Stashy, my girlfriend and I did something similar in October 2012 - rented our house for a year and traveled.
Do it! You won't regret it. If anything, you'll regret not taking more than 6 months (and it will be easier to find a tenant who is willing to sign a 12-month lease, as opposed to a 6-month one).
I do not recommend going the handyman-neighbor route; when you are off in the jungle somewhere, the last thing you want is for your neighbor to be calling you on the phone with some emergency issue that needs to be managed; leave that in the hands of the property management company and be at peace while you're traveling.
We interviewed property management companies and picked one who took 10% of the monthly rent in exchange for handling any tenant issues that arose. Most companies we talked to charged between 8-12%. They also offered to find and screen our tenants for $1500, but if we found them ourselves, they would do the screening for a much smaller fee. So we had an open house one afternoon that we advertised on Craigslist, interviewed about a dozen prospective tenants, and sent our top candidate to the property management company to get screened.
Make sure you are familiar with federal fair housing laws so you don't put anything illegal in your Craigslist ad/say anything illegal during your screening, and you'll be fine.
We rented our place furnished, which saved us a ton of money and effort in moving everything into storage. We took our personal items/things we'd truly be sorry to have broken/stolen/lost and put those into the attic and a locked storage room.
Personally, I'd lean toward keeping the house. You obviously are attached to it, and if you couldn't afford to move back into the neighborhood you like when you get home, why give it up? If you're worried about damage to the house, talk to your property manager about an appropriate security deposit and screen your tenants really carefully. Don't just take the first person who applies; look for someone who is going to take care of your place.
Finally, one last piece of unsolicited advice: put aside 3 months (or more!) of living expenses for when you return, so you don't have to immediately look for work after you get home. Good luck on the trip!