Before we left we turned our big old house into a duplex. Rented the first half to someone long before we took off letting us live in the other half for free while we saved up a cruising kitty and refit our boat. When it was time to go we were lucky to find a family friend to rent the other half. We set a reasonable rent in exchange for the tenants taking care of any minor problems, they also looked after the yard (better than we had been doing).

We had discussed selling the house and investing the money but renting worked out much better for us. It kept us in the market and the house prices in the area almost doubled in the four years that we were away.

When we returned we had a hard time bringing ourselves to evict one of our great tennants (we had the same people the whole time). We did evict one once it started to get too cold to live on the boat. We still live squeezed into half the house with our two young kids as we are preparing for our next adventure.

I think that biggest part of our success with this has been luck. Lucky to have found great trustworthy tenants. Lucky to have friends and family in the community we could trust to take care of any emergencies. Lucky to have a wife that was completely "onboard" with the plan.

So, good luck to you if you decide to do it.

Cheers, John.