How To Use Assets You Already Have to Make Money Passively

Are you looking for more ways to make money? Silly question, right? We all are but what if I told you I have a handy dandy list of ways to make money passively…using things you already own? THAT is the way to make more money!

Below is my list of ways to make money passively with your existing assets. I will be continually adding to this list as I learn about new ways so check back often. Let’s get started!

Rent out Your Boat

Got a boat that you are not using much? Did you know AirBnB applies to boats too? Of course, there is always HomeAway too. It will nicely cover your existing dock fees that you already have to pay anyway.

I would even hazard a guess that if its stored in your yard you probably still AirBnB that thing! There is also the option to rent out your boat to folks that want to use your boat for cruisin’ around. You can find that website here.

Rent Out Your Backyard

Got a backyard? Yes, many of us do but is it of any value? I would say so! This guy in California rents out a tent in the backyard on AirBnB and guess what? He is pulling in $1380/month doing it.

Pretty low overhead, I’d say. Speaking of low overhead, how ’bout something even more low profile? This guy rents out a hammock in his backyard. $45 to 65 bucks per night and its yours.

Rent out Your RV

RV’s simply don’t get used most of the time. They might get used 2 to 4 weeks of the year by many people which means there is a lot of idle time. I bet you didn’t realize how valuable this idle time is with this particular asset. For the down times consider RV Share or Outdoorsy.

What you can make will vary based on condition and size of the RV but its gonna be more than zero which is all you’ll make letting it sit around. Worried about something happening to your mighty steed? RV rental places have you covered.

Outdoorsy, for example, has a standard $1 million dollar policy in place for both renter and owner. If you want to find out how much you could potentially make here is Outdoorsy’s handy estimator tool.

In New Zealand and you’re looking to rent out or rent an RV? Good thing there’s Mighway. Now you can get out there and see New Zealand for less.

Renting out Land

Got some land but not sure the best way to make money from it? No problem, just list your land on this site and reap the benefits of having real estate. It is a site that connects people wanting to camp and private land owners. Easy peazy. Also check out HipCamp.

Rent out Your Tools

Tool rental is big business and now you have even more options besides the tool rental store. But of course, while Toolsity gives you more options to rent tools it opens up money making opportunities for those looking to rent out their tools. Check it out here.

Rent out a House or Room

The obvious one here is the AirBnB option where you rent out your house or spare room. Though its obvious, the amount of companies you can go though besides AirBnB may not be. Here’s a list of alternatives:

So how much can you make renting a room or house out? There are many stories of people doubling their annual income doing it so don’t be too shy to give it a try.

Furthermore, you can squeeze even more out of an asset you already own by using dynamic pricing. What is that? Its a 3rd party application that allows you to price your room or house in such a way that it lowers it during off peak times and raises it during peak times to maximize revenue while still being competitive. Check out Beyond Pricing for more details.

But what do you do when you want to improve your house in preparation for going down the AirBnB path or perhaps even an AirBnB bungalow build-out in the backyard? If you’d like to dive deeper into how AirBnB hosting works (and especially how to procure funding for your blossoming AirBnB biz, check out this small business financing guide from the folks over at LendEDU.

Rent out Your Garage

With GaragePointer you can turn a profit with your garage space. There are people that need to store their car to keep it out of the elements and vandals and need someplace to put it. That’s where your garage comes into play. Garage Pointer connects the folks with the cars to the folks with the garages.

With GaragePointer you can turn a profit with your garage space

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Renting out Land (Part 2)

Okay, back to the asset of land rental. This is a big one because it can worth a lot if you are in a location that telecom providers like. People that lease land to cell phone companies needed to erect a cell tower can make $45,000 or more annually. Talk about passive income! This website outlines the steps to take to make it happen.

Rent your Car or Truck

Hey, it works for Hertz! Rent your vehicle out by the day or week. At this site (Turo) you can put your car onto the marketplace for rental. Don’t worry, Turo has you covered with a $1 million policy and 24/7 roadside assistance in place. So how much can you make doing this?

Its going to vary depending on if you’re renting out a Beemer or a Pinto but according to this website the average owner will make $720/month using Turo. Check out my mini interview with Daniel G. that rents out his car on Turo.

SM how long have you been renting your car out on Turo?

⇒About a year and a half.

SM In the time that your car has been available for rent, what % of the time has it been rented?

⇒About 3-4 days per month. Summer has been busiest by far, it’s been booked about half the time during June, July and August. Some months it hasn’t been booked at all. We also block it off periodically if we’re using it to go out of town.

SM Do you think there are some kinds of cars that will rent more often/be in more demand than others?

⇒Just a guess, but I think small SUVs that are listed at a low price are the most popular.

SM have you had any issues with damage to your car?

⇒Yes. Minor damage a few times. A couple renters pointed it out and a couple tried to hide it. It was a bit of a hassle but I ended up getting reimbursed. The most important things is to report the damage without 24 hours of the car’s return or else it’s not covered.

SM How much have you made thus far with Turo?

⇒I’ve made about $0-650 per month. On average it’s probably covering 1/3 of my car payment.

SM from your experiences thus far, would you say this method of making money is a smart one? Would you recommend it someone looking to make money with their car?

⇒I’d say it’s possible to make money. For my wife and I it was no risk because we needed a car. But we don’t need it often so anything we get from rentals is extra.

I think if you live near an airport and you can offer free delivery that’s a big plus. And if you have free parking for car or cars that helps too.

Let me know if you have any follow up questions. Also here is a link to my car.

Need more options? No problem, check out the Getaround app. You can “book instantly and unlock with your phone. No need to meet the owner to exchange keys.” I’d say that sounds pretty seamless…

Rent out Your Truck*

Yeah, ya gotta watch out for those pesky asterisks cuz they probably mean there’s a catch. Well, sorta. The asterisk here means someone rents out your truck…with you in it so its not as passive as the other examples so far.

For example, if someone is moving across town and they need the proverbial “friend with a truck” they contact you via GoShare and you show up and help move the stuff. So not exactly passive (*) but still a way to make money with your assets. Need a GoShare alternative? Check out DudeINeedaTruck.

Rent your Parking Spot

Okay, if you live and the UK and need to make some extra money I have just the thing. Its called Just Park. If you have a way to rent out a parking spot this is as easy as it gets. Parking can be tough in urban places in the UK but if you have that valuable real estate for cars you can make some effortless money.

Rent out Your Pool

If you can think of it, it can probably be rented and there’s a probably a website dedicated to that very thing. Welcome to the interwebz! Yes, Swimply is just that site, they are dedicated to connecting swimmers with pool owners. A quick search reveals that you can make around $50/day. Easily list your pool on their site and turn some coin with your watery asset.

Rent out Your…Self

Before you even go there, let me make this one clear. This ain’t hookin’! This is just what it sounds like, its you renting out your companionship for a couple of hours or whatever the time frame ends up being. You can charge up to $50/hr and have a great time doing it. Need someone to attend a boring event with you and none of your friends want to go? Just hit up rentafriend.com and problem solved.

So just as an interesting “what if” scenario, lets say you actually owned all the above assets and had them rented rented full time. Just for fun lets figure out how much you would make per year.

AirBnB Room Rental: Average host is making $924/month or $11,088/yr

BoatSetter: This will depend on a few factors but let’s say your small boat is rented out the entire month every month, you would bring in $5,055/month or $60,660/yr

Backyard Rental on AirBnB: If that guy I mentioned above is making $1380/month that works out to $16,560/yr

Outdoorsy RV rental: Again there are factors to consider like year and length but let’s say you had a 10yr old 23 footer. You would bring in about $1910 per rental. Outdoorsy doesn’t specify a time period but I see some stories on their site of people making $20-25,000/yr renting out their RV.

Renting out land to campers: According to HipCamp, the average land owner will make $8000 to 15,000/ year (so lets say an average of $11,500/yr).

Renting out your tools: Admittedly I couldn’t find any solid information on what the potential for this is but suffice it to say it would be a little extra that you didn’t have before.

Renting out your garage: I couldn’t find any examples on GaragePointer.com however this Medium post suggests somewhere around $100/month or $1,200/yr.

Renting out land (part 2): So this is an interesting one because its super lucrative with very little work. I found numbers like $45,000/yr and other articles claiming that even that number could be easily negotiated higher.

I’m sure it helps to have the right kind of location that is accessible for maintenance workers but if you’ve got the spot then you’re in some easy money!

Renting out your car: According to Turo the average car owner will make $720/month or $8640/yr renting out their car.

Renting out your pool: Some searching around on the listings on Swimply, it appears that $50/day is the going rate for most pools. If you were to somehow rent out your pool every day of the year that would be worth 18,250. A pretty good way to make up the costs of installation.

So what can you make if you owned all these assets and rented them all out as much as humanly possible?

(drum roll please)………………………… $192, 898/yr

So obviously there are a lot of factors involved that we’re not talking about but its still interesting to think about. I think, if anything, it gives you an idea of whats possible and perhaps some ideas for future passive money making. One thing that crossed my mind was to say, buy a car exclusively for renting.

One thing you want to do before you commit to something like that is to contact the company that you want to rent with and make sure you understand all their criteria for renting.

For example, if you want to be an Uber driver, well first you have to have a car that’s in good shape and must be 2007 or newer. That kind of thing may also apply with companies like Turo.

I am confident that this list will give you some good food for thought. I know I am. We have a pool and I have often thought of how SCUBA instructors always need a reliable place to teach pool lessons but Swimply opens up a whole other market.

And Swimply is just one of many different ways you can go with your existing assets. I will be adding to this list in the future but if you see any that you are using that are not on this list I would like to hear about them.

*UPDATE*

I just learned about another platform that I wanted to tell everyone about. This is British-based but serves Australia, Singapore and the U.S. so I’m thinking it may only be accessible to those folks living there but its called Fat Llama. From what I can tell from the site, it is a sort of a catch-all kind of peer to peer rental platform. If you are reading this from Britain or those other countries it might be worth poking around on there to see if there’s anything you can rent out.