[mikester]

I'm considering becoming a landlord.

Basically and I'm open to criticism of this idea, the idea is that I want a bigger house but I don't want to sell the house I have. I would prefer to keep it and possibly build up some real-estate investments. Based on the current market we should have some reasonable equity in our house so I'm not sure I'd need to sell it if I can borrow against it to buy something else. I haven't even asked the bank yet as I'm probably quite a bit of time away from pulling any triggers on this.

I'd like to figure out what my expenses and how my taxes would look when renting the house out though. Obviously that plays into the profitability of the venture as a whole and if it doesn't look good then I wouldn't do it.

The market is good in our area and rentals are and honestly have been hot perpetually because of how good our schools are.

Can anyone point me to a good place to read about what is involved in renting out a property? We're in California in the Los Angeles area.