Putting our house up for rent will cut our monthly expenses, thereby extending our savings and allowing us to live in Vietnam that much longer were I unable to find employment.
However, renting out a place isn't as easy as it sounds. There's a number of risks that we have to mitigate or outright avoid. While it'd be nice to decrease this significant mortgage expense, we definitely don't want to come home to a trashed house or worse.
Risks aside, we've come to three options:
- Rent on Air B&B and Craigslist
- Rent through a property management company
- Rent to a close friend
Option 1 requires remote management on our part, as well as having a friend or family member help us with issues that come up. I'm not sure that I want to deal with property management while we're away trying to enjoy our time abroad.
Option 2 requires up-front preparation with the company and eats into any rental income. However, they'd take care of any issues that arose. The only problem is that we don't know when we'd be coming back. If we came back in three months, then that'd create even more hassle to essentially kick out the renter.
Option 3 is ideal. The only two downsides that I can think of are forgoing any potential income because we'd offer the place at a discount and the relationship risks that come with renting a place to a friend. That said, if we have the right friends rent the place, then we'd happily forgo income to rent to someone who will keep our place safe and secure.
We're aiming to have this figured out within the month.
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