#14 – Swipe left on your new home

House-hunting is a lot like Tinder.

You swipe through pictures until you find a few you like. On the weekend you meet, but they look nothing like the picture. Then you’re trying not to let the house (and the real estate agent) seduce you into a decision you’ll regret.

That’s a good summary of my last few months trying to break into the property market, considering paying 15 years’ salary for a shoebox with a communal laundry and flammable cladding.

It’s ridiculous to be honest. Young people with student debt trying to get a leg up, with a downturn in the job market so income is limited.

Nothing in school prepares you for negotiating prices, applying for home loans, reading lease contracts, or comparing gas/electricity providers. You just have to learn on the fly when there’s so much at stake.

One has to wonder about those less fortunate. In Victoria, 22,000 people will sleep without a roof over their heads tonight according to Melbourne City Mission. There are plenty of ways to help, check out Launch Housing here.

Then this article became the subject of memes on my Facebook page, celebrating a millennial for buying a house with nothing but multiple jobs, help from her parents and inheritance from her grandmother.

Now that our homes are increasingly becoming our offices as well, getting a good place has never been more important. Getting that place isn’t just a financial investment.

It’s about autonomy, responsibility and establishing your place in the world. Advancing to that next stage in life might seem like a pipe dream, but it’s also the feeling that your industriousness and your hard-work means something solid to come home to every night and make your own.

Something more than a Tinder fling.

Next week: The mystery of the stolen chips