The Subletter (Issue #7)
Community Update
Welcome to the seventh issue of The Subletter.
Now that we have launched the marketplace for sublets at thesubletter.com, we will use this newsletter primarily for communicating with our community. We will offer ways you can help, update you on how things are going, and tell some stories including concepts we think are important to the kind of living we’re looking to enable.
This issue is broken down into 3 parts:
ASKS.
UPDATES.
PRACTICING WHAT WE PREACH.
Asks
Support us on social media.
Follow @TheSubletterInc on X/Twitter
Let us know if you’d like to be featured in Subletter Stories (a tweet-sized interview series we have started to feature folks who are living differently)
Help us bootstrap the marketplace.
Hosts - List your place on thesubletter.com
Guests - Message a host on thesubletter.com if you find a place that you like
Everyone - Share thesubletter.com with your friends!
Updates
Our big update is that we launched our marketplace for sublets at thesubletter.com!
Since the site went live on December 20, we have had 69 users sign up and 37 sublets listed. We are trying to get those numbers up and appreciate anything you do to help.
Practicing What We Preach
Hey it’s Matt here. In December, I left NYC to visit family for the holidays and to transition into ski season, an annual ritual of mine. I’m currently living in a ski lease in north Lake Tahoe with six others for a couple months. I first started spending winters in the mountains out west during December 2020. Since getting a taste of skiing powder during the weekdays with no lift lines, it’s been hard to consider doing anything else during the winter.
By not having a lease and avoiding double rent, I’ve been able to spend the winters skiing and live in NYC during the rest of the year. Skiing is often portrayed as a bougie hobby, but subletting has made it more affordable than most people think. The most expensive aspect of skiing is the lodging. By living with friends and signing a short-term lease rather than Airbnbing, we’ve been able to live by the ski resort for less than any major city. I’m currently paying $1,000 a month for my own room in a cozy cabin with a fireplace located just 20 minutes from Palisades Tahoe.
Seasonal living, as opposed to traveling, tends to result in longer stays, and that means having the time to get settled in and make your place feel like home. I brought my own foldable table, desk chair, and monitor to create a productive workspace. Our pantry and fridge are constantly stocked. One of the downsides to packing this many people into a cabin is the limited storage, but this has actually naturally led us to share more. We buy the staples in bulk and share things like spices and sauces. Last night, two of us cooked up a feast for Taco Tuesday. We all sat around the dining table and then everyone else cleaned up.
To be honest, I’m not sure how long I’ll live this way, but for now it’s what I want. Back when I living in San Francisco, the only way to ski was to drive up on the weekends and deal with traffic on the road and in the lift lines. By living within 20 minutes of the ski resort, there’s less pressure to ski on weekends and ski the entire day. I’m able to keep an eye on the weather forecast and choose exactly when to ski. This feels like a more integrated approach. Instead of skiing only on weekends and vacations, I’m able to fold it into my daily schedule. Yesterday, I worked until noon, skied for three hours, and then worked for a couple more hours after dinner. In contrast, on Sunday, I skied with my friend who lives in SF and he didn’t get home until 9pm.
In recent years, I’ve felt like I could call multiple places home. Living and skiing in the mountains, especially in Tahoe, has become a core part of me. But there’s also part of me that comes to life when I’m living in a big city. Rather than picking one and sacrificing the other, I’ve wondered how can I have my cake and eat it too? There’s certainly logistics around traveling and personal belongings, but figuring out where to live has always been the main challenge. Once I know where I’m going to be sleeping, everything flows. That’s why I sublet and that’s why we’re building The Subletter, to help others do the same.