I have been wrestling with this topic as well. My scenario is that I have a motorhome, which I intend to drive a lot around the good ol' USA. DW requires some form of stabilty - which she defines as some place to leave life's accumulation of (junk) treasures. I on the other hand, prefer to travel as light and as constantly as humanly possible, and explore this beautiful world.
Thus the conundrum. And to the topic at hand, I currently own home, or at least will in a few years, but after I begin ER. The cost of property taxes, maintenance, insurance, et.al. and general handyman upkeep (lawn mowing, etc, since we won't be around) represents, to me, a large sink hole of costs - totaling some $10,000 per year. I'm trying to detemine if the cost of owning a paid off house, or sell the sucker, and pay about 12,000 - 16,000 in rent per year, along wih modest utilities (about 1200 - 1500 per year), that will only see occupancy usage for about 1-2 months per year (less if I can keep DW distracted). House is estimated to clear around 170,000, and believe that conservatively I could invest and get between 7,000-9,000 per year to help offset some of that rent payments.
I know that most of the advice seems to be pay off the farm, so to speak, and I should add that the motorhome will be paid off, within 4 years of ER, sooner if I take $40,000 from selling home, and pay off the motorhome, which I had planned to do, before this issue of "roots" came up.
My plan/hope is to make time on the road enjoyable enough, that eventually we could close apartment, possibly take interim storage option (which was original plan - but DW isn't buying that yet), and then go to shipping pictures, and stuff to daughter's house, and selling balance of "treasures" to close storage. Dang that Venus - Mars thing anyway.
Any suggestions, comments or ideas.