We were lucky that a friend wanted to rent it so we charged less than market for the piece of mind we'd have that the place wouldn't be trashed and that we could leave bigger items in the house safely. Never even changed the name on the hydro and phone... all went well.

Worked for us. Just had another friend handle the cheques deposits.

We had a know date for Joni's return so it was pre-arranged that our buddy would be out by then...

I guess it's a bit unrealistic to expect that a "friend" or reliable relative would be available to rent again... but that would be my first pick.

BTW NO, we NEVER considered selling... the biggest tax free investment most Canadians have is their home, and ours went up in value almost $ 50K while we sailed, far exceeding the rental income we took in.