Supplement The Weekday Grind With A Refreshing Weekend Getaway

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Sophie Ward is a very busy woman. She just founded a new venture and spends her weekdays meeting with partners, hiring, and coercing herself to go to the gym in the mornings before work rather than sleeping in late. The only break she gets between Monday and Friday is found in a coffee cup between the gym and her office every morning.?

Sophie needs an escape. She needs a weekend getaway. This week, Life in Style, the weekly publication from Team Real Estate, brokered by eXp Realty, takes a break from the doom and gloom of rising mortgage interest rates and helps homeowners plan their travel adventures. To be considered for comment, email [email protected]. Need a subject matter expert? Click here. Buyer or seller with questions? Go to Real Answers.

To Fly Or To Drive, That Is The Question

If you’re like Sophie and need a change of scenery, the vast number of options can be daunting. If you can work remotely and take the extra travel time, maybe leaving on a Friday and returning on a Monday, you can travel to most of our side of the globe.?

If you don’t have that luxury, you can still get away without going that far. And, if you could save yourself hours or days in travel time by getting away to somewhere closer to you, avoiding the flight delays, or herding children like cats through the airport, why wouldn’t you?

Airbnb, a home rental app founded in 2008, allows users to rent out host’s homes for short or long-term. You can rent everything from smart homes to a cabin off-the-grid.?

“An escape means different things to different people. High-powered stockbrokers want to vacation on islands in the Maldives, dislocated from society. Young professionals from more rural areas want to go sightseeing in New York City,” explained Suzie Taggart, co-founder and Operations Chief of Team Real Estate, brokered by eXp Realty.

If you’re looking to stay huddled up somewhere that isn’t your home or apartment; you can use Airbnb’s map function to find all kinds of stays within hours of where you are. If you want more adventure on your weekend getaway, Airbnb has you covered.?

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A Little Planned Chaos

Airbnb’s “experiences” tab allows you to plan your trip around a host’s activities. You can fly solo or plan for a whole family. These experiences include goat farm tours in Ohio to booze cruises in Tampa Bay. Excursions like this are priced per person and are much less expensive and time-consuming than trying to arrange these things yourself in an unfamiliar area.

You can have a host guide you on a single activity or let them plan your whole weekend out for you to get the local experience from exploring caves to Michelin star restaurants without any heavy lifting. You can show up and be amazed while returning to work on time on Monday.

If you’re more of a road-less-traveled type and want to show up to your getaway without a set plan, Airbnb still has your back. Airbnb hosts are always available to message for tips on the best eats and hangouts near their property, and many hosts leave binders full of local guidance for their guests to enjoy.

If you’re familiar with your getaway spot and need a larger space for your brood, Vrbo is another good option. It doesn’t have an “experiences” function and has fewer listings, but it’s geared more toward a luxury and family audience, allowing you to rent out entire vacation homes.

The flexibility -and seemingly endless possibilities- of apps like Vrbo and Airbnb have left the hotel industry scrambling to catch up. Large hotel chains are having difficulty matching Airbnb’s competitive pricing, flexibility, and the personal touches of a local host.?

The streamlined user interface makes booking easy so that you can find yourself in a different state every weekend. You could be deep sea fishing off the coast of Maine with a host one Saturday and drinking hot cocoa with your kids in a West Virginia cabin the next.

Baby Buy-Buy-Buy!

While Sophie is planning her getaway, Kendra has a different strategy. Kendra and her family have a favorite vacation spot. Whenever they think of special family memories, their family is split right down the middle between margaritas at Corpus Christi or the view of the mountains in Pigeon Forge.?

Either way, the seasoned weekend warrior knows that the indoor experience is as essential as the outdoor one for a getaway.

“A vacation home is an experience. The decor and architecture should mimic its surroundings. A beach house has soft pastels, large windows, balconies, and patios to enjoy the sun. A loft in the city may be sleek with exposed brick and large windows to enjoy the city views,” explained award-winning interior designer Karen Mills.”?

Buying real estate is an excellent investment. You can save money, earn tax breaks, and rent it out through Airbnb or Vrbo during the weekdays to help pay the mortgage. But finding the perfect getaway can be a challenge.

“My husband and I have been taking our kids to Joshua Tree National Park nearly every weekend since they were babies,” said entrepreneur and family woman Nora Allen.?

“My husband heard from a colleague that Yucca Valley is far from the park entrance but way cheaper in terms of real estate. We’d never been before and wanted to make sure it was worth buying, so we talked to our agent at Team Real Estate, brokered by eXp Realty, Camila, who helped us find a weekend rental in the neighborhood; we were looking in.”

“We were obsessed,” her husband Tim chimed in.?

“The kids loved the neighborhood, and our host was a local who lived down the street. By Sunday night, Tim and I were texting Camilla setting up house viewings for the next week,” explained Nora.?

We live in a busy world, and being a woman in the workforce means you’re always striving to succeed. But the secret to success during the weekday work meetings and brainstorming sessions could be a weekend refresh. The secret to being a successful woman in business is to play as hard as you work.

Life in Style is the weekly publication from Team Real Estate, brokered by eXp Realty, which helps homeowners live a more inspired life. To be considered for comment, email [email protected]. Need a subject matter expert? Click here. Buyer or seller with questions? Go to Real Answers.?

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