If you don't care about webmail, this might be the best option.

I've been looking at this myself and have a couple of questions:

What software would you recommend (Linux server)? I've been looking at postfix, which seems pretty easy to configure.

What about issues with sending from a private ip - are you ever blocked or marked as spam because of the vps ip (just sending normal emails)?

Spam filtering - what do you use for this, does it work?