Poll

How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?  (i.e. rented it out with the specific expectation of returning to live in it later)

Rented out our home.  Afterward returned to live in it.
11 (35.5%)
Rented out our home, but never returned to live there.
13 (41.9%)
Haven't rented out our home yet (with the intention of re-occupying it later), but plan to in the future.
7 (22.6%)

Total Members Voted: 31

Author Topic: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?  (Read 3668 times)

Rubic

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Please note: Only vote in this poll if you intended to re-occupy your old
home when (if) moving back to the neighborhood.  Don't vote if you once lived
in your house and now rent it out if that was your plan all along.

My purpose of this poll is to collect some data points to address the question of
people who plan to rent out their home while leaving their area -- either due to travel
or working in a different area -- with the intention of returning to re-occupy their
house at a later date.



Background:  I planned this once before about 20 years ago.  I had a nice house
in Dallas, but then relocated for work.  My plan was to rent out the house for a
few years and have it waiting for me when I moved back.  Financially, it worked
out okay, but I never moved back and I eventually sold it.  I would have been better
off just selling my house and leaving behind the aggravation of hiring a property
manager, upkeep, property taxes, etc.

My reason for this poll is because I see many people who post similar plans about
renting their homes with the intention of re-occupying them later.  And many of
my acquaintances have made similar plans in the past.  However, in my recollection,
I can't recall a single one who ever moved back into their old house.  I would
like some counter-examples before I form a biased opinion on the matter.



Full disclosure: I've just sold my condo, pre-FIRE, because I intend to travel for
2-3 years.  I could easily rent it out, but then considered I could always purchase
another condo (or more likely rent one) if and when I return.  I loved my condo, but I
also recognize that I may be in different circumstances a few years hence.  LIfe
and stuff happens.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2016, 05:10:12 PM by rubic »

monarda

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2016, 06:20:12 PM »
We rented out our home and returned to live in it two years later.
But we weren't sure that was going to be the plan when we moved and rented it. Nice to have had a place to come back to. We certainly wouldn't have sold it at the time we moved away (for what turned out to be 2 years)




JLee

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2016, 06:34:10 PM »
I didn't intend to move out initially, but did (lucrative job offer on the other side of the country) and then rented it.  My initial plan was to move back into my house after a couple of years, but now I'm considering buying a second house if I do move back to the same area (and leaving my first house as a rental).

clarkfan1979

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2016, 01:07:10 AM »
I have two rentals. For both of them, the plan was to buy them as a primarily residence, live in them for 3-4 years, move for work and rent them out when we leave. The plan was to never return and never live in the them again. I currently find myself making plans to live in one of them for the summers. I am a college prof and one rental is located in an old college town in which I used to live. It's fairly close to my wife's family. We are thinking of doing a 9 month lease with the new group of college kids and live in the house for 3 months during the summer.

Our other house is in Florida. When we are 65, who knows? 

former player

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2016, 04:35:01 AM »
I sort of fit your criteria: I FIREd away from my house in London but kept it for 4 years on the basis of "if this doesn't work, I'll come back to London so need to keep a toehold here".  It rented out fine, due to the market, but FIRE has worked out even better and I sold it at the end of last year.

JG in Hangzhou

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2016, 04:55:17 PM »
I didn't intend to move out initially, but did (lucrative job offer on the other side of the country) and then rented it.  My initial plan was to move back into my house after a couple of years, but now I'm considering buying a second house if I do move back
bump +1

tonysemail

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2016, 05:05:21 PM »
all of my housing plans go sideways within 5 years.
i moved out of a home 3 years ago and planned to rent it until the kids are launched.
unfortunately, all it took was a bad tenant to convince me to sell and stick my equity in the stock market.

ForrestNinja

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2016, 03:22:36 PM »
We moved overseas for expat assignment and will be returning sooner than desired after 2 years. We had planned to keep our current home a rental and buy a new house upon repatriation but will be moving back in after the tenant lease is up.  Reasons for this is home values are very high in our market and showing signs of slowdown (believe a better buying opp in next year or 2) and to see how the job I'm returning to pans out.  This gives us more flexibility and savings for the near term rather than dropping a large payment down on a new house and be stuck for a while in a declining market with a job that may or may not work out.

havregryn

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2016, 03:51:22 PM »
We rented out our home when we moved abroad for work and thought we'd move back. Less than two years later that feels entirely unlikely unless we move there in 20-30 years ( if we hold on to it that long). We will keep it as a rental though for as long as it is profitable.
It's interesting to hear that it often turns out that you don't go back even if you intended to.

PawPrint53

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2016, 11:25:00 AM »
We had a rental home that we planned to live in when DH retired. We almost moved into it when he thought he was going to retire, but then he got another job out of state. We lived in the other state for a couple of years, then moved back and into our rental house. So we'd never lived in the house, but we owned it for five years before moving in.

Previously, we lived in our "forever" house in Oregon, had to move to Idaho so rented out the house in Oregon with plans to move back. After much thought, however, we sold the Oregon house after a year of renting it.

LiveLean

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #10 on: October 17, 2016, 01:58:21 PM »
We have a beach rental home that rents on a weekly basis from late through September. We plan to live there mostly full-time some day and spend a couple weeks there every year in late May/early June.

OP didn't provide any context to this poll, but we feel like we're returning to live in it each year after renting it out. Thankfully nothing more than normal wear and tear.

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2016, 11:51:22 AM »
I had a cousin move to another state, sold their house.  A few years later when they came back, were able to buy the same house.  Not sure if a relevant story but I've always found it interesting.

bacchi

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2016, 03:08:50 PM »
Yes, exactly as planned: moved for SO's school, rented the house, and then moved back.

Villanelle

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2016, 01:03:00 AM »
I know many people who have rented and then moved back.  As part of the military community, this is extremely common, since there are often few places we can go so we end up circling back a lot.

I didn't vote on the poll, but we rented our place because 1) we left at  a point where there was a huge drop in the market.  We could have easily sold (we weren't underwater thanks to a very large downpayment), but we didn't want to sell low. And we didn't want to be priced out of the area (or any area, for that matter) if there was a recovery--or a recovery and another boom-- while we were living overseas.  (This turned out to be a very good decision as the property has increased by about $125k in 6 years, an is finally worth more than we paid for it.) And 2) because there are very few areas Husband can be stationed and so it was highly likely we'd end up back there. So we rented at a small loss. Our plan wasn't necessarily to move back, but it was one possibility, so I'm not sure where we fall in the poll and thus I didn't vote.

Now, 6 years later, we realize that even if we end up back in that city, we wouldn't move back to that house (no yard at all, and we'd like a dog).  We did end up back in that city for about 8 months, and would have considered moving back in, but the timing the the lease was awful so we'd have had to move someone out and let it sit empty for ~5 months before we arrived, which would have been stupid.

But, as I said, we know many, many people who have kept a house, executed a set or two of orders (generally 24-36 mo. each), and then moved back in to their house when re-stationed in the same place.  It's fairly common in our community. 
« Last Edit: October 21, 2016, 01:05:12 AM by Villanelle »

Rubic

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Re: How many of you have returned to live in your home after renting it out?
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2016, 06:55:31 AM »
As part of the military community, this is extremely common, since there are often few places we can go so we end up circling back a lot.

Good point.  Growing up in a military family, I know the experience.

A friend of my father, also a naval officer, would use his housing allowance to
help fund the purchase of a house at almost every place his family was stationed.
He then became an absentee landlord whenever he got new orders.  Eventually
he  owned several rental homes all over the country.  Renting these units out to
fellow officers meant his tenants were pretty reliable, as nobody wants to jeopardize
their standing in the military community.