I haven’t admitted this before
Recently my landlord of 10 years wrote to me to say “get out of my house bro, I’m gonna fix all the things I’ve been refusing to fix for years, re-carpet, and then sell it for 1.5mil. Seeya.”
I panicked. Sought out Bloody Good Bloke for a calming hug. And then panicked some more.
That house was not just my much beloved home... It was also my ticket to freedom.
You see, I’ve been sneakily Airbnb-ing the spare room in that house for the past 9 years. I’ve used Airbnb to fund many, many travel adventures, including living between two states for the past 2.5 years.
As Bloody Good Bloke puts it, I’m “a pro at living a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget”.
I love to find unconventional ways of doing things.
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For nearly a decade, Airbnbing that house has allowed me the freedom and flexibility to spend 3-6 months a year travelling and working overseas while covering my rent back home.
Receiving the “notice to vacate” felt like losing my freedom.
I knew it was unlikely that BGB and I would be able to find a similarly awesome place, certainly not one that we could afford. I’ve been unable to work at full capacity for more than 2 years now (cheers, long covid), and meanwhile the rent in our area had doubled.
It seemed pretty likely we wouldn’t be able to find another place that I could Airbnb so easily while travelling, either. 😬
Meanwhile, there was a lot of chaos in the news about the out-of-control rental crisis in Melbourne.
Sure enough, the first rental we went to inspect had 100 people queuing down the street in the rain to see it.
When we finally stepped soggily inside, a guy was holding the door open for us.
I laughed and said “Cheers… are you employed as a full time door-holder-opener today?”
He laughed and said “I’m the tenant.”
“Well, well, well,” I said… “Tell us everything!”
He looked over his shoulder to check that the real estate agent wasn’t listening.
“It’s terrible here… mould, condensation issues, the landlord won’t fix anything… a real tightarse… I’m moving out after 6 months, I just can’t stand it any longer.”
“Righto, thanks for that!” we stress-laughed as we marched out the door, past the queues of people still waiting to inspect.
We dived back into the car (while Melbourne pelted us sideways with rain), and I promptly burst into a dramatic wail.
“How are we going to find somewhere with all these people looking, let alone somewhere we actually want to live and can afford!?!!”
We went to see a few more places that day, and our spirits sunk lower and lower. We ate a burger to console ourselves.
Shiiit.
A few weeks later, we still hadn’t found anywhere and the countdown was on to move out of our place.
We decided to look for places on the Mornington Peninsula, 1.5 hours out of Melbourne.
There were a lot of somewhat run-down beach houses going on the rental market in the area, and there weren’t any queues of people looking at them.
We looked and looked, but every place had something wrong with it.
One place seemed ok, but as we pulled up outside, the tatted-up bogan neighbours shouted down at us to get the fuck away from their grass. We were nowhere near their grass.
The real estate agent laughed nervously and said…
“Right, err… well I’m working on getting the driveway fixed, but unfortunately I can’t fix that…” 😂
I was starting to feel heavier and heavier about locking ourselves into a year-long lease in a house that we didn’t like.
A friend offered for us to spend a week at her place near the beach so we could spend more time checking out the Peninsula.
One morning that week, like most mornings that week, I woke up to find Neville (my mind) already backstroking around in a panic, trying to figure out an answer.
I knew I was at risk of spending the day stress-crying (I was also on IVF meds at the time), so I went for a walk-run to the beach and sat watching the wild ocean smash up against the rocks.
At first, Neville continued to ruminate on the trapped feeling of being locked into a lease without having the freedom to travel. I imagined having to give up my little studio in northern NSW, which I adore and escape to at every opportunity. (Major first world problems, I know.)
If it was just me, I’d be living at my place in NSW full time. But since BGB’s work is tied to Melbourne, we have to have a Melbourne base for another year.
As I watched the waves, my mind started to drive to more “free” ways of having a Melbourne base… buying a van, house-sitting…
As I thought more about house-sitting, I felt a lot lighter.
Later that night I asked Bloody Good Bloke how he’d feel if we sold all our furniture and tried housesitting around Melbourne for a bit.
As usual, he was totally up for the adventure.
But the next day, as I stared at more waves crashing against more rocks, the idea of constantly moving around from place to place didn’t feel so fun.
But the idea of selling all our furniture had planted a seed.
I stared at the waves some more.
I sat and sat, sifting cold sand through my fingers, until an insight surfed into my head.
We were already planning on being away in NSW and NZ with our families over summer… surely there must be some beach house/ Airbnb owners on the Peninsula who’d love to rent their place out and then have it back over the summer holidays?
It felt like an exciting idea, so I ran home (stopping on the way to grin at an echidna)
and put a post in the local Facebook groups. I mentioned what we were looking for (fireplace, light and bright!), and our (not very high!) budget.
My idea was that it would be a win-win beachhouse sharing scenario — we’d be able to travel frequently without paying rent. They’d get bonus rental income for their usually-empty beach house, while still being able to use it frequently. And we’d be taking up one less rental property in an overburdened rental market.
There were a few angry trolls that responded to my Facebook post that we wouldn’t get a shed in Capel Sound for that price. (Capel Sound = much drugs).
One guy told us to “fuck off back to the city.” 🤣
But in the meantime, I was being inundated with private messages from lovely owners who were keen to show us their 3, 4, and 5 bedroom beach houses.
Many people offered us beach houses that were far bigger and more beautiful than our budget would ordinarily allow.
We ended up having a plethora of beautiful houses to choose between — do we go with the place with stunning views over the water? The place with a pool? The place with beautiful forest-like gardens? The place with the chef style kitchen and entertaining area?
Because it’s such a unique agreement, they were all happy to accommodate our small budget in return for being able to use their beach house over summer and intermittently throughout the year.
So that’s the story of how we came to sell all our furniture and move into a lovely, furnished, 4 bedroom beach house with a separate studio, huge outdoor area and pool… at a price way below its usual rental value,
and the ability to pay $0 rent every time we travel!
We give our landlords at least 2 weeks notice of our upcoming travel dates, and they rent out their place for a higher nightly rate than we’re paying per week!
Win-win!
I credit the crashing waves with helping me come up with this brain wave solution.
Neville would never have come up with anything useful via his usual methods of panicking, ruminating, and overthinking.
My least helpful thinking gets done when I’m following Neville’s advice, running around like a panicked cactus, trying to control situations that aren’t within my control, and attempting to figure everything out with my mind.
My best ideas come when I’m sitting quietly, being present. Often in nature.
This is something you’ll have heard me bang on about if you’ve done the free 6 Days to Decisiveness Challenge.
Our gut instinct and creative insights only get the chance to speak when our mind is silent enough to listen.
If you’ve got a big decision to make, or a problem you’re trying to solve, it can be tempting to try to *think* your way into the solution.
But in my experience, the mind doesn’t have the answers.
Presence does.
Learning to tame your mind so you can experience more moments of presence and clarity is one of the most important things I’ve ever learnt.
You can learn my easiest tricks for taming your mind by signing up for the free 6 Days to Decisiveness Challenge here.
And when you’re ready for the next level, check out Bloody Good Life, my unconventional mind-taming program. It’s specifically designed for indecisive overachievers who are keen to get unstuck and get clarity on a big life decision.
As many of our hundreds of Bloody Good Life alumni will tell you, “it’s a game-changer.”
And in the meantime, if you’ve got something unfathomable you’re trying to fathom…
It’s probably high time you stared at a wave.
✌️
Andrea
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