[at-l] Your opinions?

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 11:26 AM 12/10/2004 -0500, Jan Leitschuh wrote:
>Oh wise listers,
>A hiker is pondering the following:
>
>"The crux of the question is: how much do I live for now versus the 
>future? The specifics are as follows. At 22, I bought a house. I didn?t 
>REALLY ever want to own a house, but I also didn?t want to pay for rent 
>and then not have any return on that money. (I had a 1.5 year contract 
>with work.) Now, the contract is almost up. I?m planning a thru-hike of 
>the AT. It?s something I?ve wanted to do since I was 10, but hadn?t really 
>put serious effort into it.
>
>Now, there are 2 options. I can sell my house, and apparently make a bit 
>of money, at which point I will have enough to go on this hike. The fear 
>is ?what if I can?t sell it for as much as I thought, lose money, can?t go 
>hiking?. Option 2 is to rent the house. I won?t net a profit, may or may 
>not have enough money to go hiking. If something goes wrong with the 
>house, I definitely won?t be able to hike, because I?ll have to pay to fix 
>the house (which, by the way, I don?t have any emotional attachment to ? I 
>don?t really like it that much). Renting it, of course, means that I?ll 
>have a greater ?investment? in the long term, but, selling means that I 
>won?t have worries while hiking, and that I?ll probably be able to hike. 
>It just means more uncertainty when I come back (but less 
>strings/commitments, which is good)."
>
>Any input, oh seasoned ones?
>
>Middlewoman Shoe

SELL THE HOUSE! Unless you are renting to a friend you know you can trust, 
renting is a crap shoot that can be way more trouble than it's worth. This 
is especially true if you are going to be gone for several months and 
trusting others to collect rent, tend to repairs, etc. while you are gone. 
It will be on your mind all the time you are hiking. OTOH you won't lose 
any sleep worrying over money in the bank. Weary's right. Unless you are 
emotionally attached to the place, SELL IT!