Turn Your Home into a Travel Fund

How we traveled in Europe for three months and made more money than we spent.

Fjord and mountain views from our home exchange in Bergen, Norway. Image: Becky Youman

Now that we are no longer working full time, I love being able to travel for months on end. There is only one issue: Our house sitting idle while we traveled for weeks at a time drove me crazy. More than that, it just seemed wasteful to have a perfectly good house sitting empty while we were gone, when one of our biggest expenses while traveling was lodging. If we could put the house to use—and maybe even make a little money—why wouldn’t we?

We looked at renting it out for a couple of years, but we love Seattle and our community. We wanted to be able to come back to our house in the summer and over the holidays. That led us to look at shorter-term rental options. We ended up honing in on HomeExchange.com and Airbnb.com.

Letting Go Is Key

You can’t do this without letting go a bit. If you feel that everything in your home is extra valuable or precious, this isn’t for you. If you can define a limited list of precious items, that’s another story with a solution. For us, the letting go felt liberating. Every trip to Goodwill was like freeing ourselves of extra weight. We were ready for our home to feel less like a museum of our lives and more like a living space that could welcome others while enabling us to do more.

The Options

HomeExchange.com

How it works: Home Exchange has a points system so you don’t have to match dates with a specific person for an exchange. When someone books your house, you get points immediately, allowing you to plan ahead and book your own stay elsewhere. (Organizing a simultaneous exchange without points is also an option.)

Where it shines: We have found it to be especially useful in Europe, where the system is well established and there are many options. Homes range from small urban apartments to sprawling countryside ramblers. Some people will even allow you to use their car for an extra fee. Because Europeans take longer holidays, the homes usually have a minimum exchange of five to seven nights and are sometimes available for weeks. The quality and location of the places we’ve stayed have been exceptional. You tend to have a closer relationship with the hosts and walk in their footsteps, given the more personal nature of the exchange.

Practical tips:

• Decide how much you want to clear out of your home; many people just leave a couple of empty shelves in the fridge and some closet space. Just make sure it is tidy.

• The system is very based on trust. People tend to leave their liquor and their nice stuff out, but that’s up to you. Because we were also Airbnbing the house, we stored those away.

• Check that your insurance covers home exchanges.

• We asked guests to pay a cleaning fee rather than clean the house themselves so we knew it would be clean for the next guests.

We look for big windows and natural light like in this apartment in Bilbao, Spain. Image: Becky Youman

Airbnb
Setting your home up to Airbnb definitely requires more work. With our daughter out of the house, cleaning out closets and reducing our “stuff” was very appealing. We have a shed and a couple of closets we can lock for gear, clothes, and photo albums. Important documents and jewelry are in a safety deposit box.

Where It Shines: Cash. Although you are not banking “free” homestays like with HomeExchange, earning income off your house allows you to offset things like airfare, transportation and entertainment.

Requirements and tips:

• You have to register with your city and get a license.

• Check your insurance; most standard policies exclude short-term rentals and will require a rider.

• Understand tax implications; income is reported.

• Compare similar homes in your area to set pricing.

• Get professional photos taken.

Logistical Tips for Either Option

• Install a keypad front door lock connected to the internet so codes can be managed remotely.

• Use a smart thermostat for easy monitoring and control.

• Hire a cleaning service like Turno.com that automatically schedules cleans as soon as you get a booking.

• Have an in-town point person or “house manager” to check the house and handle emergencies. Our former dog sitter (RIP little Chai) agreed to check take on that role for us.

• Hold mail and put utilities on autopay; have someone manage mail if holds expire.

• Figure out your storage system and make it as easy as possible. We can get our house “Airbnb guest-ready” in about a day. We remove personal photos, put family keepsakes in a locked closet, stash the liquor, and clean out the pantry and fridge. Meaningful jewelry and documents basically stay in the bank safety deposit box.

• Let neighbors know what’s happening so they can alert you to anything unusual.

Before we left in May, a few people had already booked our house on Home Exchange, which allowed us to plan stays in Spain and France. Meanwhile, we crossed our fingers to see if Airbnb bookings would come in.

Our comfortable dining and living room in Krakow, Poland. Image: Becky Youman

How It Worked Out

For Our Guests
It was fun to see our home through other people’s eyes. We ended up receiving bookings for our home for a couple of weeks of Airbnb stays and a couple weeks of home exchanges. Our guests loved the house and our neighborhood. We enjoyed giving tips and suggestions. Only one thing broke, the basketball hoop backboard, which was old and no one’s fault. The experience reminded us that our neighborhood, which is so familiar to us, is really great and we are lucky to be here when we aren’t traveling.

Yes, the people who own this home in Toulouse, France are cooler than we are. Image: Bryan Estep

For Us
In terms of our house, Airbnb brought in cash, but honestly we equally preferred building up points for our Home Exchange stays. When booking places on HomeExchange we could stay in larger homes than we would book on Airbnb. They often had more comfortable living rooms, well-stocked kitchens, and better furniture overall, along with very engaged hosts. We loved exploring their neighborhoods, shopping at local stores, and trying their favorite restaurants.

Flexibility when booking on HomeExchange is key. At the end of our trip, we had a few unplanned weeks. Bergen was our first choice for a ten-day stay in Norway, but we were open to Oslo or shifting dates if needed. We were able to find a great house in Bergen by adjusting our dates to fit our hosts’ travels.

The Houses

With the exception of one stay (if a place looks dark in the photos, you can count on it being dark in real life), the houses we stayed in were wonderful. Many were the kind of places that you walk into and think, “Oh, these people are cooler than me.” From incredible art to chic design and thoughtful amenities, our home exchanges were one win after another. In Bilbao we had views of the Nervión river and the Casco Viejo from our deep L-shaped couch. The penthouse in Toulouse (yes, the elevator had a special key and opened into the apartment) featured a vintage album collection and a massive wrap-around patio. In Bergen, our home perched on a hill with views of mountains and fjords and incredible 11pm sunsets. And in Krakow, our 3,000+ square foot apartment had a huge kitchen for making meals after a day exploring the town.

The local Saint-Aubin market just steps from our home exchange in Toulouse, France. Image: Becky Youman

Final Thoughts

Putting your house on Airbnb requires more work, but it brings in income. If you just want to dip a toe, start with Home Exchange. Either way, taking steps to share your home while traveling can be surprisingly rewarding. For us, we found that clearing out old possessions and putting our house to work while we traveled gave us a surprising sense of lightness along with the very practical benefits of income and flexibility. Our home became more than a place we returned to…it became part of the journey itself.