A good rule of thumb, according to landlord and rental research, is to charge no less than 1.1 percent of the home's value up to about $100,000 ($1,100), 1 percent up to about $125,000 ($1,250), and a slightly smaller percentage as you climb the home-value ladder. For example, homes valued at $150,000 to $175,000 usually would rent for 0.9 percent of value (150,000 x 0.009) or $1,350 to $1,575, while you'd only get, at an average, about 0.75 percent ($3,000) for a $400,000 home (400,000 x 0.0075). Why the sliding scale? It's harder to rent the higher-priced homes for 1 percent or more of value because the renter universe diminishes substantially as price points increase. Of course, the rent you can charge depends heavily on local rental-property demand, the economy, the health of your local housing market, plus the location and condition of your house. Optimally, you'd get a 1.25 percent return each month in a very high-demand market. Be wary, though. Anything less than 0.8 percent (0.008) gives you no buffer in the event of abrupt move-outs, vandalism, rises in interest rates and other negative scenarios. As you can see, with such small profit margins, there's little margin for error in the renting-a-house game.