Selling vs. renting vs. rent-to-own

[IrishLake]

So, my husband starts his schooling to become a Columbus firefighter on December 27th. He will be staying with his parents monday-friday for the duration of his schooling OR until we find a place of our own. Finding a place of our own depends on one thing - selling or renting the house we own (mortgage) in a Cinci suburb.

Selling is obviously ideal, but we are about 99% sure we won't get out of the house what we owe (that's our only goal at this point, we don't want to have to take money to closing just to get out of/sell it, because we don't have much). So that leaves us with renting or offering the house on a rent-to-own basis. There are actually quite a few houses that are rental units in my neighborhood now, so I have no doubt that we could rent it. I'm just leery, because we will be so far away if the tenants need something. Plus, our house, while old (post WW2), our house is really nice. We've put a lot of effort into making it that way (we're DIYers, so cost was on the low side at least). We don't want tenants treating it badly. Most of the rentals around us are not in top shape. Also, we do eventually want to sell it, so selling it while there are renters there would be a problem, right?

We've also heard about rent-to-own, and I've heard lots of bad, with a little bit of good. But I'm still not entirely sure how rent-to-own works.

Any GCers out there who own rentals, or have suggestions and/or advice? My goal is to just be in another place in central OH by the time my daughter has to register for kindergarten next summer. (We will have to rent a place of our own when we do move, we won't have the 20% down most likely needed to get another mortgage).