So, I've accepted a new job. The deal I struck was 1 year on-site in California, then remote. My thought process at the time was that my wife would want to stay here (Florida) to continue education. However, she wants to come with, along with our 3 cats, and we happen to be at a good time in the process for her to move as well. She needs to finish pre-reqs and get some clinical experience in for her applications.
So, we have a paid-off house. We will likely, although not certainly, be returning to the area in about 1 year. What to do with the house. Options discussed:
1) Sell. This makes a clean break, we can probably price the place to sell by the time we'd need to leave. A lot of work - we'd have to move or otherwise get rid of all of our stuff. I just don't think it makes sense to move most of our stuff to California. Maybe not much at all.
2) Rent it out furnished. We'd still have to do something with a lot of our personal stuff, but we could leave the furniture and a lot of the stuff. We've discussed long-term AirBnB or getting in touch with travel nurse resources - have it on good authority that the local hospital does use travel nurses. We're also in a college / government town, so seems it wouldn't be that hard to find people looking for 1-12 month furnished leases. One of my cousins, for example, did just this in our town last summer for an internship. We may have some leads on some people who want to "try out" our neighborhood as well.
3) Rent it out unfurnished. I don't know, I'd rather just sell - getting all of our stuff out we'd have to do either way. We'd have a much wider rental market if we go this route, but it is a hassle.
4) Treat it as a 2nd home / cottage. We'd hire someone to keep the lawn looking OK, come visit a couple of times. Maybe some friends or family could use it, although we get very few out of town visitors. Probably put in a security system of some kind if it will be vacant most of the time.
I kind of like option 2 for a balance of convenience and financial concerns. But Option 4 is enticing - definitely the most convenient, and we certainly can afford it. What do y'all think?
