How to Dramatically Reduce your Housing Costs

A friend recently introduced me to Home Share, a very valuable local non-profit. Home Share provides a community housing option by careful screening and matching people needing affordable housing to those that have an extra room or two. This is one of those BeyondDave ideas. If you are really committed to changing your future, doing something a little beyond normal is often what it takes to start winning big.

This is not the sleep on the futon with pizza boxes and empty beer cans on the floor home-sharing option you may have experienced in college.

This is an extra bedroom, often with a private bath, in the home of someone who has more house than they can easily afford. In this economy, that’s a bunch of people.

The St Pete Times recently did a story on the service that you can read here.

Room Providers may be able to use the program to supplement their income enough to hold on to home whose mortgage or insurance is eating them alive. It can be a salvation to the under or unemployed.

If you are trying hard to pay off debt and have a spare room, what a great idea. Here’s $400-$500 extra to throw at that debt while helping someone else. Or maybe you give up your apartment and rent a room for much less a month; how much faster could you get out of debt or save for your own home?

People in transition may find this an option worth considering as well.  We all know that we are more inclined to make big mistakes when we are rushed or in transition. New job in a new place? Rent a room until you get comfortable.

Renting a clean, comfortable room in someone else’s home may be just the thing to jumpstart your new life. Using a service like Home Share insures that both the Seeker and the Provider will be carefully screened and that the match will be made based on common needs, interests and preferences.