[Gansan]

See if the house can be let out to a not so well off relative for an extremely nominal rent, in return for his family staying in the property and taking care of it. But even that is fraught with risk. We can't say how human minds will change after some years.

The best option is to sell it now, when things are relatively simple.

[charanreddy]

My advice : Sell.

My lawyer said this once and it stuck with me: ‘Possession is 90% ownership’.

With real estate, you either need to be with in 1 hour’s travel time of the property or you need to be the biggest, most influential around your area. The payday from selling real estate unit makes local goons / real estate agents / govt. officers do crazy things. If you can’t ensure possession and a quick visit, better to sell off.

If you are insistent on retaining the unit, lease it out or rent it out post entering into a formal agreement and have a relative visit the house atleast every 2 months or so, to inspect the house. Nothing attracts these unscrupulous elements like an empty house / land.

[COMMUTER]

Houses appear resilient but are unimaginably vulnerable to getting dilapidated from disuse. You just need to leave it unused for six months to get to know the extent of damage it might sustain. If you are sure of not returning here but are keen on owning it, you need to install tiny cameras and keep the internet running to keep an eye on it.

[Amrik Singh]

It seems to be safe if leased out to Tenants with agreement or like. But then you are getting the rent which may just cover your annual trip to India, but not the same home to stay. (Remember the Tenants are occupying it now).
A neighbour of ours was was out of India for eight months. On his return, he found his Gas connection - discontinued. Fortunately for me, a final return after 14 years, the Gas connection had been active. The guys were drawing Gas Cylinders on my account and selling in the market. On my demand for a cylinder immediately, I was told to wait for a Week as the last supply was a week ago.
On my tough stand and informing them of my return and a threat to expose their activities on my name, the cylinder was immediately delivered.
The house (jointly owned with my brother residing a few lanes away) was in no way in a position to live in. Thieves had broken into the open yard to remove whatever they could get hands on including Water & Electricity Meters. Little thieves (Termites) had found their way in and consumed everything in the house.
In short, that paved way for totally new construction.

[ajayc123]

Remotely you can do only so much. If it is furnished, you should be prepared for rusting, mould (sofa, curtains, clothes etc), lizard droppings and other pests. If the apartment is not ventilated/ cleaned regularly it gets in bad shape soon.
I had to leave my rented apartment locked for a few months due to lockdown, and the above things were observed.

[Samurai]

I had left my individual home in Manipal empty for 1.5 years when I shifted to a flat just 9kms away in Udupi. I even put it on sale. Being in a small town I was not afraid of any illegal occupation, the neighbors would notice any strangers and notify me. However, there was no guarding against fauna and flora.

I passed within 150m of the house twice day, and checked on the house once a month. Yet I didn't know when the entire kitchen wood work got destroyed by termites. Upkeeping an empty home is a tedious job. So I got the entire kitchen rebuilt and rented it to my senior staff at nominal price, as company quarters. As a result the house is well maintained now. It never got serious buyers, but I am not in any hurry to sell either.

My mom also has a fully furnished empty house in her native village, the neighbors are all close relatives. No worries about illegal occupation, but the house could be falling apart from inside. She doesn't even want to rent due to sentimental reasons, which shuts off the option I took for my home.

NRIs have the habit of thinking that things can be taken care in India, if they are willing to spend money. Not true. Finding honest people who will do it for money, is nearly impossible. The only people whom you can trust are relatives or friends, and they can't really charge money for the service. So it becomes a burden on them, and they will not do it consistently since it is not their job.

I have rented plenty of homes in USA never having to meet the owners. All those homes were managed by professional companies. Professional management of properties is a huge business opportunity, that is largely untapped in India. I want to see some startup companies try to solve real logistic problems like this instead of deliver grocery in 5 minutes.

[FiatDiesel]

Originally Posted by Pacifica

Relatives have advised us strongly to sell the house immediately as "... you will not be living here to take care of it." While this sounds practical, both daughters are clear that selling the house would be contrary to their mother's wishes. So we want to retain the house and keep it in the family!

I was in similar situation.

I had my first property in NCR bought in days which was full of struggle in all spheres of life. My first home. We left NCR a decade back, moved in a new home. Thinking about selling it was never considered in initial years, similar reasons of emotional attachment and work done to earn it. My eyes use to get moist, they still do. And I had friends and relatives also to rely on.

But after few years managing it remotely even within India became pain as I had no other business to visit NCR except to manage it. Initially people do help but then for how long? There needs to be an end date, is’t it? As several members pointed out, you can’t trust third parties as unfortunately in this trade Dishonesty (with capital D) in our country is to the core. So only if you have really someone passionate and Trustworthy (with capital T), then think about it, otherwise though it’s hard, sell it someone who makes it his/her home and takes care of it as your mother in law would have wanted.

I sold mine and am happy with my decision.

Empty flats / properties degrade over time and are also on radar of notorious criminals of the area if left unattended.

Renting out is still not reliable game if owner is not around. And yes tenants many times don’t care about upkeep and maintenance of property.

I still visit my childhood home in other city, no longer owned by us, I just watch it from far. Peace.

[livetodrive]

In short please sell it at the earliest. Last year my ancestral home got ransacked by dacoits and I can tell you how painful it was to see the home in that state where we we grew up. The hassle and runaround to police station is another story. All sentiments were destroyed, so what is the point in keeping it and waiting for another mishap?

[vellatechie]

Another +1 for selling the house.

What you can do, if the reason is sentimental is that you take a piece of furniture or main door or anything of value and use it in your current home. You will still have memories without all the hassle.

[docsr]

This is becoming a real issue with many of us as we age and our parents pass on.Here are a few observations from personal experience:
1. A empty house that is not regularly lived in, WILL deteriorate. It may be a little slower with a new flat than a old bungalow, but deteriorate it will.
2. When you visit here 'once a year' - you will spend a majority of your time and a lot of money trying to get things repaired and fixed. Either you have to stand there and get things done (so you loose time) or you outsource it (and potentially loose money and get shoddy work). The stress is simply not worth it.
3. Finding a friendly and honest neighbourhood caretaker is, again, not easy. You are more likely to get ripped off. If you can find somebody, whom you can rely on for years together, you are blessed.

Here are my suggestions:
1. First option - If it is unlikely that you will ever return to India in the foreseeable future, sell it and settle it. You could potentially ship personal stuff that is of sentimental value to your homes in the US and preserve them there.
2. Second option- if you wish to keep the house- rent it out -either to a family member/known person or via professional realty services. You will get enough rent to keep the house self sustaining. If at anytime in the future you wish to return, it is there for you. Same plan with personal effects.

On a more philosophical note, scriptures encourage an early closure of the "physical attachment" - marked by the early cremation and dissemination of ashes in a flowing river- so that there is no physical remnant of the person who has passed on. (similar concepts, I guess are, there in many religions). From personal experience I can say that this is a deeply cleansing process and helps tremendously in coping with the loss of a loved one. Creating a mausoleum is not, at least from my point of view, helping anyone-neither the one who has passed on, nor those of us who are left behind.

Using the funds from the sale of the house to set up/fund sustainable charitable activities may be a more lasting, satisfying and practical way of retaining the memory of a loved one.

I do apologise if I have been somewhat blunt.

[sukhbirST]

Very relevant issues have been already brought like selling tomorrow when one sister is not there. A house has to have someone living inside to know/handle day to day issues like heavy rains causing leakage, flooding. Wood may attract termites and externally it is difficult to notice. These issues are known to me because of many NRIs having huge houses in my village and other known places in Punjab.
Recently (post Sidhu singer killing) police raided many societies in Mohali because it suspected anti-social elements being sheltered at houses where owners were not present and the tenant/caretaker has sublet. This case is so serious that it is difficult to get out of it. There were raids across few societies in Mohali and it has come to light some youngsters were involved in many wrong things. Finding a reliable caretaker is very difficult. A better way is to get central govt/state/PSU for renting officially.

[electro-monk]

Sell it.

We had a situation in which keys of our ancestral home was given to longtime househelp who was from our eastern neighbour.
It turned out that she (the help) and her son used it to hide firearms.

So never leave the flat empty for more than few months - if word gets around, a simple lock won't deter these unscrupulous elements in UP.

Either rent it out or have some close relatives occupy it, or sell it.

[xotiq]

Sell or Don't sell. I am not giving an opinion on the best choice. But stay miles away from nestaway!! We had multiple instances where police cases where filed against them. Would not recommend them even to my enemy!!

[Arun_S]

I would agree with all the people who have told the option to Sell.

Instance 1: Father's ancestral property, was nominally rented out to a relative but still started degrading over the years as the relative inspite of nominal rent didn't do any maintenance.

Instance 2: Mothers side, house is kept locked, due to uncle insisting not to sell, even though he is in US. The house is full of wooden things, termites are having a free run.

Instance 3: Owner in another city kept house locked for a lot of time, rented out to a couple. The couple started using it as a prostitution base. Police came sealed it and updated all saying, it is their modulus operandi, target houses which are locked for long time, sweet talk the owner saying we will maintain well and then offer good rent.

Lesson learnt by my father, he is going to sell the properties and don't want all this hassles for me or my brother.

[racer_ash]

Best would be to sell it. As generations go by, the sentimental value decreases and signatories needed to sell increases exponentially.

A great grandfather of mine owned a pretty big house in Kerala. His children were enjoying the fruits of the big house and retained the house for sentimental reasons just as you did and also because they were a joint family. They had lots of kids as was the norm at that time.

Things started turning from the next generation (my father's). Many of them moved out of Kerala for jobs and stuff. Now that there was not much of a sentimental value associated, they somehow initiated the process of selling the house. But boy, was that tough. First of all, being second generation, they did not exactly know who were the signatories,as most of the previous generation were old and many passed away too. So tracing their children became a herculean task.

By the time this was done, we had the third generation (mine). And soon there was fourth generation too (my children). Now imagine the complications.

Unfortunately, now, the house stands abandoned as a reminder of the glory days of my great grandfather and his children. It has become dilapidated with no one able to take responsibility. My dad and me have a heartache everytime we visit our village in Kerala. This is the situation with us being in India.

Things will go south very soon if there is no one trustworthy and you being abroad can only watch this go waste with only memories remaining