This week started pretty dismally.

My tenants who had been renting my fully furnished house for the past 12 months were moving out. This is a very normal occurrance in the life of a landlord. Working with my property manager a new tenant was found. Dates when the old tenants were leaving and the new tenant was moving in were organised, and everything seemed to be managed perfectly.

As my house is being leased fully furnished, the new tenant requested a couple of items be removed as she did not require them (fridge, small couch, microwave). Not excited by another cost I had to pay, but knowing there was no way around it, I arranged for removalists to come the day after the current tenant’s lease ended and were supposed to have moved out. With the new tenant moving in 2 days later, I wanted everything to be completed prior to her arrival.

Unfortunately as often happens, best laid plans often go awry.

Speaking with my property manager the day before the removal truck was due, he warned me that the old tenants had not done a good job of vacating the house. Whilst they been good throughout the year and quarterly inspections were completed with no major issues, my agent informed me they had not cleaned the house well enough for a new person to move in. Reassuring me their bond would cover whatever cleaning costs were required, he did let me know he was disappointed with the way the tenants had left the property.

Warning headed, nevertheless the next day I arrived at my property early to meet the movers.

I was horrified when I walked into my formerly pretty house. The place was a mess. The tenants had left furniture, clothing, rubbish and even toothbrushes behind. The toilets were disgusting. My washing machine had a layer of brown gunk in the bottom with leaves stuck in the hinges, leading me to believe it had been outside for the past 12 months.

Now as I have said, I have a good property manager who reassured me again that he would take care of all cleaning required and the cost would be covered by the tenant’s bond. So I knew that everything would be okay and this is why I set myself up with a manager. However actually seeing my house after 12 months in such a messy state, definitely brought up doubts in my mind.

Am I doing the right thing going overseas again? Should I move back into my house instead? Is staying in the life of working in an office all day and paying a mortgage the better decision?

No, it’s not.

I won’t lie, of course I have doubts about what I am doing with my life. I’m only human, and I make mistakes. But even after this house incident, the constant stress of not often socialising with my friends so I can save money, selling my belongings to fund my life of traveling and living as a house guest with my parents, I don’t feel I’m supposed to be living the non-traveling, office working, mortgage paying life. Not yet.

I can’t ignore the seductive pull of an amazing, adventurous life on the road. Especially because I have just lived it for the past year and know how achievable it is.

So I keep going. My house ended up being cleaned and the new tenant moved in. Everything is okay.

Packing up and leaving for life on the road again is what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s not easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it. And really, everybody should be chasing a dream that is difficult to achieve. It makes living it so much more fulfilling.