<p>Let me clarify, the house we have that is worth 1.4 million is based on today’s pricing, we had that house for over 30 years and it is paid for, that is why we can afford to rent it at less than $4000, it is the market rent. No one in the right mind would buy a house like that today and rent it out. And in our town, most, if not all, of the houses are bought to be owner occupied. There are some condos that are sold to be rentals, lot of speculative money came in because the market condition today.</p>
<p>So why is the rent 4,000 and not 5,000?</p>
<p>nevermind…you answered that question</p>
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<p>QED</p>
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<p>Most of the people I know are very reluctant to rent out their homes & have pretty bad to awful experiences, even using house sitters. We have friends who left their house vacant for about a year or two while they were figuring out what they wanted to do with it–they figured the damage that could be done by a tenant in that year or two was more than the rent they could have collected from renting out the place. Housing around here is about $800,000-1M and rents for about $2000 or so, sometimes less. Many people have negative cash flow if they have real estate in HI & rent it out, especially if it’s a condo as maintenance fees are VERY high.</p>
<p>Himom…Those rents are pretty low compared to the price of the homes.</p>
<p>I can see why people choose not to rent their homes.</p>