Renting out the S&B, how much do you unpack when 'home'?

[Naio]

Last year, I was only on the road for 6 months and I didn't rent out my house. So I just came home and lived normally. But this year, I was gone 10 months, I packed everything up and rented out the house... now that I at the S&B (for 3-4 months only) it feels kind of pointless to unpack. I have so much other work to do. So I end up 'camping' in the house... which doesn't exactly feel like I am at home.

What do you folks do?

[Naio]

Walaby wrote:
Totally agree on not making permanent decisions. My plan is simply to not even rent my S&B when Im on the road. When Im ready to come home, I want my house waiting for me.

That's what I did the first year. I had no idea how long I might be gone. I told people, 'It might be a couple weeks... or a couple months.' Turned out it was 6 months. My first trip went so easily!

[Walaby]

Totally agree on not making permanent decisions. My plan is simply to not even rent my S&B when Im on the road. When Im ready to come home, I want my house waiting for me.

I was just interested since what Naio had going on seemed to work pretty well. Totally agree it's location dependant.


Mike

[Naio]

Lizzie: I'd love to hear more about your experience with vrbo. What do you like / not like about them?

John & Joey: I agree about not making any permanent decisions !

[Naio]

Mike: It probably depends on your area. Where I live, there are a lot of young people and they move around a lot, so it's no problem to find people for shorter terms.

[John_Joey]

...What do you folks do?

In the beginning we were on the road for 6 months and then in our S&B for 6 months. In the spring we could not wait to get home, and in the fall we could not wait to get back on the road. We felt we had the best of both worlds.

As the years go by the true person will come out in all of us. For us we're cutting back on the road time, and enjoying the benefits of having a land base among family and friends.

We're even toying around with giving up the RV lifestyle entirely and renting in some tropical area for a few months. May sound costly, but if you do the math of 6 months RV'ing vs 3 months renting the numbers are fairly close.

So my advice is not to do anything to drastic until you feel like the honeymoon of RV'ing is over. If you still got hitch itch, then I think you will have the answer to your question.

[lizzie]

I will chime in again for what it is worth. The first time we rented our "real" house was right after Hurricane Katrina. Some friends approached us to ask if they could rent it while their new house was being built. They next year we started with VRBO/Homeaway. You can set it up to rent whenever you want. This year we had requests to rent for the entire summer for the FL cottage but it did not fit our schedule. My husband helped manage his mother's rentals when he was a kid and we have had rentals for over 50 years so we are accustomed to it. We still have surprises though! lizzie

[Walaby]

Thanks Naio. I have one rental property already, and have rented it for about 13 years, so yeah, familiar with that.

I was just interested in how hard it was to find someone that would lease/rent for less than a year, with a definitive (or semi-definitive) timeline they would have to leave. I figured that would significantly reduce the number of prospective tenants.

Mike

[Naio]

Mike: I did a lease for a set time period. It was a month or two longer than I would have preferred, but I found great tenants and worked with them.

We wrote the lease through June, but agreed orally that we would check in once spring came, and see if we wanted to change it. We ended up sticking with the original plan.

One thing that helps is that I have other rental properties. I am not new to being a landlady. I don't think I would recommend renting if you have not done it before. There is a steep learning curve, and it is extra work if you are not staying in town. You could get a management agency, but that comes with its own problems.

[2gypsies1]

It certainly is a lot easier and cheaper to stay in a RV park near family for a short time rather than keeping a house - upkeep, insurance, rental issues.

[Walaby]

Naio

Interesting. I am in the process of planning my great escape. Which would be to travel for X months and then return home for x months. It will be years before I execute that plan though, so all planning is cerebral at this point.

Hadn't thought about renting my S&B while Im gone. Do you rent it by the month? Im trying to figure out how it would work, if you are gone 10 months and return for two. It's either got to be month by month or you boot the tenant out. If M to M, then Im guessing you must be in a touristy area. Do you use a rental agency?

Just trying to learn how you've made it work, as it may help me in my decision processes.

Mike

[Naio]

I like hearing people's different experiences.

I come back to my S&B mainly because my parents and other relatives are nearby. I want to see them.

I have been thinking about arranging to stay somewhere other than my actual house, so tatest's idea of a nearby rv park is useful. But, like lizzie, I use the opportunity to empty and clean out the rig once a year!

[2gypsies1]

I think you need to give up the house that you're rarely at and take off full-timing.

[lizzie]

We have two S&B homes and the TT. Both houses rent while we are traveling. We have pared our personal belongings down to the bare minimum for all three places. Both houses have a locked room for storage for things we care about. When we arrive at either house, I take everything out of the TT sort, clean, and return it. When we leave a house I do the same thing, leaving it rental ready. Every time I go through this process, it is easier and I find that I get rid of more stuff. lizzie

[tatest]

Sounds like you are 3/4 of the way to full timing, with a snowbird travel pattern. I would probably be "camping" in a RV park near my rental property, leaving that on the rental market full time.

Except as I get older I find managing and maintaining my rental property to be more work than the value I get out of it, so if I really went full time I'd likely sell off all the real estate, and not worry about an "out."