Make money renting out your home swimming pool or storage space
HOUSTON - If you're looking to make extra money, you may not have to look further than your own home. But we're not talking about renting it out as an Airbnb.
Take a look around you. Do you have a room or garage you're not using? How about a swimming pool?
You could make some cool cash letting others cool off in your swimming pool.
"A pool owner in Colorado last summer earned $3,000 or $4,000 over the course of the summer," said Tim Lankford, a spokesperson for the Swimmy app.
The idea behind Swimmy is sort of like an Airbnb for pool owners and people looking for a splash.
"They can rent the pool from a homeowner for set length of time, two or three hours or a half-day," said Lankford.
Pools must meet local safety standards and homeowner's insurance is recommended. Owners can add towels, bathroom, and grill access for more money, and can set their own rules.
"No loud music, no big parties, no alcohol, things like that," said Lankford.
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Homeowners with an empty room, garage, or driveway are renting them out on an app called Neighbor.
"The most common things are RV's, campers, trailers, classic cars, and boats. And in the household category, that's typically furniture, boxes of clothing, or household appliances," said Neighbor CEO Joseph Woodbury.
Demand for storage space has spiked, especially with more people moving since the pandemic started. Woodbury says Neighbor.com offers renters storage space at a lower cost than many storage facilities and offers income to property owners.
"This is a new house and it was a little more than what we wanted to spend on a home. So this directly reduces our mortgage. So it's been fantastic," said Josh in a customer testimonial.
"We have people earning $60,000 a year on our platform. We have people earning $50 a month on our platform. And everything in between," said Woodbury.
Property owners must pass a background check and get to approve the items to be stored. Neighbor says it insures both the renters and property owners.
"Everything stored on your space is insured up to $25,000, and you, as the person that owns the space, we insure you up to $1 million," said Woodbury.