5 ms·

or you can up-bundle airbnb. I would like to be able to pick "2 years in <nice place>" as a package that includes everything from home to food/gym/car etc

by jdrc 5y ago

ackbar03 5y ago
You mean real estate agent?
- octoberfranklin 5y ago
  Never rent through a real estate agent. You're at a disadvantage, they're too good at screwing tenants. Look at it objectively: two people have to be able to make a profit off of you in this arrangement (the owner and their realtor) and both of those margins will be pretty fat since neither of them is a long-term employee of the other, like you'd see in an apartment complex with an on-site manager. Real estate agents are always on the landowner's side. Just accept this and the whole system will make more sense (this goes for buying or selling a house too).
  - throwaway744678 5y ago
    This has not been my experience as a renter and as an owner. The realtor's margins for renting are quite low, which means they try to make things as smooth as possible for everyone, to minimize their work: in particular, they try to get the house/apartment rented as soon as possible, to make as few visits as possible; the also have an interest in the tenant staying the longest time possible. As always, I guess it depends on your real estate agent, though!
  - ricardobayes 5y ago
    Yes, according to my experience the owners who actually care and will solve any issues are not using real estate agents. Only those who want to be 'hands off' do. It usually ends up not being a great experience for everyone involved.
    - mijamo 5y ago
      My experience is that the owners not usings agents are the cheap ones that will cause trouble for everything and not pay up for renovations and things breaking down. Hands off owners are the best as they just let the agent handle things professionally instead of trying to save a buck by calling illegal workers to half fix everything, then steal your deposit because things are broken when you leave. I have not met any of those magical owner that fixes everything correctly and would go the extra mile and I actually wonder what would be their inventive to do so, when simply having an agent take care of everything would save their time.
      - gregkerzhner 5y ago
        I (hope) I’m like this. Im not handy at all, and have a tenant. When a problem arises for them, I just call the appropriate person (plumber, handyman, etc..) to come fix it. It’s the same thing I do when a problem arises in my own house. Problems don’t tend to come up too often, maybe once every few months, so I don’t see why I need to pay someone to handle this stuff for me.
- kqr 5y ago
  I'm going to go for personal assistant in this case.
- jdrc 5y ago
  that s not what real estate agents do here. but it might work with some kind of "local agents" that arrange all things for you before and after , making the moving easy and seamless. there are relocation experts in many major cities, they all have differnt websites and all. someone should unite them under a gig platform (this was actually an idea for a website i made some time ago)
dazc 5y ago
I tried this via Airbnb in Spain and ended up moving from place to place instead. I never actually found a location where I could work properly, to the extent that I rented a separate office some of the time. Patchy internet almost always, cheap furniture, base level electricity that would trip out if you had two appliances running at the same time, and #1 problem NOISE all of the time. I'm not sure that Airbnb is the actual problem here, for me it was the host's expectation that people will just throw money at them whilst all they have to do is provide the location. The one half-decent place I stayed was, ironically, the only option without a hundred or so glowing reviews. Alternatives to Airbnb exist for every niche and, in my opinion, you generally have a good idea of what you are going to get from the outset rather than with Airbnb where it is always a gamble - regardless of how much money you are willing to spend.
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  In Spain you need to make sure they have fiber, and not some satellite internet (surprisingly common). Other than that, yes, noise is a huge problem for us foreigners in Spain. Most landlors opt for the smallest kWh electricity contract as electricity is one of the most expensive in Europe.
- rjh29 5y ago
  Problem is, the neighbours of airbnbs are often airbnbs themselves, so you get a stream of incoming people who don't care about noise.
- peterfa 5y ago
  There is a couple of very nice coliving+coworking spaces in Spain in case you would like to try this experience again. My favorite are Sun & Co (https://sun-and-co.com/ https://sun-and-co.com/) and Sende (https://www.sende.co/ https://www.sende.co/)
- city41 5y ago
  I've never had a good Airbnb experience. There is simply no incentive for hosts to provide good accomodations. On the flip side, hotels that cost as much as typical Airbnbs provide a drastically better experience. After paying a fortune for yet another lousy Airbnb a couple weeks ago my wife and I agreed we'd never use Airbnb again.
activitypea 5y ago
I'd pay good money for this. A year long "staycation" sounds amazing.
quickthrower2 5y ago
Good idea for people working for 2 years abroad for a job opportunity. It might be part of the package and the employer offloads it to your company. Imagine how productive your exec hire will be without having to deal with all that. I imagine it coming with a concierge app so you can add or remove stuff and the push of a button.
rjh29 5y ago
Those things are a pain to sort out in the short term, but irrelevant in the scale of 2 years, or even 6 months. Which is probably why it's not a thing.
marcohernaiz 5y ago
I tested this concept with smarthubs.club (digital nomads living and traveling around the world with everything included). We started in Spain, and used 4 stars hotels to standarize the experience. Although it worked during the pandemic, hotels are now reluctant to change their business models, and they will not accept the required conditions to make the business model viable and expand the concept to other hotels/cities
- peterfa 5y ago
  What were the conditions hotels didn't want to accept?
- erezsh 5y ago
  Hotels suck anyway. I can't imagine why anyone would want to pass through a reception and a bunch of corridors just to arrive "home", at a small room with bad furniture, and it isn't even cheap. It might make sense if you just need a place to crash after a long day of traveling, but it's not a way to live.
  - dorchadas 5y ago
    I don't visit foreign cities to 'live'. That's for the locals -- they're the ones who deserve to be able to live in the towns they work in, not be driven out because of AirBnB.
  - vineyardmike 5y ago
    > I can't imagine why anyone would want to pass through a reception and a bunch of corridors just to arrive "home", at a small room with bad furniture, and it isn't even cheap. You just described living in a major city. Thats my life in my apartment in <Major West Coast City>.
    - erezsh 5y ago
      That might describe SF. Or student dorms. Most cities I've been to aren't like that.
peterfa 5y ago
There are a few companies doing this. The most established one is probably Remote Year.
lom 5y ago
There’s sabbatical homes[1] which does that. Say someone lives abroad for a year, and doesn’t want to go through all the hassle of moving out all of the furniture or parking their car in a safe place for an entire year just to rent it for that time. And the same for the person who’ll be renting, they might be in a similar position, just reversed. [1] https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/ https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/

or you can up-bundle airbnb. I would like to be able to pick "2 years in <nice place>" as a package that includes everything from home to food/gym/car etc

by jdrc 5y ago

or you can up-bundle airbnb. I would like to be able to pick "2 years in <nice place>" as a package that includes everything from home to food/gym/car etc

ackbar03 5y ago

You mean real estate agent?

octoberfranklin 5y ago
Never rent through a real estate agent. You're at a disadvantage, they're too good at screwing tenants. Look at it objectively: two people have to be able to make a profit off of you in this arrangement (the owner and their realtor) and both of those margins will be pretty fat since neither of them is a long-term employee of the other, like you'd see in an apartment complex with an on-site manager. Real estate agents are always on the landowner's side. Just accept this and the whole system will make more sense (this goes for buying or selling a house too).
- throwaway744678 5y ago
  This has not been my experience as a renter and as an owner. The realtor's margins for renting are quite low, which means they try to make things as smooth as possible for everyone, to minimize their work: in particular, they try to get the house/apartment rented as soon as possible, to make as few visits as possible; the also have an interest in the tenant staying the longest time possible. As always, I guess it depends on your real estate agent, though!
- ricardobayes 5y ago
  Yes, according to my experience the owners who actually care and will solve any issues are not using real estate agents. Only those who want to be 'hands off' do. It usually ends up not being a great experience for everyone involved.
  - mijamo 5y ago
    My experience is that the owners not usings agents are the cheap ones that will cause trouble for everything and not pay up for renovations and things breaking down. Hands off owners are the best as they just let the agent handle things professionally instead of trying to save a buck by calling illegal workers to half fix everything, then steal your deposit because things are broken when you leave. I have not met any of those magical owner that fixes everything correctly and would go the extra mile and I actually wonder what would be their inventive to do so, when simply having an agent take care of everything would save their time.
    - gregkerzhner 5y ago
      I (hope) I’m like this. Im not handy at all, and have a tenant. When a problem arises for them, I just call the appropriate person (plumber, handyman, etc..) to come fix it. It’s the same thing I do when a problem arises in my own house. Problems don’t tend to come up too often, maybe once every few months, so I don’t see why I need to pay someone to handle this stuff for me.
kqr 5y ago
I'm going to go for personal assistant in this case.
jdrc 5y ago
that s not what real estate agents do here. but it might work with some kind of "local agents" that arrange all things for you before and after , making the moving easy and seamless. there are relocation experts in many major cities, they all have differnt websites and all. someone should unite them under a gig platform (this was actually an idea for a website i made some time ago)

dazc 5y ago

I tried this via Airbnb in Spain and ended up moving from place to place instead. I never actually found a location where I could work properly, to the extent that I rented a separate office some of the time. Patchy internet almost always, cheap furniture, base level electricity that would trip out if you had two appliances running at the same time, and #1 problem NOISE all of the time. I'm not sure that Airbnb is the actual problem here, for me it was the host's expectation that people will just throw money at them whilst all they have to do is provide the location. The one half-decent place I stayed was, ironically, the only option without a hundred or so glowing reviews. Alternatives to Airbnb exist for every niche and, in my opinion, you generally have a good idea of what you are going to get from the outset rather than with Airbnb where it is always a gamble - regardless of how much money you are willing to spend.

ricardobayes 5y ago
In Spain you need to make sure they have fiber, and not some satellite internet (surprisingly common). Other than that, yes, noise is a huge problem for us foreigners in Spain. Most landlors opt for the smallest kWh electricity contract as electricity is one of the most expensive in Europe.
rjh29 5y ago
Problem is, the neighbours of airbnbs are often airbnbs themselves, so you get a stream of incoming people who don't care about noise.
peterfa 5y ago
There is a couple of very nice coliving+coworking spaces in Spain in case you would like to try this experience again. My favorite are Sun & Co (https://sun-and-co.com/ https://sun-and-co.com/) and Sende (https://www.sende.co/ https://www.sende.co/)
city41 5y ago
I've never had a good Airbnb experience. There is simply no incentive for hosts to provide good accomodations. On the flip side, hotels that cost as much as typical Airbnbs provide a drastically better experience. After paying a fortune for yet another lousy Airbnb a couple weeks ago my wife and I agreed we'd never use Airbnb again.

activitypea 5y ago

I'd pay good money for this. A year long "staycation" sounds amazing.

quickthrower2 5y ago

Good idea for people working for 2 years abroad for a job opportunity. It might be part of the package and the employer offloads it to your company. Imagine how productive your exec hire will be without having to deal with all that. I imagine it coming with a concierge app so you can add or remove stuff and the push of a button.

rjh29 5y ago

Those things are a pain to sort out in the short term, but irrelevant in the scale of 2 years, or even 6 months. Which is probably why it's not a thing.

marcohernaiz 5y ago

I tested this concept with smarthubs.club (digital nomads living and traveling around the world with everything included). We started in Spain, and used 4 stars hotels to standarize the experience. Although it worked during the pandemic, hotels are now reluctant to change their business models, and they will not accept the required conditions to make the business model viable and expand the concept to other hotels/cities

peterfa 5y ago
What were the conditions hotels didn't want to accept?
erezsh 5y ago
Hotels suck anyway. I can't imagine why anyone would want to pass through a reception and a bunch of corridors just to arrive "home", at a small room with bad furniture, and it isn't even cheap. It might make sense if you just need a place to crash after a long day of traveling, but it's not a way to live.
- dorchadas 5y ago
  I don't visit foreign cities to 'live'. That's for the locals -- they're the ones who deserve to be able to live in the towns they work in, not be driven out because of AirBnB.
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  > I can't imagine why anyone would want to pass through a reception and a bunch of corridors just to arrive "home", at a small room with bad furniture, and it isn't even cheap. You just described living in a major city. Thats my life in my apartment in <Major West Coast City>.
  - erezsh 5y ago
    That might describe SF. Or student dorms. Most cities I've been to aren't like that.

peterfa 5y ago

There are a few companies doing this. The most established one is probably Remote Year.

lom 5y ago

There’s sabbatical homes[1] which does that. Say someone lives abroad for a year, and doesn’t want to go through all the hassle of moving out all of the furniture or parking their car in a safe place for an entire year just to rent it for that time. And the same for the person who’ll be renting, they might be in a similar position, just reversed. [1] https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/ https://www.sabbaticalhomes.com/