Should You Keep Your House When Moving Abroad?
Moving overseas and wondering if you should keep your home in the USA (or wherever you live)? Accepted an expat assignment with your company and considering keeping a house for home breaks? After being an expat for 6 years and having a home back in the USA for the past 2 years, I'm going to share with you the pros and cons of maintaining a house when you live abroad.
We also did a YouTube video on this topic…
Watch it here →
Before our first expat assignment to Angola in May 2014 we sold our Houston home. We did not have a home base in the USA until about 2 years ago when we purchased an Austin home. So we have the unique experience of living overseas with and without a home base in the USA.
Let’s run through the positives and negatives we’ve noticed the past 2 years while having a home in Texas and living in Argentina.
PROS
#1 - You will have someplace to stay during your return visits home
I’ve mentioned on the blog post Living Overseas...Worth it? that sometimes when you go home for a few weeks, it can be stressful and it doesn’t always feel like a vacation. Managing trying to see all your friends and family and also leaving time for you to have some “vacation time” can be difficult.
Having your own home base will help alleviate that stress. You’ll have someplace to stay so you won’t need to stay with family members or friends and run the risk of overstaying your welcome… Plus, you won’t have the cost of renting an AirBnB or hotel room for a few weeks.
#2 - Expat families tend to go home for long breaks
When you’re overseas with your company, you’ll notice many non-working spouses and their children will return back home for long breaks.
This includes summer, spring or winter break. Summer break is especially important for families with children because they like to return home to give their child time to hang out and reconnect with their old friends and experience traditional summer activities like camps, swimming, etc. back home.
This means your family could spend 12+ weeks back home each year. Having a home base will again give your family someplace to stay during those extended breaks.
#3 - Your company may offer a home allowance
This is basically a small payment to you each month to help maintain your home. But beware, it’s not very large (our company gives $350/month) and isn’t meant to cover mortgage or property insurance. It would basically cover small services like mail pickup or routine landscaping.
#4 - You may have extra income to put towards a house
If you’re going on expat assignment with your company, it’s likely that you will receive extra financial benefits (see the blog post - expatriate allowances explained for all the details) and will have extra income. If you’re interested, this could be a good time to buy a home and put extra money towards it with the hopes of getting close to paying it off sooner.
And we’re always looking for ways to get to financial independence faster around here!
Alright, let’s get into the not so great parts of maintaining a home while living overseas.
CONS
#1 - Your company will probably help you sell your home
One of the benefits of moving for your company is that they will usually help you sell your home. Some things they may help you with include paying realtor fees and closing costs and even providing you a small stipend to fix up things in your home to prepare for listing it. If you decide to keep your home, you will not receive those financial benefits. Before you decide to keep your home, review your company’s moving benefits and decide what’s best for you and your family.
#2 - Communication and coordination can be difficult overseas
If you require any kind of regular home maintenance such as yard work, pest control, mail pickup, watering, etc. communication can be challenging. These things can become much more difficult when you’re living in a different time zone, especially across the world!
Paying for these services can also be hard to coordinate. Traditionally, you pay for services via cash, check or even Venmo. But those options aren’t available when you’re overseas. Even Venmo, we’ve found, doesn't work in all countries.
So just be prepared for your house to require extra communication and creative coordination.
#3 - Paying for the home & taxes when you’re only there for part of the year
Just because you’re living overseas doesn’t mean your mortgage or property taxes stop! And you may not feel comfortable paying these if you’re only there a fraction of the year. You also have to think about the bills you will have. Even though we don’t live in our Texas house full time, we still have internet, electricity, water, propane, etc. to pay each month. The amounts are small, but they’re still something we have to budget for.
There will definitely be additional costs associated with keeping a house back in the USA.
#4 - More difficult to assimilate to your new country
This may only make sense after you’ve been an expat, but having a home base could make you miss home more. And make it harder for you to assimilate to your new country. You will find yourself thinking about your house and things you need to do to maintain it instead of spending that time, money and energy on discovering things about the new culture and country you’re living in.
In a previous post When living overseas gets hard, I talk about how going on expat assignment and choosing to live in a foreign culture can be very difficult at times. The extra pressure of maintaining a house may be added stress you simply don’t need while you’re on expat assignment or living overseas.
Well guys, those are the pros and cons of maintaining a home while living overseas that we’ve discovered over the past 6 years. The choice is different for each family. But I hope I gave you some broad points to think about and discuss with your partner. Having a home base can be a super helpful and a blessing at times. But if it brings more stress into your life then maybe wait on the decision and go all in on your new country and culture!
If you’re considering living abroad, check out some blog posts below.
