Traveling and owning a home

[Lovelymo79]

Hi all,

For you travelers that own homes, what do you do about your bills back home, especially if you are single? Is your traveling compensation enough for your mortgage and other household bills? Or do you rent out your home while you are away? What about cable, electricity and water bills? Do you turn things off or down until you come back?

Just trying to find some answers for a friend. Thanks!

[RNERHOUSESUPOR]

When I owned my home and traveled for a couple years. I would turn off the water, set the thermostat to it's lowest heat setting and put a light and the TV on a timer. Did that for two winters and all was well electric and gas bills were around the minimum most months. It cost a reconnect fee for the water, and internet provider, but that was less than a minimum charge every month, especially when I was on an assignment for almost 6 months. Have since sold the house and now travel with my RV. My home is where ever I park it. I always know who slept in my bed last and sat on my couch.

Rod

[NedRN]

I've rented my home before. Technically a roommate so that I could keep my tax home status. This last time out, I winterized my home so I could turn the heat off. I couldn't disconnect utilities, other than internet, but am paying minimum charges. All charged to a credit card or a direct debit so it is all hands off. Having a roommate would have put an extra $7,000 in my pocket this year, but I left precipitously for a hot job.

[ukjenn231]

Be sure to turn off your water- we left ours on and a freak thing happened, some part of the toilet in the back of the tank rusted and it failed to regulate the water. It flowed for days. My dad checked on the house once a week and he came to find it flooded. We had to do a homeowners claim and have the house gutted.

[NedRN]

That was part of winterizing my home by my plumber. My village charges for all water used, even for a pipe break. There were notorious cases of water running for a couple of weeks with the owners on vacation. Besides house damage, they had to pay a water bill of many thousands of dollars.

All my gas appliances were turned off, and none had standing pilots. Even so, my plumber also turned the gas off physically to reduce any chance of explosion that might come from a small leak, a closed house, and an electrical fault.