Hi! I’m Janis.
I started this blog to share information, resources, and tips so you can do what my husband, Jeff, and I have done successfully for more than 20 years – exchange and rent out our home so we can travel!
Jeff is a retired professor and I’m a freelance writer. We don’t have a lot of disposable income, but we’ve found a way to afford the travel we love. Over the past two decades we’ve been to Italy, China, France, Montreal, Hungary, Turkey, Mexico, France, and Spain, not to mention New York, Chicago, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Barbara, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. We’ve spent enough time in Manhattan, Rome, and Paris to form close bonds with friends who sometimes visit us at home in California or meet up with us in other parts of the world.
How can we afford all these trips? We travel “on the house.” We exchange and rent out our unpretentious suburban home – and for several years, a small San Francisco pied-à-terre – with people who want to visit our area and locals who need a temporary place to stay. If you have a home and a desire to travel, you can do it, too.
“But,” you say, “Isn’t it a lot of work? Isn’t there risk involved?” The answer to both questions is “Yes.” But all that work has a big payoff, making even costly trips affordable. While you can’t ever eliminate the risk entirely, going about the process thoughtfully and paying attention can help you reduce risk to an acceptable level.
Interested, but wondering how it works? Your questions are the reason for this blog. My hope is that by sharing what we and others have learned, you’ll be able to indulge your passion for travel. Subscribe to our blog to get our new posts the moment they come out, and help us all keep learning by sharing your questions, experiences, tips and resources in the post comments or on our Facebook page.
Happy journeys!
