a good landlord.'

What does that mean? First, sit down and do the math and there'll be a lot of it. Figure out what you can charge for rent, what the tax consequences will be, what sort of tenants you want. You also need to consider how long of a lease you want to commit to and how you're going to handle the details of property management once you're no longer in the house, and maybe living quite a distance away.

Haskins relied on Nolo, a company that provides do-it-yourself legal resources, in books and on the Web. 'It helped me understand a lot of the business things,' he said, 'like how to pick a tenant, how not to discriminate.' It also reminded him to do things professional property managers take for granted like doing a credit check on prospective tenants.

'I went into it with two things in mind: Can they pay, and will they take care of my property?' Haskins said. For his small house in Maine, Haskins told tenants he expected them to cut the grass, handle snow removal and be responsible enough to alert him to other problems.

'It's my job to pay for the plumber, but their job to call,' Haskins says.

But, Stahl cautioned, many tenants who rent single-family homes expect such services to be covered by their rent. A lease should be clear about what is expected of both parties.

His firm also serves as property manager for most of the houses his firm rents, Stahl says, handling everything from screening prospective tenants to collecting rents and providing handymen for maintenance. (Many of his clients are corporate executives in the auto industry, serving two- or three-year rotations through overseas outposts.)

Stahl said a standard fee might be 8% to 10% of the monthly rent, plus one month's rent for finding and screening a tenant. Haskins declined to use a manager he didn't think the fee was worth the service and handled his own affairs from his new home in New Hampshire.

'I was lucky,' he said. 'I rented for more than four years and only had two tenants.' The problems were mostly minor some maintenance, diplomacy issues with the neighbors but in the end, he got what he wanted:

'I sold 10 years after I bought for $100 less than I paid for it,' he said. 'It was a bad market.'

If you understand the challenges and still want to rent your house, here's a checklist of what you need to do:

Be flexible. If you need to rent your house, chances are others do, too. Your house may go unrented for a few weeks or even a few months. If you rent your house to a company, particularly for use by an overseas employee, it may require a 'diplomatic clause' that allows it to break the lease with 60 days' notice. 'Prepare for some down time,' advises Hans Stahl. 'A two-year lease doesn't necessarily mean two years.'

Talk to your accountant or tax advisor. Renting has tax implications for landlords. Rental income is taxable. Some states revoke the homestead exemption on your property taxes if a house is no longer owner-occupied. You can depreciate a rental property, which can offset your property-tax gain, but also be aware of depreciation recapture, in which depreciation allowances are taxed, upon sale, as capital gains. 'That's one thing I wished I'd known about going in,' said Robert Haskins, who rented his house in Maine for four years.

Call your insurance agent. Your owner-occupied homeowners' policy likely won't cover your house as a rental. Stahl said to expect about a 50% increase in your annual premiums once you move out and renters move in. He also advises setting up a limited-liability corporation, or LLC, and signing a quit-claim deed to turn your house over to the LLC. This will protect your personal assets, should you be sued by a tenant or guest. An attorney can set this up.

Know your market rate. Rules of thumb may no longer apply, depending on where you live. 'In Detroit, for years, it used to be $1 of rent per square foot,' said Stahl. 'Now that's more like 80 cents.' But in college towns, it could be far higher, even if you're not renting to students. Know your local occupancy rate and set your rents accordingly. This is a good place for a reality check, too; if your mortgage payment is already above what you could charge for rent, you're going into it backwards. It's probably time to lower your selling price and get out from under it.

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