The house........ what to do with the house

[GROB]

If you do rent it out make sure you inform your insurance company ,usually will cost a couple of extra dollars butcovers your arss

[chisel]

Bear in mind when renting you probably have costs for moving all of your furniture and other stuff into storage, the storage costs themselves, and moving it back into your house at the end.  You probably will have some repair/repaint costs at the end as well.
Also if it is rented then you can't just come back to it and move back in if your trip is cut short for any reason.

[chester ver2.0]

Good point above storage for us was 2k for the move out then $900 per quarter for storage so you need to factor that in

Why it is so high is that for the removalist company to insure your goods in storage they have a requirement that they pack the stuff to their standard hence the inital high cost

So for a 12 month lap you will need to budget about 4k for removal storage and re delivery

[Nay-DMAX]

If you have any furniture that you dont need to keep selling these items might be better than storing them even things like fridge which dont always store well. You dont want to pay more to store it then find it needs replacing. Also if you have things that you cant sell (as in older or people just wont buy) instead of paying to send to tip rent with partial furniture. You might not have anything like that but others might do who read this. 

[2010banditsa]

rent it out for sure... im going through selling one house and contemplating selling another to help fund the new one but it doesnt stack up financially and youre better to keep it. Appreciation when buying again, agents fees, rental cost to yourself, stamp duty to rejoin market, lack of apprecreciation of property whilst travelling, tax on savings... im ure there' more that a gumby like me doent know about.

[Footy Shorts Shane]

Huh??? Isnt that what insurance is for

I thought so too, until the 2011 floods in Brisbane. 

[Thesmilintraveller]

thank you all once again....... great ideas everybody........ I do so appreciate your thoughts and your time...... cheers, Lyn 

[FZJ]

Can you jam all your stuff into one room. lock it and rent it out with one less room. no storage fees....

[chester ver2.0]

If you have any furniture that you dont need to keep selling these items might be better than storing them even things like fridge which dont always store well. You dont want to pay more to store it then find it needs replacing. Also if you have things that you cant sell (as in older or people just wont buy) instead of paying to send to tip rent with partial furniture. You might not have anything like that but others might do who read this. 

You are absolutly right in hndsight i should have gutted 3/4 of the stuff that i put into storage our main issue was we thought we were only going for 6 months not 4 years

[Nay-DMAX]

You are absolutly right in hndsight i should have gutted 3/4 of the stuff that i put into storage our main issue was we thought we were only going for 6 months not 4 years

Oops that happens though, the other half's brother and sister in-law left Vic 25 odd years ago to travel round Aus got to WA and never left haha