The Foreign Service Journal, June 2018

40 JUNE 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the water before leaving town. Expensive lesson! And it was not a relaxing summer, with one construction crew after another to fix first the floors, then the walls, then paint, because at that point there was no way I was spending the rest of my summer painting every single wall in the entire house.” Dave and Shannon were fortunate that their neighbor noticed the water. Other FS homeowners also recommend ask- ing property managers or trusted neighbors to keep a close eye on the house when you’re away. Skeirik hired someone to close her Maine house in the fall, check on it after every snow storm, and reopen it in the spring. Pernal says he has “a rental agent who takes care of the seasonal rentals for us, and we have a couple of handymen on speed dial if something goes sideways.” His parents also check on the house when they go up in the winter. Kelly Aley and her husband, who are currently based in Las Vegas, bought a house in Puerto Rico back when they were posted there. Aley recommends “getting people you trust to manage your house.” For us, she says, this was “cheaper than using a company that charges a percentage of the rental fees. We were going to have to charge more than the market could bear to have a company run it.” She recommends locating “an electrician, plumber and handyman that you know you can call. Make sure your pool guys and yard guys are reliable. Our cleaners are our house managers.” Is Renting an Option? Some families rent out their houses when they are overseas; others choose not to. “We use Airbnb, VRBO and TripAdvisor,” says Aley. “The first two produce the most rentals. Quality of renters is higher with Airbnb, and I like that you can review the guests easily. Our entire house is coded with locks, so we don’t have anyone on the property when guests arrive.” She does warn, though, that dealing with renters can be a hassle. When people are on vacation in close quarters, they often bicker with their fam- ily members, she says, and “when their vacation feels out of control, it is the homeowner who is attacked. I once got a call because it was too cloudy.” Aley recommends that you state in the contract that you “do not give refunds for the electricity going out, for the pool pump breaking, for the weather, if the area is evacuated, etc.” Skeirik doesn’t rent out her house, choosing instead to make it available to family members. “Everybody has been great about it so far,” she says. “In my family, we have a beach house that my parents built back when I was in college. We’ve all spent time there, both together and individually, so we all kind of know the drill” in terms of keeping it clean and being respectful of the property. Shannon and Dave don’t rent their house out, either. “We offer it up to family who come into the city from out of town,” says Shannon, but it’s usually empty. They have a friend who checks the mail weekly, and they leave a car at the house that family members use often enough to keep it functional. Pernal has chosen to rent the house on a weekly basis during the sum- mer and offer it up to family members in the off-season. Don’t Expect Family Dynamics to Change Often, people want to buy a house so that they don’t have to spend precious vacation days travelling from relative to relative—they hope that instead they can invite family mem- bers to come visit them in a place of their choosing. That’s a nice thought, says Shannon, “but it doesn't really work, at least not in our family.” Still, she says, even though family members haven’t really been as receptive to her plans as she’d hoped, “I don’t regret buying the house here. We have friends in the neighbor- hood. Friends who left food in my fridge and flowers on my front porch to welcome me home. My son went swimming with a friend yesterday, and the same friend spent the night last night. Having lifelong childhood friends is a rarity in the Foreign Service, and being able to give this gift to our boys is priceless.” Dave Pernal says his house is “about 25 minutes away from family in the summer, and about two hours from my parents’ home in Mystic, Connecticut. That said, more days than not, we end up going up to my parents’ Cape house to go to the beach with them.” He doesn’t really mind going to them, but it can be frustrating when “no one really wants to come to our beach.” The moral here? Buy where you want to be, but don’t expect family members to rush to see you when you come into town. You might find you still have to travel to them if you want to see them. Some families rent out their houses when they are overseas; others choose not to.