I rent my place. But I bought it as an investment (although I have lived in it).
Because it is a small, inner city apartment I rent it furnished (the area appeals to singles/students who are prepared to pay high rent for location). The furniture was bought with the idea of it being for rental, I have no emotional attachment to it.
If you do this get a good agent and good insurance. Once of my tenants set the place on fire and then sued me! (The fire was an accident). That was all taken care of without me being out of pocket at all. My agent is a little expensive but it is worth it for the lack of hassle and the fact that I trust him. He lives in the complex and so keeps on top of things.
I disagree with #1. If you can make a wise purchase where rent covers the mortgage then you can travel knowing you aren't going to come home to nothing. The main thing is to research properly and make sure you understand what you are getting into.
I rent mine unfurnished and store my stuff in a "lock Up" off site. (Friends had their locked room vandalised and the goods used during the tenancy - all the bedding was ruined.) Make sure power, phone etc are disconnected or you could get stung for their unpaid bills. Insure. My house is not flash - no one and I repeat no one looks after a place like you do. I have quite a big lawn area so pay for it to be mowed as part of the tenancy agreement. The gardens always a mess but can be sorted reasonably easily. Depending on how long Im away sometimes a gardener comes in on a monthly basis just to clear the worst of it. - set rate for x number of hours.
Again - get an agent and check out the recommendations of friends on this one. Some agents are useless. Also make sure that you can access the bank account to check that your agent has deposited funds.
My personal philosophy is get into the property market if you can = even a small toehold is worth it and with care it can work for a traveller.
yeah it makes sense to get into the property market if possible. im currently trying to save up some money although i have about 5000 different things i want to use it for already! (ok slight exaggeration!) I would like to buy somewhere and then i could always rent it out if i ever managed to get away travelling for a bit. Really need to try save up money for a deposit and start putting some away for travel, easier said than done right enough!
buying a house so id have something to come back to afterwards is something i hadnt thought of. i guess id need money availably while i was away so a letting agency could carry out repairs on my behalf? does the landlord not have to authorise work to be done before? just thinking if you were away travelling contacting the landlord might be tricky!
at the moment just renting so if we ever managed to get away somewehre (the big word at the mo seems to be IF hehe) we obviously wouldnt have a place to come back to so it would mean living with parents probably initially
suppose all this is hypothetical at the moment really but its helping me try and figure out the best way to go about future housing and things and read about other peoples experiences :):)
Have you travelled another way or backpacked yet?
Do it first. then consider getting rich on your maybe equity.
Otherwise you´ll just have more reasons to pospone ad nauseum.
"I´d rather be happy than rich."
-Spanish proverb
nice proverb i like that. nah not had the chance to travel yet to be honest never seemed to have enough time or money. but the last thing i want to do is go through life without experiencing at least some of what the planet has to offer. been on quite a good number of holidays now but not really the same as doing any amount of travelling.
I own a few properties and have been living overseas for 10 plus years. Having good agents is important. Tenant insurance is a must as #6 pointed out. Usually you give your agent approval limit for any repairs that need to be made. Why sweat on the small stuff?
It is possible to be wealthy and have the freedom to travel. You can have one with the other. It just takes a bit of planning and hard work.
"I'd rather be happy and rich".
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