One of the best ways to bring in reliable, monthly income while living abroad is renting our your U.S. home. If you own a home in the U.S., this may be your ticket to a least get to Spain and due so with a plan. Our family owns Trinity Farm, a 3-acre custom-built farmhouse in the Greenville, South Carolina area. Although we met in college in Florida (and I was from New Jersey) and raised our bros in Florida for their early years, we felt a prompting in 2020 to move to the Carolinas for cooler mountain air and a new opportunity. We fell in love with Trinity Farm at first sight and slowly made it into our own.

When it was on our hearts in early 2023 to make the move aboard to Spain, we started to research how much we could rent out Trinity Farm for to long-term renters. We were elated to learn that we were able to rent ours out monthly at a cost that covered both our U.S. mortgage and the price of our apartment rental in Madrid, Spain! The first step is to research how much you’d be able to rent your house out for and from there you can make the best decision for you and your family.

We chose to rent ours to long-term renters (9 months +) vs. short-term (like on Airbnb) for many reasons. First, by renting to long-term renters we didn’t need to add in the additional expense of hiring a property manager. Even from Spain, we’ve been able to be our own property managers, keeping in close contact with renters through WhatsApp and having a team of professional assist when house issues arise. Second, by renting long-term, we could guarantee a set monthly income for a longer period of time. This helped us better budget and plan for an extended time in Spain.

We have run into just a few house issues, like septic tank problems and a frozen pipe, that were easily fixable over the phone. While being your own property manager definitely can cause some stressful days, it’s really a great way to bring in an income while living in Spain!