Working Overseas? Renting Your Apartment?

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Working overseas this fall? Will you rent out your apartment, put it on Airbnb or leave it as it is, so that you’ll find things as you left them on your return, a year later?

You can leave your property with rental agencies that deal with short term rentals. I think they have something called ‘furnished accommodation.’ If you take that option, what happens to your clothes? I guess you’ll put them in storage because if I rent an apartment in Halifax Canada for a month, I still need empty closets to put my stuff.

You can leave your apartment with Airbnb. There is a lot of Tik Tok and YouTube content about tax advantages of placing your property on Airbnb. I don’t understand most of it. Do your own research. Unfortunately, I only know the negative stuff about Airbnb: tenants that leave the place in a mess, tenants that highjack the property and refuse to move out or thugs that use Airbnb for criminal activities.

Then comes leaving your apartment fallow. You have someone who has the extra keys or access card for emergencies. If you are going to be away for a year, he/she must be willing to come in once a month, air the place, open bathroom and kitchen taps and throw out bills (you get them electronically anyway). Is this person a member of the family or a trusted friend? The problem with family members is entitlement. They might treat your property as a family heirloom and misuse it. Tough call to make.

I guess thinking about what to do with your apartment comes before you agree to take that overseas job. I hope it’s not Africa to help the ‘poor.' The British found a garden full of free fruit, animals, slaves, gold and water. They left behind slums because of the lie about 'money.' It has no value. It's like chasing the sun. African gold and platinum miners are paid in local currency but the product is traded in dollars in New York and London. Countries like Ghana produce cocoa in local currencies but it is traded in dollars. If you want to help Africa, don’t go there to do Tik Tok videos with kids, fight for fairness: if a product is sold in dollars, workers in so-called 'poor' countries, must be paid in dollars.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Blogger Without Borders

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