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I find it interesting that the author only looks at Airbnb as a source of housing, but it seemingly doesn’t occur to them that it’s also a way to flip their lia

I find it interesting that the author only looks at Airbnb as a source of housing, but it seemingly doesn’t occur to them that it’s also a way to flip their liability (their house) into an asset. I moved to an inexpensive property in another country, and put my home on Airbnb. It yields far more than 7% - more like 20%, and is comfortably enough to live on, as I bought the cheap home here outright.

seanhunter 5y ago
That seems a much better plan than the author's, because if things go wrong you still have the original asset to fall back on (you can move back into your house if the bottom falls out of the airbnb thing and you can't live on it any more).
- chii 5y ago
  you might need to be near your house that you let out as an AirBnB rental, so that you can take care of stuff for it (or pay for some sort of management in lieu). If your cheap housing is far away from your asset, that will have a cost associated with managing the airbnb rental that you need to account for (either with time, or payment).
  - madaxe_again 5y ago
    The management cost is well, well within the margin, and I run a two night minimum to ensure it doesn’t eat the nightly rate. Another advantage is that many countries offer tax incentives to rent furnished holiday lets - in the U.K., for instance, your mortgage interest and utility bills become allowable expenses, offsettable against income from the property.
wheybags 5y ago
They could also just offer their house as a traditional rental, with much the same effect.
- madaxe_again 5y ago
  Yeah, but with a much worse yield, and without the option of staying there or moving back in from time to time.
jsonne 5y ago
So we live in airbnbs and have for over a year. Our long term plan is exactly as you described which is have a "home base" and house swap or rent ours on airbnb while we then travel via airbnb which is a bit easier / more stable of an approach imho.
fortran77 5y ago
I was thinking the same thing. Other alternatives would be to reconfigure his house so it's a duplex, and renting out half, or put a "ADU" in the yard, live in that, and rent out the house.

seanhunter 5y ago

That seems a much better plan than the author's, because if things go wrong you still have the original asset to fall back on (you can move back into your house if the bottom falls out of the airbnb thing and you can't live on it any more).

chii 5y ago
you might need to be near your house that you let out as an AirBnB rental, so that you can take care of stuff for it (or pay for some sort of management in lieu). If your cheap housing is far away from your asset, that will have a cost associated with managing the airbnb rental that you need to account for (either with time, or payment).
- madaxe_again 5y ago
  The management cost is well, well within the margin, and I run a two night minimum to ensure it doesn’t eat the nightly rate. Another advantage is that many countries offer tax incentives to rent furnished holiday lets - in the U.K., for instance, your mortgage interest and utility bills become allowable expenses, offsettable against income from the property.

wheybags 5y ago

They could also just offer their house as a traditional rental, with much the same effect.

madaxe_again 5y ago
Yeah, but with a much worse yield, and without the option of staying there or moving back in from time to time.

jsonne 5y ago

So we live in airbnbs and have for over a year. Our long term plan is exactly as you described which is have a "home base" and house swap or rent ours on airbnb while we then travel via airbnb which is a bit easier / more stable of an approach imho.

fortran77 5y ago

I was thinking the same thing. Other alternatives would be to reconfigure his house so it's a duplex, and renting out half, or put a "ADU" in the yard, live in that, and rent out the house.