House sharing is no longer “just for students”

There used to be a perception that having flatmates was reserved for teens and twenty-something students. Basically, those who don’t have enough money to rent alone or buy a place. But what if we start seeing house sharing as an opportunity, rather than a last resort?

Housing affordability is a headline issue in major cities all over the world, for good reason.Along Australia’s eastern seaboard, the median house price is hovering around the million-dollar mark, rent rates are skyrocketing and finding shelter is increasingly competitive.  Average salaries have not risen with CPI and are not proportionate to the enormous surge in property values in recent years, so living alone isn’t viable for a growing number of people.

The solution is house sharing, and it’s one being increasingly drawn upon by those outside the ‘student phase’: divorcees, empty nesters and retirees are demographics on the rise.  We can embrace taking on tenants to pay a mortgage or “rent-vesting” as a fiscal solution, but what if we are missing the real value here?

Modern humans are lonely. There are so many lonely people in the world, as we become more distant from family, ritual, religion and community. What if you could live with people who improve your life, while sharing the costs and chores?

Living with strangers and the “roll the dice” element of selecting roommates online is no picnic, nor is it fun having to traipse from house to house selling yourself as a good human to randoms…. and let’s not talk about the special brand of rejection that comes from being dismissed by strangers in a social setting…. but there is help.

Using www.realestatetube.com  you can upload a selfie video, it’s global so you can find your tribe before you even get to a new city or even country, and a video says an awful lot.
If you have a house and want to fill it, you can “meet” people via a video much more easily than if you see a simple headshot and blurb. You just know 4 seconds in if it’s a yay or a nay. Likewise if you’re the roaming prospective tenant, preparing to insert yourself into a ready-made household.

The good news is that as well as vetting out the nasties, this is a fabulous way to find your tribe and live your best life.

Are you a senior citizen who needs help around the house, could do with some cash on top of the pension and wouldn’t mind a young person to fill one of your rooms?

Are you a newly-arrived migrant struggling to learn the language, looking to slot in with a family – and maybe, that family might need help with their mortgage?

Do you miss living with friends, now your kids are grown up and out of home?

Maybe “home” doesn’t look like you thought it would – maybe it’s better.