It is important to discuss a wide variety of details with any prospective housemate before you each know if the living arrangement will be a good fit. This interview guide will support you step by step through an initial in-person visit ..read more

When faced with uncertainty, it can be helpful to focus our energy on things we can control. It’s why some of us work on organizing our home when we’re faced with a stressful life event or waiting for news of a big decision. The twists and turns of the last two years have given us plenty of reasons to feel overwhelmed, so the Silvernest team has been working on organizing our home. In addition to updating our features and pricing, we refreshed the look and feel of our brand to better reflect what we know about our user base and what they value about Silvernest.   ..read more

Because sharing a home is a very personal experience, it’s natural for questions to arise. At Silvernest, we receive questions about everything from how our website and features work to general inquiries about creating a happy shared home. If you want to learn more about these topics, this is the place to start! Here are some of the most common questions we get about our offerings, our pricing and homesharing in general.    ..read more

When people ask how to prepare for a roommate, most of the time they’re thinking about things like rearranging furniture and cleaning out closets. Sure, those practical matters are important. Just as crucial, however, is being emotionally prepared for a new or first roommate.   If you’re not fully ready from an emotional perspective, that’s okay. Here are our biggest dos and don’ts to help you get your heart and mind in the right place.   ..read more

The first tasks you need to do to welcome a new roommate seem pretty obvious: declutter and clean the guest (or spare) room and bathroom. But what about the rest of the home? Your roommate will also be sharing the living room, kitchen and other common areas, though right?   A pre-move-in house cleaning is a pretty obvious goal, but people tend to forget about certain tasks that really make a difference. Read on to discover five overlooked ways to prepare for a roommate ahead of time.   ..read more

When you’re preparing a room to rent, it can be hard to know where to start and what matters most. If you clean the guest room and bathroom in a simple yet methodical way, the whole “roommate readiness” process will be done in a snap.   Read on for six expert tips on how to prepare a room for rent and make your roommate’s space as welcoming as possible.   ..read more

It’s no secret that life after 55 is full of challenges. Whether you’re confronting formidable changes or enduring uncomfortable monotony, it’s normal to feel like your empty nesting and retirement years look more lackluster than golden.    The pandemic has compounded the problem by adding social isolation to the mix. We’ve been cut off from our friends, families, communities and routines. Our sense of certainty—unfounded as it may have been—has disappeared.     In the past, openly acknowledging sadness, uneasiness, hopelessness or&n ..read more

The 2021 Silver Survey Finds Older Homeowners May Need Creative Solutions to Realize Their Retirement Lifestyle Dreams This summer, the Silvernest team started wondering: How do older American homeowners feel about their retirement finances and ability to age in place, 15 months into this new pandemic-framed reality?   Because we love data, we commissioned a survey to find out. The 2021 Silver Survey went out to a group of older homeowners, none of which are current Silvernest members. Armed with pre-2020 research on retirement and aging in place, we wanted to see whether older Americans ..read more

  As we prepare for the Fourth of July holiday and take a moment to reflect after a difficult 15 months, we can see the American Dream is evolving. For decades, the rhetoric and messages we have received have been about the importance self-reliance—that being self-made and independent is simply part of being American. But when the pandemic made the formal and informal social connections and communities in our lives instantly inaccessible to us, the r ..read more

  The abundance of tech jobs. The beautiful natural scenery. The environmentally-conscious lifestyle. There are plenty of reasons to fall in love with Portland, Oregon, no matter what you’re into. The City of Roses has a unique culture and universal appeal: it was ranked as both the #1 best place to live for seniors and as one of the 10 Safest Cities for Families with Young Children. It’s also been highlighted as a tech hub in recent years as well as a dream destination for hikers thanks to its 180 miles of trails. While the rain can be a downside ..read more