Rent or Sell Our Home While Traveling The World???

By Melody Schafer http://LivingFreeForever.com

Listen to the pros and cons of renting and selling our home in Southwest Florida. What would you do, if it were you?

Renting out, selling or just leaving a home empty is a very difficult decision to make  if one owns a home (without a mortgage), but wants to travel the world. If there is a mortgage on the home, I would think that decision would be much easier to make.

Those ae the 3 options I can think of. Keep the house empty while one leaves for a year or more to follow a dream of travel and pay for the maintenance such as getting the grass cut, making sure it is secure so as not to get broken into, pay for utilites that won't be used, but necessary to keep the property maintained and pay taxes and insurance on the property. I suppose if one is not on a tight budget, one might be able to afford to keep the house empty AND travel the world. That would be the IDEAL situation.

Another option would be to hire a management company to rent out the home, collect rent and make sure all is well. One would think that is the best option and it might be IF one can find an excellent management company. Of course if the owner of the home is on the other side of the world this is VERY IMPORTANT.

One needs to look at how much profit can be acquired after all expenses if renting the home out. Is it worth it? If the owner of the home gets lucky they will have a super management company who finds an awesome renter and all goes well. The worst that can happen is that a company that one thought was great turns out to be less than stellar and in addition finds a not so stellar renters that destroy the property. I suppose this is what insurance and deposits are for but still is a big decision.

I'm sure most experiences fall somewhere in the middle, but it's a decision one needs to think about carefully...are they willing to take a gamble? Some would say yes, take a chance...those are the people who become millionaires. Or does a person who prefers peace and tranquility and less stress over the possibility of riches take that chance in order o earn extra income? At this time, I don't have the answer. I've heard pros and cons to renting out property...anywhere from something like a story out of Nightmare on Elm Street to everything being just wonderful.

Of course selling the home is the 3rd option. Yes, it is easy enough to sell a home in a hot real estate market in Southwest Florida, but is that really the best option? One needs to consider where to invest that money? Is there a better investment right now than rental property? I am not an investor, so I don't know.

I have asked around and researched which would be the best option. I have talked to financial wizards, accountants, realtors, maintenance companies, people who have done all 3 and ALL of them had different answers. So I don't think there is a right answer for any one person. That answer can only be answered by the person in that particular situation. I only wish I knew what that answer was. I am sure it will come to us when the time comes.

Stay tuned to find out what decision will be made in our near future :)