“I’ll never buy again,” said the veteran Nets guard Keyon Dooling, who rents the downtown Orlando condominium he bought in 2005 to a Magic player. “That was a learning experience. I’ll never buy again as far as where I’m playing. It’s not a good idea because you can never predict how long you’re going to be in a situation. You could be stuck with a piece of property that you never go to.”  Dooling’s teammate Courtney Lee, a rookie with the Magic last season, considered buying in the same condominium building before Dooling advised him against it. Good thing, since Lee is now with the Nets, where he rents on a month-to-month basis from the former Net Bostjan Nachbar, who is playing in Turkey.  A word-of-mouth network has developed among players, and often an N.F.L. or an N.B.A. team representative will pass along news of possible rentals to incoming players. The N.H.L. players’ association has a Web site that lists homes the league’s players are trying to sell or rent. It adds a sense of confidence to rent to someone within the sports community.  Giants linebacker Danny Clark has rented his unsold mansion in Berkeley, Calif., where he played for the Raiders in 2004 and 2005, to other Raiders, and recently dropped the $4 million asking price by a million dollars.  “You know where he works,” Clark said of renting to other players. “You can’t say you know he’s going to have a job, but you know where he works. It’s a fraternity. Word travels fast if you get messed over by somebody in your business.”  Some players wind up back in the city they left, in the house they were trying to sell. It happened with the new Devils left wing Dean McAmmond, who left and later returned to Calgary. Jets kicker Jay Feely bought his Upper Saddle River, N.J., home as a Giant in 2005 then returned last season as a Jet.  Feely had previously purchased in Tampa, Fla., and Atlanta and said he sold for a profit each time. But his home in Upper Saddle River sat on the market while he played — and bought again — in Miami. After one season, Feely found himself back with the Jets.  “Walked in, took the For Sale sign down and moved right back in,” Feely said with a laugh. “Although last year I had no furniture. I didn’t even have a kitchen table. I didn’t know if I’d be back, so I didn’t want to buy any furniture.”  Feely rents his Miami home to a Dolphin.  Jets linebacker Bart Scott is not interested in renting the Baltimore-area home he just put on the market for $650,000. Scott, who purchased the house for $850,000 in 2005 and put in about $300,000 worth of upgrades, including a home theater, said athletes had other concerns when it came to selling, such as a parade of curiosity-seekers.  “You have to guard against that because some people just want to see what’s in your house,” Scott said. “A lot of people have no intention of buying.”  Scott said his long-term contract allowed him to buy a similar home in New Jersey despite having another house. The highest-paid athletes can do that, but mid-tier players may have a greater percentage of their equity tied up in the market.  Brian Rolston, a veteran left wing who came to the Devils in 2008 from Minnesota, said that financially he “got killed” in order to sell his house quickly when he left the Wild.  “We’re obviously paid well but when you’re hanging onto two mortgages, $600-$700,000, that’s not an easy thing to keep up with,” he said. “We took a big hit on it, but we thought it was better to get out of it than hold onto it. There were guys on this team that got traded the year before and they were holding onto their house for three years.”  The Jets player development coordinator Dave Szott said he told incoming players that unless they had a long-term contract they should rent.  “The last thing you want to worry about is mortgages and loans and cutting the grass,” Szott said. “Why create more stress?”  A version of this article appears in print on November 27, 2009, on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: For Athletes in Motion, Real Estate Can Be a Burden. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The lives of professional athletes, always a transient band, have become more complicated by the decline in home values.