Ok, don't know what your rental experience has been like, but we have had rentals since 1997. At first not bad, 8 out of 10 were good tenants, but now it seems 8 out of 10 are trash. Just no
concept of how to take care of things.
Good plan to have rentals and in 20 years paid for, then income for
retirement, but a lot of work in between. The part no one talks about
:
Tenants stay 1 - 2 years (once in a while you get a really good one that stays 5 years, but rare). So approx every 18 months you have walls that need to be painted, holes to patch,
appliances to clean, yard work you wouldn't believe as the dog they weren't supposed to have destroyed the back yard with holes to
china -- broken faucets,
toilet tanks or lids, shades all gone or destroyed, screens gone or destroyed, carpets to clean or replace, etc. People can be pigs when they don't own the house.
Better to have the house empty than to rent to a bad tenant, so it takes 4-6 weeks to get a half way decent one. They steal gas and then you have to get on the list to have the pipes pressure tested before they will turn it back on, etc. all the time the house is empty and you have to make the payments,
taxes,
insurance, etc. with no
money coming in. That 7 or 8% that the company takes that is handling it for you well, normally that 7-8% is your
maintenance money. Also, you have to pay for all this stuff to be done including mowing the
grass if you are on your boat and not there to do it yourself, so you will be very lucky to break even. They represent a lot of people so your house might not come first.
Did I forget to mention than then when the house was empty those 6-8 weeks someone broke in and stole all the copper
plumbing, even the copper on the hot
water heater and put holes in the walls to see where the copper was? A sign of the times.
If this is your personal residence, well you know those nice kitchen cabinets you have -- not nice for long. You don't need the headaches and the worry when you are out on the
water -- might as well stay home.
Also don't need to put $20,000 into the house when you come home to get it back in shape.
So that is our experience and why we are liquidating everything. Husband 60 and I am 61 so we figure if we are on the boat for 15 years we would not want to come back to a residence where we would need to do outside
maintenance anyway, better at a condo or something like that when we are 80. Also have no idea of where we would want to be by then geographically.
Plan is to spend half of what we end up with for the boat in case when we are finished it doesn't sell right away we would still have sufficient funds to buy something on land. With both our social
security plus investment income we should have sufficient funds to live and save each month for maintenance on the boat. Plan is to be at
mooring ball or
anchor all the time. Both of us grew up on lakes and have lived on river for past 30 years. Both dive,
kayak,
fish a lot. With this many properties, could take 3-6 years to liquidate so I am trying not to get ahead of myself.
Just want anyone who is planning to rent for income that (1) that income may not be there and you may have additional expense instead (2) the condition of the house will not be nearly as good as when you left (3) do you really want that on your mind when you are out there?
If those three things don't bother you, then keep the properties and sail. We have chosen to liquidate and have only the boat to maintain and spend money on.
)
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