Creative Ways To Earn Extra Income From Your Home

Christian: [0:11] To another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host Christian Awesome with the Awesome Awesome Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc, and we are a local Seattle area based real estate agent team. It is a lot of fun being a real estate agent in Seattle, just gotta say. We help people buy and sell all over the Seattle metro area, up north, down south, on the east side, all over the place. In today's episode, we are going to share some very creative ways that people are using their home once they buy it to earn some extra cash that doesn't involve having a roommate. So my co-host today is the wonderful Joanna Beecher.

Joanna: [0:50] Hi. I-

Christian: [0:51] You, you are one of the agents on the Awesome Awesome Group. Thank you for being here.

Joanna: [0:54] I am, I am. Proud to be so. And I'm so excited about this episode today. I have some really cool things to talk about. Mm-hmm. And the first one is

Christian: [1:07] Can you hear her sniffing? If

Joanna: [1:08] you can't, I was sniffing into the microphone. It's called Sniffspot. Yes. Okay, guys? A company founded in Seattle. Boo- Very cool … ya. So what is it? It is a platform that connects dog owners with property owners, and you can download the app or go to the site, and you can check out all of the local backyards or pieces of land, and you can rent and let your dog basically have their own private dog park.

Christian: [1:36] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [1:37] Now let me tell you something, as a dog owner of two large dogs that lives in a place that I need a yard-

Christian: [1:45] Mm-hmm

Joanna: [1:45] and I don't have one-

Christian: [1:46] Mm-hmm … Joanna: this is amazing. Yes. You use it all the time.

Joanna: [1:50] I use it all the

Christian: [1:51] time. You talk about this all the time. And you're always excited to talk about the new Sniffspots that you just found. In fact, right before we started- Mm-hmm … airing this, or recording this, she was like, "I just found a new one."

Joanna: [2:02] Yes. " Speaker: It's on Queen Anne." It's in Queen Anne. And the cool thing about that is, just in case you are listening and live in this area, if you're in Magnolia or in the Queen Anne area, you are going to make bank on this because there's so many renters in this area- Mm-hmm … and Seattle has more dogs than children, so people are always looking for a place to let their babies go be off leash- Mm-hmm and not be in danger of maybe other dogs or, like- Yep … maybe your dog is shy- Yep … or maybe you have a reactive dog- Mm-hmm … that cannot be let off leash in a, even an off-leash dog park. Yep. Um, there's just so many scenarios that have an unknown outcome that can be dangerous- Mm-hmm … for yourself or your dog. So when you have an option to pay a very minimal amount for that peace of mind- Yeah … I think it's really incredible as an option to have.

Christian: [2:55] What kind of income could people potentially earn by renting this out? Like, on average, what do you think you're paying in the Seattle area for a yard for an hour? Is it by the hour?

Joanna: [3:05] You can do 30 minutes or hour increments. Mm-hmm. And usually the Sniffspot people will have some sort of deal, like when you first start going, it's like- Yeah … do one dog f- like pay for one dog for an hour and get the other dog free- Mm … for that time, or half off, or something like that. But in general, if you're really, like, rolling out these Sniffspots and you're st- like staying on top of your game, you've got good pictures- Mm-hmm you have, you know, a very secure fence. Mm-hmm. A lot of people that are going on Sniffspot, they really want it, like, very securely fenced. They are looking for as much space as they can find. That does not rule out the small yard people, guarantee it. Yeah. Um, I'll tell you that in a, I'll tell you more about that in a second. But you can make up to $3,000 a month or more, depending.

Christian: [3:49] Um- Holy cow, just by renting out your yard?

Joanna: [3:51] Just by renting

Christian: [3:52] out your yard. So if I rent out my yard, do I then have to go back there and pick up all the poop and do that kind of stuff? You

Joanna: [3:56] shouldn't have to because I'm also- like- I review the spots

Christian: [4:01] As the renter

Joanna: [4:02] as the renter, and the spot owners review the people who rent.

Christian: [4:06] Ooh. So it's kinda like Airbnb in that regard.

Joanna: [4:08] Yeah. So if I'm a terrible- Or Uber or Lyft … like, if I bring my dogs-

Christian: [4:11] Yeah … Joanna: and they just crap all over the place, rip up the yard- Mm-hmm … you know, and that's not allowed, 'cause th- Dig holes or whatever

Joanna: [4:18] yeah. 'Cause sometimes it's allowed.

Christian: [4:19] Okay.

Joanna: [4:19] It, but they have to tell you.

Christian: [4:21] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [4:21] I will get a bad review. I have only five stars, by the way. Um-

Christian: [4:25] Out of seven.

Joanna: [4:26] No. Out of three. Okay?

Christian: [4:29] You're an A++.

Joanna: [4:30] I am. But it's j- it's very specific. You read through, like, when you're a Sniffspot owner-

Christian: [4:37] Yep … Joanna: or the person that is providing the space- Mm-hmm you put down everything that needs to be known about your yard because- How to enter … Joanna: everything … Speaker: if there, you're saying, "We have water bowls."

Joanna: [4:50] We have pools.

Christian: [4:51] Oh, cool.

Joanna: [4:52] You know, for the summertime. We have a shady spot for your dog. Oh. We have chairs.

Christian: [4:56] These are all things, I have kids, I don't have dogs- Yeah. You- so I don't think about this stuff … Joanna: but you, you know, I think about- Yes … all of these things. Yeah. And it's like people have provide bags. Mm-hmm. Smart. People have to tell you where they want the poop to go- Mm-hmm … when you're done picking it up. When you're leaving, yeah.

Joanna: [5:09] Yeah. There's- Where

Christian: [5:10] you throw it away

Joanna: [5:11] important things, and if there's, for example, if it's on a source of water and you can utilize that water, then it's a really… I have a really great place I like to go that's always rented out, up in Lake Forest Park. I found it before, like everybody else did, and now everybody else has found it. But there's a little stream, and they provide towels-

Christian: [5:31] Oh, cool

Joanna: [5:32] which is great- Smart. Yeah … because, I mean, usually I have them, but sometimes you don't, and like when you're there in the space and they could get muddy if they went in the water-

Christian: [5:39] Mm-hmm … Joanna: it's nice to have that. So- That's cool … Joanna: it's, it's a really lovely option for if you don't have a yard or your dogs like to go out and explore new spots. Yeah. And it's awesome as an owner because if you're not using your yard, like why not rent it out? Especially, like I'm not a gardener. I don't care about my yard. I have a guy come mow it- Mm-hmm … once or twice a month, depending on how fast it's growing. That's about the extent of it. Mm-hmm. My kids go back there and play, but I could easily rent that out. Yeah. And even if I only made 1,000 bucks a month and I only did it a few days a week or whatever- Why not? It's perfect. Or if I'm on vacation, just let them do it whenever.

Joanna: [6:15] Exactly.

Christian: [6:16] Like, the whole time. It's not like it's gonna take much effort on my part.

Joanna: [6:18] Nope, because you don't have to meet them. Yeah. In fact, a lot of dog owners, like myself, if your dogs are fearful, reactive, or however- Mm-hmm you don't want to meet the owners. Yeah. So you don't have to. Yeah. You just, they tell you how to get in. Yep. They tell you how to leave, and that's it. And you can text them. Yeah, cool. You message these pe- it's just like Airbnb as far as that goes. Yeah, yeah. Airbnb for dogs.

Christian: [6:40] Speaking of Airbnb, let's talk about that. So everyone has rented an Airbnb probably, and if not, at least you've heard of it. So a creative way, a different way to think about using this when you own a house is to actually think about unit, especially if you don't have more than one unit in your home. Like, if you don't, if you only have, like, a regular house or a condo or, or a townhouse, you don't have that separate unit that's completely detached or attached but separated. What you could do is rent this out when you go on vacation, and this could potentially pay for your entire vacation. If you're gone for a week or two, you can rent your home. You can use that income to pay for your vacation, to pay for any upgrades you wanna make to your house. It's really not all that tough to do. Your house is probably gonna be sitting there vacant anyway. So while it might take a little bit of planning and thought ahead of time to do this, you could make a good amount of money doing it. So you might be asking what the heck you do with all your stuff, 'cause you're not gonna leave, like, your clothes in the closet. You're not gonna leave, you know, all your random personal things, your files, bathroom stuff. You're not gonna leave that in there. So I'm sure when you've gone to an Airbnb, you've always seen that one room or one closet that had a deadbolt and was locked off.

Joanna: [7:56] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [7:56] It's called the owner's closet. You just put all your stuff in there, whether it's the garage, whether it's a closet if you don't have that much stuff. Whatever it is, you can just put it away, then you unpack it when you're done. It's also a great way, if you're trying to be a little more tidy and have less stuff- … it's a good way to go through your things.

Joanna: [8:17] Yes.

Christian: [8:17] Force you to do that.

Joanna: [8:18] That's always a good thing to do anyway, but yeah.

Christian: [8:20] Yes.

Joanna: [8:21] It's for money.

Christian: [8:22] Exactly.

Joanna: [8:23] Make your money by getting tidier.

Christian: [8:25] Another way to think about this is that if you are able to work remote, I recommend finding the high season of the area, meaning high season is when you can make the most money renting out your house. Consider renting it for a month or two and going somewhere that's a lot cheaper and living there for a couple months.

Joanna: [8:45] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [8:45] Maybe you go to Thailand, maybe you go to Costa Rica or something. Maybe you just go to Hawaii, and even if it's not cheaper, you're in Hawaii, so that- True … can't suck.

Joanna: [8:52] Yeah.

Christian: [8:52] But you can go somewhere that's less expensive and actually earn money just renting out your house for a month or two. And if you can pull it off because you're working remote, who cares? Why not?

Joanna: [9:01] Go to Alabama.

Christian: [9:04] Why Alabama? ' Joanna: Cause it's cheap. ' Speaker: Cause it's cheap. All right. That works. All right. What's the, what's the other one that you like that you've actually utilized as well?

Joanna: [9:12] This would be called Hipcamp. Hipcamp. So once again, utilizing land.

Christian: [9:17] Is this for, like, elder people that need hip replacements?

Joanna: [9:18] 100%. You nailed it. Oh, wow. Yes. Absolutely not. I'm so smart. That is incorrect. So this is an online marketplace company that offers outdoor stays- Okay … and camping experiences- Oh … via a website and an app where private landowners can rent out their land as campsites, glampsites- Got it … RV spaces, cabins, et cetera. And this way, travelers can discover and book based on listing type, location, landscape, experiences, amenities.

Christian: [9:49] This should be an, an ad for them right now.

Joanna: [9:51] I know. Well, I do like it a lot too. Yeah. I know. Um, I've had great- You've used it … experiences- You've talked about it … with them.

Christian: [9:57] Yeah.

Joanna: [9:57] For example, another dog-related issue. Every year I have to go away for 4th of July. Yep. Because my dogs are afraid of fireworks. Most animals are. Think about that, people. Mm-hmm. Anyway, so we have to get creative sometimes, especially as most people around this time of year are also traveling. So we have utilized Hipcamp in the past and found a beautiful campsite. These people owned a very unique piece of land right on, I don't even remember what river it was. It was just gorgeous though. Kind of a pain to get there. I'm sure, yeah. They did not describe in- Oh … their description of the land and how to get to these campsites. That's a whole other part of Hipcamp that I think, you know-

Christian: [10:40] They can improve upon.

Joanna: [10:41] Mm-hmm, or you know, they have to be very specific- Yeah … with their people as to describe certain things like that. Yep. But once we were there, it was gorgeous. And, uh, you can set the price I'm pretty sure. And as Christian was just talking about, there's seasons where people are really gonna utilize that. Mm-hmm. They are really g- like especially in the PNW, summertime people love to get out there and camp. Yeah, exactly. And they love to find unique sites. Mm-hmm. So if you can like, the way to really get the best bang for your buck for this is just making that really gorgeous, you know, take your land. Mm-hmm. Make it beautiful. Make it somewhere that's a destination point, and that's how you're gonna make a lot of money. Which I will tell you right now, you can make a lot of money at this if you do Hipcamp correctly. Mm-hmm. The people who are making the most are making about over or around $100,000 a year.

Christian: [11:33] Dang.

Joanna: [11:33] Uh-huh. Like-

Christian: [11:34] Wow … Joanna: that's amazing. Yeah.

Joanna: [11:36] You just have to have land that you've improved upon. And it's

Christian: [11:38] just like vacant land that you add some camping spots on.

Joanna: [11:42] 100, and you, and you're there, and you're managing it, and it's easy.

Christian: [11:45] So-

Joanna: [11:45] Yeah … Speaker: theoretically you could also do this as an investment. Yes.

Christian: [11:49] Buy some land that you're gonna use as a vacation house, but get a local, someone that is nearby, to help manage the day to day in person stuff. This was one

Joanna: [11:56] of my plans-

Christian: [11:57] Yes … Joanna: to do. Brilliant.

Joanna: [11:59] And I love that, but there's another one that's kind of similar called Tentrr. And they do have some similarities, some differences. Tentrr, it's only camping and glamping. Okay. Where as I just said the other things that, uh, Hipcamp offers. Mm-hmm. And Hipcamp is in Europe, Australia, and the US. Mm-hmm. Whereas Tentrr is only in the US.

Christian: [12:19] Interesting.

Joanna: [12:19] And if you use Tentrr, apparently you make a lot less than you do at Hipcamp. I think Hip- Well, which

Christian: [12:25] kind of makes sense. Yeah. 'Cause you're just, just throwing tents up and- Right … stuff like that. It's a little different.

Joanna: [12:29] It's, they usually make between 8 and 15 a

Christian: [12:32] year. A year. Yeah.

Joanna: [12:33] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [12:33] Yeah. So- 'Cause I mean, you're just giving them a space to put a tent.

Joanna: [12:35] Right. And if you have more land, and you can have more sites, obviously you will make more money.

Christian: [12:41] Yeah.

Joanna: [12:42] But yeah, so both-

Christian: [12:43] Cool … Joanna: really cool options. Good.

Joanna: [12:45] And definitely check it out if you haven't.

Christian: [12:47] So the next one that I want to bring up is called Neighbor. It's neighbor.com. I don't know how they got that URL, but good job. This is pretty brilliant. So basically what you're doing is- This is allowing you to rent out your driveway, to rent out your garage, to rent out your shed, to rent out anything like that on your land and it's kind of crazy. So-

Joanna: [13:10] That's awesome

Christian: [13:11] for example There is right now a 10 by pu- 20-foot driveway in Crown Hill.

Joanna: [13:20] Okay.

Christian: [13:21] It's, like, northwest Seattle. Just a regular driveway in front of someone's house on a normal street.

Joanna: [13:25] Okay.

Christian: [13:26] Renting for $200, $204 a month.

Joanna: [13:30] What?

Christian: [13:30] First month, it's half off, $102. But from every month after that, 200 bucks a month just for renting out your driveway.

Joanna: [13:38] For what? Like a boat? For

Christian: [13:39] like a car, for a boat, for whatever you want to park there. That's interesting. An RV. This is a small spot though. It's only 10 by 20. You can't really fit much there.

Joanna: [13:47] No.

Christian: [13:47] This carport, also in North Seattle, $300 a month, and it's just this rickety old carport. Like, it's nothing fancy. Off an alley. Wow. A garage in, let me see this, pulling it up. A garage in-

Joanna: [14:02] That looks like an apartment

Christian: [14:04] building or a condo Oh, this is, like, Capitol Hill. This is renting for $325 a month. That's- So this is, like, someone, a garage spot in a, like, apartment complex. Oh. Or maybe it's a condo.

Joanna: [14:14] Yeah, looks like. I don't know which one it is, but. Could be either one actually.

Christian: [14:17] Yeah. 325 bucks a month. So it's a great way to rent out. It's good for parking, like I said. It's also good for, like, there's businesses that are local companies that are maybe manufacturers, but, like, small scale. Maybe even, like, Etsy people. They're selling shirts- Yeah … or hats or products like that, and they have to print stuff. They don't have space always to hold all their stuff. There's winemakers. I have past clients that are winemakers, that they ran out of space in their home 'cause they started doing it in their home. Eventually they got bigger and expanded, but they needed space to just hold their wine barrels while it was aging. Like, this is perfect for that kind of stuff. Yeah. Boat storage, RV storage, self-storage, fleet parking, so, like, businesses that have lots of vans. Yeah. Like, if you have a bigger piece of land, you could do something like that. Trailer storage, anything like that. And there's people that are making really good money for spaces that you're not really utilizing. Oh

Joanna: [15:13] my God, you could, like, combine Sniffspot and this- Yes … and you could be paying your mortgage.

Christian: [15:19] Exactly. Yeah.

Joanna: [15:21] Okay.

Christian: [15:21] Yeah. Rent out your parking spot in front of your house. You park on the street. Yep. 'Cause you're there, you can keep an eye on it. You could rent out your backyard on Sniffspot.

Joanna: [15:29] Yeah.

Christian: [15:30] And you could possibly pay your mortgage. A

Joanna: [15:32] part of it.

Christian: [15:33] Or at least a chunk of it. Yeah. And it's really not doing much for you at all. Like, you're not doing that much work.

Joanna: [15:37] No. No.

Christian: [15:38] So this is, this is why real estate is so powerful, because there's so many different creative ways that you can utilize a piece of land-

Joanna: [15:45] Yeah … Speaker: to help you afford the lifestyle you wanna have and not be house poor. So if you are ever thinking, "Man, I wish I had a few extra hundred bucks a month," like, who doesn't think that? Always.

Christian: [15:57] These two options could be something, actually all four of these options could be ways that you could, uh, consider and look into.

Joanna: [16:04] Absolutely.

Christian: [16:04] It doesn't seem like it's all that hard to do. I guarantee if you look on YouTube- And you look up Sniffspot, you look up Hipcamp, you look up Neighbor, you look up Airbnb, and you look up these con- like, how are people doing this successfully?

Joanna: [16:18] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [16:19] There's gonna be free videos teaching you how to do it.

Joanna: [16:21] Oh, yeah. Yeah. And start with one-

Christian: [16:23] Yes … Joanna: and see how that goes, and- Yeah … once you get that down- Go to the next … maybe go to the next one. Exactly.

Joanna: [16:29] Yeah.

Christian: [16:30] Exactly. So before we wrap up, I wanna throw out two other things that we have not talked about that are not totally house-related, but are somewhat in the same vein. One of those is we have friends that you were just talking about on our drive up here, that have boats. They rent out their boats, kinda like Airbnb, but to people that wanna rent their boats. There's an app called Boatsetter, and I know there's others as well. I've actually utilized this to rent boats before.

Joanna: [16:56] I wanna utilize this- Yes … to rent a boat in the future.

Christian: [16:59] So I ha- my buddy did this. He bought a boat a year and a half ago, and he made, I think, almost 50 grand- How much? … last year. In one year, and he wasn't even renting it out all that often. And, you can either just rent it out, like, you meet them generally. The owner will- Mm … meet them, make sure they know what they're supposed to do on the boat. Yeah. You do have to have your boating license to rent it.

Joanna: [17:21] I would hope so,

Christian: [17:22] yes. Yes. Which isn't hard. Mm-mm. It's an online course. I did it. Really not difficult, but you meet people out on the dock, you give them the f- quick five-minute spiel, they go off for however many hours they rented it, four hours, eight hours, all day, overnight, whatever it is. You meet them back when they're supposed to check in, and that's about it. It's really not tough.

Joanna: [17:43] Wow.

Christian: [17:43] And he made… He almost paid off his boat just by doing this. Like, in one year. It made way more than the payment on the boat was- Yeah … every single month, and it was so easy. Like, got him out and allowed him to golf more.

Joanna: [17:56] Yeah.

Christian: [17:56] Which he was, like, so happy about. The other one is Turo. Turo is a way that you can actually rent your car in a similar vein. So you can rent out your car to people, similar to Boatsetter, simbler- similar to Airbnb, all these other options, where you can rent your car to people. I don't know exactly how it works for getting in and out. I've used it before, but I think I actually… Oh, I do know. It's similar to Boatsetter. You just meet the person, they give you the keys, they give you the quick spiel-

Joanna: [18:22] Mm-hmm … Speaker: and then you're off. Okay.

Christian: [18:24] I, I know that when the pandemic was happening and rental cars were, like, impossible to get, I utilized this once. Mm-hmm. We were in Hawaii, and we wanted to rent a Jeep, and Jeeps that you rent from the car dealer, or from the rental car place- Yeah … are, like, the basic Jeeps. I wanted a cool, like, off-road capable Jeep with a convertible top and stuff like that. Mm. And so I went on Turo. It was cheaper than renting the basic version from-

Joanna: [18:49] Nice.

Christian: [18:49] Yeah. And it was awesome. It was so unique, felt like a local versus a, a tourist.

Joanna: [18:55] Right. Well, they don't have all the overhead that- Exactly … the rental companies do. Yeah. And yeah.

Christian: [19:00] Yeah. So going back to my Airbnb thing, if you're gonna utilize that while you're on vacation, think about maybe renting your car at the same exact time.

Joanna: [19:09] Yeah.

Christian: [19:09] You can make a few grand, if not numerous thousands of dollars, by renting your car out over that expe- extended period of time while you're already gone. Mm-hmm. It's just probably gonna sit there vacant anyways, not being used.

Joanna: [19:19] And if people are traveling in, they will most likely need a vehicle to use- Exactly as well, so it's worth-

Christian: [19:27] Yes … Joanna: throwing that in there as an option. Exactly. So that's it for this episode. I hope you learned some fun and creative ways that you could earn some extra income while you're owning your house. Again, we are Seattle-area real estate agents. If you ever wanna chat with us, we'd love to help you buy or sell a house. You can always reach out to us on AwesomeNossumGroup.com. You can schedule free chats with us right online. We'll have a quick, no obligation, free 30-minute Zoom call with you anytime. AwesomeNossumGroup.com/schedule. That's it for this episode. We'll see you in two weeks for another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. We'll see you then.

Joanna: [20:03] All right, thanks. Bye.