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Link love (the crowded house edition)

NZMuse - Link love roundup with awesome reads from the week

I’ve made my first money off Airbnb!

Not a lot – about $150 net. We’re not in a touristy area, and only have a tiny single room in a shabby house with 2 crazy dogs. But that’s okay, any extra is a bonus. Especially given lots of recent and upcoming expenses (two weddings, two friends both expecting babies, one expensive stag do, plus dog behaviourist consulting). And as the universe would have it, the exact week of the first booking, a friend wound up needing a place to stay. So, Airbnb is back on hold while we have a flatmate for now.

Our guest wanted to book a second short stint after arriving, and so we arranged that off the site. But man, do I feel awkward handling cash – the actual exchange, the handover. I gotta say, it’s more work than expected too – the laundry, the working to keep the house cleaner than usual, even always closing the bathroom door. Not to mention all the dang time spent setting up the listing online, researching the market, and organising payout to my bank account! Paypal is great – whether you want to receive or transfer money overseas it’s super convenient – but I figured that bypassing Paypal would save me a couple bucks in fees to receive the payments.

This week’s links

Thoughts on the lost generation (aka millennials)

The agony and ecstasy of small offices

Four ways to be better with money (that don’t suck)

Competing priorities – a tale of too many dials

Embracing a mindset of abundance

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4 thoughts on “Link love (the crowded house edition)

  • Reply Min Min February 26, 2017 at 06:50

    That’s great for a bit of extra income!

    In Toronto, it’s unfortunately starting to become an issues as the number of rental units are dropping and it’s becoming competitive just to get a place. People are keeping their units for short time gain like AirBnB. Not to say that if this company didn’t succeed, another wouldn’t have taken over the market. It’s just that the presence of these new business models are changing the dynamics of the local economy and we haven’t found a balance yet.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/new-rental-app-biddwell-rental-properties-toronto-1.3795193

    I believe Revenue Canada will also start chasing people to report it as income

    • Reply eemusings February 26, 2017 at 20:32

      I definitely sensed that when we Airbnbed in NYC back in 2013 – felt guilty taking away from the local rental market. One of the 2 places we stayed in was very obviously a commercial professional Airbnb operation with multiple apartments where they rented out each room individually and must have made a killing (the other was just a guy renting out his other room.

      My gut feeling is it won’t be as big of an issue here as in other big cities because of the nature of our market – which is mostly standalone family size houses.

      Super anecdotal but of the people I know in Auckland who do it (me included) we wouldn’t otherwise rent out those rooms to flatmates, so it’s not a zero sum game in our particular cases.

  • Reply SavvyFinancialLatina February 26, 2017 at 15:48

    Congrats on the extra income!

  • Reply Des February 27, 2017 at 05:17

    Ahhh congrats on the extra income for sure! And I am the world’s most awkward human with cash, whether asking for it or paying it. When I pay with cash I basically throw it at the person and run away. True story.

    Thanks for including me in the link roundup!

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