It can be a full-time job depending on what you choose to do or it can be the simplest thing for you. It's scary at first. You kind of just dive in and learn as you go. Watching videos will certainly prepare you but having the backbone to do what you need to do is necessary.

You choose whether you want to pay all utilities or include them for which there are pros and cons. If you can imagine yourself having one monthly bill, would you prefer that?

So you can do this in two ways:

1) DIY (easy, moderate, hard): this requires you write up your own contracts and agreements which can be automated through rental management software such as Zillow. You can list on there too. Most of these online software companies will do the background check and you decide if you want them as a tenant. This also requires that you be on point such as being strict on rent and establish some rules as well as try to think of several scenarios that could go wrong. You can either rent a furnished place or an unfurnished place. The furnished places where you include utilities and the Internet can go for a lot more. A lot of travel people love those. Especially if you can come in as competition to a hotel/motel. You at least have the kitchen. It also means that you maintain and upkeep your place, so any of their complaints you must handle.

For this, there is a dark side of DIY.

There are things that can go wrong and there are plenty of people who will take advantage if you are not strict. For example, I was actually still living in my house renting a room out. I went away for a month to take care of my family. I come home and there's a random person living in my house. I have no idea who she is. I ask her and it turns out she's a friend of the roommate. So I ask her if she's ready to sign a lease. She says she's still looking for a job. I tell her she has a week and we'll talk. A week later, I go to hand her the lease which would be due on the first (giving her a full 2 weeks before rent is due) and she says she's been paying rent. To whom, I ask? You guessed it! So you have to have to harden your heart and say, "See this contract right here? The one you and I both signed? Where does it say you can sublet? Where does it say there is an authorized tenant besides you?" Then you have to do all the legal work as you can't just kick them out depending on the laws in your state. It's usually like 30 days notice so then you have to hope they don't destroy your home knowing they have to get out of it eventually. Not much protects you except maybe your insurance. Everything is pretty much by notice but certainly helps you when you have to go to court. Oftentimes, as much as you "don't care", you legally can't just kick someone out into the cold overnight.

2) Hire a property management company (easy): the pricing varies usually from 10% to 25% of the total rent or a monthly fee but they do all the work for you. Some even offer to furnish the place for an extra fee if it's not already furnished. You can opt out of that and have someone move their stuff in. The issue with this type of renting is that moving around heavy ass furniture can damage your flooring. There are pros and cons to furniture but the way many people are nowadays: they don't want to even worry about it. But these types of companies will do all the work from listing the property to signing a tenant into the lease, collecting the rent, and even doing the monthly or tri-monthly inspections, maintenance, as well as possible evictions. For this, you're just paying the mortgage and supplying the home. If you financed at a reasonable rate, you could make $300+ a month after all is said and done and once you pay off the mortgage, it's just pure profit. If you send extra towards the mortgage, you'll be that much quicker to getting there. However, you might want to even just save the extra money and start putting money down on another place.

I have actually tried #1 when I was renting out my house while living in it and tbh... I'd rather just go with #2. True passive income there. Just be careful about who you sign with and their policies about letting that company go. Some don't have an "expiration" and you have to pay a fee to break the contract you have with them.