House Hacking // 3 Reasons to Rent out Your Home for a Weekend
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During the One Room Challenge, I mentioned that we are renting out the Farmhouse this summer for a few weekends as a vacation rental. As the Farmhouse has added bookings, we have scheduled weekends of camping and family visits, which we're all looking forward to. But when I've shared our summer plans with friends, I've gotten some questioning glances. So I thought it would be helpful to outline a few of the reasons we like to house-hack our primary residence here today.
As long-time followers of the Grit and Polish already know, house hacking (i.e. getting others to pay part or all of your rent/mortgage) is our M.O. We've been doing it for 10 years and I truly doubt we'll ever stop. House hacking has set us on a path to owning 5 homes, retiring at the age of 34, and living a pretty fantastic life all around. Low-fee sites like Airbnb and HomeAway have made renting out your home for a weekend (or longer) easy, and I'm guessing some of you may be considering it too. So today I wanted to share 3 of the reasons we decided to rent out our primary residence for short stays this summer.
One // Get paid to go on vacation
Let me repeat that: get paid to go on vacation! Most of us don't need another reason to take a trip, but if you did, having someone else subsidize your adventure is pretty compelling. So far we have reserved a campsite on the San Juan Islands and scheduled a longer visit to my sister's house during summer bookings. We're all much more excited about those trips than we would be spending another weekend at home. And a couple of winters ago, we did a longer 2 week booking when we lived at the Dexter House. We got to spend that time in the country at my in-laws house, relaxing and having one of my favorite Christmases ever, while earning thousands of dollars. Not too shabby.
Two // Less clutter
It's easy to let stuff creep into your life. A few extra toy baskets here, a couple cast-off bins of old books there and suddenly you're making space for things you don't really have space for. Stuff seems to attract other stuff in my experience. And it's a slippery slope that can leave your home feeling cluttered if you're not careful. For us, the best way to fight the slow creep of stuff is to invite others into our home. There is no better reason to keep your living spaces tidy and clean than inviting others to share those spaces with you. So host a party, invite a house guest, or better yet, rent your home out for a long weekend.
Three // Earn a financial return on your effort
This is a big one for us. We all spend time maintaining our properties (a lot of time if you live on a 3 acre old farm like us) and you probably spend money furnishing and decorating them too. So why not earn some money on all that time and effort? Renting your home out for a weekend or a month essentially turns chores into an investment. And that shift in thinking to a landlord/real-estate-investor perspective can help some (read: my husband) enjoy a home that might otherwise feel a bit like a ball-and-chain.
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Getting your home ready for guests is a whole separate topic that I won't go into here, but I will say that in the past 4 years of hosting on Airbnb (including 2 of our homes in Seattle on a full-time basis), we've only had a handful of finicky, unpleasant guests and even fewer super messy/disrespectful guests. Have you ever rented out your primary residence? Would you ever? We'd love to hear why or how you house hack! Leave a comment and keep the conversation going.
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