5 Ways to Make Money Off Your House

Most of us consider our houses to be money pits. Property taxes, repairs and upkeep, and mortgage carrying costs all seem to take a big chunk of our after tax income. Did you know that you can put your house to work for you? Here are:

5 Ways to Make Money Off Your House

1. Rent Out A Parking Spot

Depending on the location of your home, you may be able to rent out a parking spot on a monthly basis. If you live near an attraction or an institution (such as a hospital), or any other workplace with costly parking, you may be able to rent your driveway during the day for extra income. Parking in densely populated urban areas, such as downtown condominiums, is at a premium as well, and may provide an opportunity if you have an extra parking space available 24/7.

2. Lease out Storage Space

For years we let a friend store his motorcycle in our shed over the winter. Like Scott, many people have seasonal ‘toys’ such as motorcycles, personal watercraft or snowmobiles that need to be stored in the off-season. If you have the space, like an empty garage, shed or outbuilding, you can lease it out and make a few extra bucks.

3. Rent a room to an international student

Friends of ours have done this for Chinese students attending high school in Mississauga, and found it both personally and financially rewarding.  There are a number of businesses in the GTA that match up host families with international students. Of course, the host families are interviewed and screened, and there are requirements in terms of the accommodation they are able to provide. If you are interested in learning more about this, search “homestay for international students” and you will find lots of information.

4. Offer your home for film and commercial productions

You may know that my first career was as an account manager in advertising agencies so I’ve been on a large number of commercial sets! In many cases, we were shooting in someone’s home. Don’t think your house needs to be a mansion or a show home to be considered for film production – often the need is for a genuine family home, and not a fancy castle. One requirement is that there should a lot of space both in and outside of the home. Film productions come with lots of cast and crew, a ton of equipment, and a number of large production vehicles. Some people may be concerned that having a film crew could cause damage to the home - in my experience, this isn’t a valid concern. Before the shoot, the house is completely prepared – valuables are removed, furniture is carefully moved to a safe spot, floors are covered with protective cardboard and, if anything is inadvertently damaged, the production company will repair or replace it. Although this isn’t generally a steady income (unless your home is selected as the location for a series) the money is good with amounts in the thousands of dollars per day.

5. Rent out to travelers

While the Airbnb idea is controversial to some people due to some highly publicized bad experiences, renting out to travellers is an option for some homeowners depending on their comfort level and where they live.  Toronto is one of the locations that has cracked down on abuses of Airbnbs by legislating that landlords can only rent out a principal residence and not an investment property. Airbnb has been largely cooperative in working with municipalities to restore faith in its offering. This is a great way to make money off your house.

A last (but very important!) note. However you decide to make money off your house, make sure you call your home insurance provider and let them know what you are doing. Some home insurance policies could be void in the event the insurance company discovers that you are running a business from home, and you don’t want to discover that for the first time when you are trying to make a claim and it is rejected.

If you have any thoughts about this blog or any other suggestions to share, please let me know at Stephanie.hebb@royallepage.ca or 905-822-6900.