27 Most Profitable Things You Can Rent Out to Make Money

Here are 5 items you can monetize that you probably already have at home.

1. Vehicles

Profit level: Most profitable

If your car isn’t always in use, you can rent it out when you don’t need it. There are several platforms you can use to do this:

• Turo: This is a site for cars, minivans, trucks, jeeps, and similar vehicles. Note that they take a percentage of what guests pay for the rental (usually 10%–40%), something that, as you’ll see, is the case for most renting platforms. Turo claims its users have average annual earnings of $6,346–$13,477 per car.
• Getaround: This is a site for various types of vehicles, including cars, vans, SUVs, wagons, and more. Each car you list costs $100 initially and then $20 per month. Getaround will then take a further 40% of the rate you set for your car. However, their site boasts that hosts can still earn up to $1,425 per car per month.
• Fetch: This is a site for renting out trucks and vans. Fetch will take 20%–50% of what the renter pays (with the exact amount depending on the type of insurance package you get). According to the site, you can make up to $15,000–$30,000 per year renting your truck.
• Riders Share: This site is for renting out motorcycles. They take a 25% commission from all rentals, and they claim that top users earn over $6,000 per month.

Commissions and earnings

As described in the list above, this can be a very lucrative side hustle with the potential to bring in thousands of dollars per month. That said, most rental car platforms take a hefty cut of your earnings, and your profit potential depends on what kind of car you have—people will obviously pay more to rent a luxury vehicle than a fifteen-year-old beater.

2. Bikes

You can rent out your bike on a site called Spinlister. This site also lists certain other types of sports equipment, but bikes are its main focus.

Commissions and earnings

As with renting out vehicles, you’ll have to pay a commission to rent your bicycle through Spinlister. Their cut is 17.5%.

However, you’ll still be able to make a sizable profit, at least if Spinlister is to be believed. According to their site, you can make up to $500 per month by sharing your bike or sports equipment.

3. Tools and equipment

You can rent out tools and equipment through various apps. This is a great opportunity for you to make money from something that would otherwise usually sit around unused.

Check out sites like:

• Fat Llama: This allows you to rent out a large variety of items, including everything from DJ equipment and musical instruments to photography equipment and film projectors.
• FriendWithA: This is another site that features a wide variety of different items you can rent—bicycles, saws and other tools, photography equipment, and more.
• Rent My Equipment: This site has equipment for carpentry and construction projects, but there are also machines for cleaning, farming, landscaping, and so on.

Commissions and earnings

This will depend on which items you want to rent, at what rate, and for how long. Some of the items listed on the sites above usually go for just a few dollars, whereas others cost thousands to rent.

As usual, you’ll have to pay a commission on whatever you earn. With Fat Lama, for example, this will be 25% of the rental fee. With Rent My Equipment, it’ll be 25%–35%.

4. Baby gear

Baby gear is something you use only for a short time, and your kids soon outgrow it. Afterward, you’re left with a lot of cribs, strollers, toys, and other stuff that you don’t use.

Instead of throwing it all away, why not use it to make money? You can rent out baby gear on sites like BabyQuip and rents4baby. These are websites that cater to traveling families with small children who find it more convenient to rent baby gear when they arrive at their destination instead of carrying everything with them.

Commissions and earnings

BabyQuip’s website says that, on average, quality providers earn over $1000 a month. However, there’s a $200 fee to sign up, in addition to the 22% commission that they take.

5. Designer clothing and accessories

If you’re the proud owner of a designer wardrobe, you could monetize it by renting out your clothes. Sites that you can use to lend (and borrow!) designer clothes and accessories include:

• Tulerie
• Style Lend
• Rent My Wardrobe

Commissions and earnings

As you’d expect, these apps will take a cut of your profits. Tulerie charges 24% per transaction, for instance, and Style Lend charges 20%.

These companies don’t specify on their websites how much money you can make by listing your clothes for rent. However, some online reports claim that you can make thousands of dollars per month by renting your wardrobe.

Monetize your home (or a vacation home) by renting out these 6 indoor spaces.

6. Spare rooms in your house

We’ve already mentioned Airbnb, which is one of the most obvious ways to make money from renting things. If you have a spare room you aren’t using, this app is a great option for recruiting short-term tenants, and you can use the rent they pay you to pay your own rent or mortgage. Vrbo is another app that works in the same way.

While both platforms primarily cater to property owners, there are innovative ways to start an Airbnb without owning property, such as subleasing with permission or managing rentals for others.

Commissions and earnings

The commission you’ll pay to rent your spare room is relatively low compared to the other rentals we’ve looked at so far. With Airbnb, most hosts pay a flat service fee of 3% of the booking subtotal. With Vrbo, it’s 5%.

To make things more definite, Airbnb has a calculator to help you work out how much you can earn by renting your space.

7. Empty rooms for storage

Storage units usually cost around $100–$200 a month to rent if you use a professional storage company. This is pretty expensive, so peer-to-peer storage solutions have become a popular alternative.

Platforms that you can use include:

• Neighbor
• StoreAtMyHouse
• Stache

Commissions and earnings

Commissions on storage space rentals seem to be relatively low. For example, Stache charges 10%, and Neighbor charges 4.9% plus a $0.30 processing fee on each host payout.

The Neighbor website says that you can make $50–$500 per month ($600–$6,000 per year) renting your space for storage. The Stache website says that their hosts earn an average of $4,000–$6,000 per year.

8. Your house (or part of it) for events

As well as renting out your home on Airbnb or Vrbo for people to live in, you can rent it out for events like filming, photoshoots, and parties. Platforms you can use to do this include:

• Peerspace
• Splacer
• Set Scouter

Commissions and earnings

Set Scouter is unusual in that they don’t charge you a commission (as this is paid by the renter), and that it’s also free to list your space on.

On the other hand, Splacer charges owners a 17% service fee for each booking, and Peerspace charges 15%–18%.

According to some reports, Set Scouter and Splacer could net you hundreds or even thousands of dollars if you rent your space out for just a few hours each month.

9. Your kitchen (if it’s commercially equipped)

Food businesses need spaces to cook in. If you’re an avid cook with a very well-equipped kitchen, you might be able to help them out and make some money doing it.

To rent out your kitchen, you can use platforms like the Kitchen Door or Kitchen Finder, which connect individuals or businesses who need commercial kitchen spaces with people who can accommodate them.

Bear in mind that, if you want to rent out your kitchen on these types of platforms, it has to be fully equipped and commercially licensed. This will eat into your earnings, so a kitchen-renting side hustle is best for people who are already active in the culinary industry.

Commissions and earnings

Fully-equipped commercial kitchens cost around $15–$45 per hour to rent. This gives you an idea of how much you can expect to earn from this side hustle (although there will usually be a commission to pay if you rent out through an app like the ones we’ve mentioned).

10. Your vacation home

Profit level: Most profitable

To rent out your vacation home, you can use two of the sites we’ve already mentioned—Airbnb or Vrbo.

Alternatively, use Booking.com. This is a site that’s well-known for hotel and B&B reservations but also allows individuals to rent out their second homes.

Commissions and earnings

As we’ve already mentioned, Airbnb charges a 3% commission on rentals, and Vrbo charges 5%. With Booking.com, you can expect to pay a higher rate of 15%.

Reports suggest that you could make around $10,000 per year or even more renting out your vacation home.

11. Space for an office or meeting room

If you have a space that could be used as an office or conference room, you can rent it out on platforms like:

• Peerspace
• LiquidSpace
• Croissant

We’ve already mentioned Peerspace, which is a site for listing spaces to host events, meetings, productions, and creative projects.

LiquidSpace and Croissant are primarily for individuals or businesses looking for places for temporary coworking. These people might want to rent your space for a few hours, a day, a week, or even longer.

Note that even if your office space is unfurnished, you can still rent it out.

Commissions and earnings

To give an example of how much you could earn, Peerspace says that offices average $45 per hour to rent, although anything in the range of $30–$77 per hour is normal. Peerspace charges a 15%–18% commission, so you can expect to make about $25–$65 per hour renting through them.

Even if your outdoor space is just a few square yards, someone may want to rent it from you. Here are 4 outdoor spaces you can rent out to make money.

12. A swimming pool

Profit level: Most profitable

If you’re lucky enough to have a swimming pool, this is another commodity you can rent out. One way to do this is through the app Swimply, which also allows people to share their hot tubs, sports courts, and gathering spaces.

Commissions and earnings

Swimply charges a commission of 15% on rentals. According to their site, you can earn upwards of $5,000 per month renting out your pool with them.

13. Parking spaces

In many places, parking spaces are incredibly hard to come by. If you have an unused parking space, driveway, or garage, you could make money by letting other people rent it.

Your parking space will be particularly popular if it’s in a busy urban area, near an event venue or a public transit hub (such as a metro station), or close to a popular tourist destination.

Here are some platforms you can use to rent out your parking space:

• Neighbor
• SpotHero
• ParkWhiz
• ParqEx

Commissions and earnings

You might have to pay quite a lot to list your parking space. SpotHero, for example, takes a 35% cut on all reservations.

According to the site Neighbor, you can make $50–$300 per month by renting out your empty parking space to people in your area. Similarly, the ParqEx website says that you can easily make hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a year by listing your parking space with them. However, all of this obviously depends on where you live.

14. Your yard

If you have a yard, you can rent it out for:

• Pets: Pet owners often want to find safe and secure outdoor areas where their pets can play and exercise. You can rent your yard out to them through Sniffspot.
• Urban farming or community gardens: Platforms like Shared Earth and YardYum match landowners with aspiring farmers and gardeners. You also don’t have to do this through an app—you can reach out to gardening clubs or farmer’s markets in your local area to find people who might be interested in using your land.

Commissions and earnings

The commission can vary a lot with these types of rentals. YardYum is free to use, whereas Sniffspot usually charges 24.9% plus $0.30.

The amount of money you can expect to make will also vary. Sniffspot claims to have hosts that are earning $3,000 or more per month with their unused land. YardYum, on the other hand, cites surprisingly low rates—their FAQ suggests that you can expect to earn $30–$100 for renting a plot of 6 square meters for a year.

15. Land for camping

Profit level: Most profitable

If you own land in a scenic location, you can rent it out for camping purposes. A number of platforms have sprung up that connect landowners with outdoor enthusiasts looking for private land to set up their tents or RVs.

Examples include:

• HomeCamper
• Hipcamp

How much money you can make

Renting land for camping can be a lucrative side hustle. Taking Hipcamp as an example, they claim top-earning hosts make over $100,000 per year, with the average active host making somewhere in the range of $8,000–$15,000 per year.

Here are 6 items that people use for hobbies and leisure that you can almost always find renters for.

16. RVs and camper vans

Profit level: Most profitable

For people who like to go on occasional camping trips or road trips, it makes sense to borrow an RV instead of buying it. If you have an RV or a camper that you’re not using, you can rent it through platforms like RVshare or Outdoorsy.

Commissions and earnings

According to RVshare’s site, many of their users make a yearly profit of $15,000+ (and sometimes more than $30,000) by renting their RVs.

17. Boats and water sports equipment

Profit level: Most profitable

Boats and yachts are obviously very expensive, and renting them out can be a good earner. You can also rent out water sports equipment such as:

• Jet skis
• Scuba equipment
• Paddleboards
• Wakeboards

Platforms for rental

There are several sites you can use for renting boats and water sports equipment. Examples include:

• Boatsetter
• GetMyBoat
• Sailo

Commissions and earnings

The money you can make will depend on how much you list your boat or equipment for. The rates you set are up to you, but Boatsetter mentions $5,000 per week as a realistic rent for a large boat.

18. Golf carts

There’s an app called Fenderly that will allow you to rent a spare golf cart to people. You can also try general websites like the ones we’ve already mentioned (e.g., Fat Llama, and Rent My Equipment).

Commissions and earnings

Fenderly claims that you can earn over $150 a day renting out your golf cart on their platform.

19. Other equipment for outdoor sports and activities

Outdoor enthusiasts are always in need of quality gear for their adventures. However, this is often expensive, and not everyone wants to purchase equipment immediately after they take up a new sport. This means people often rent it.

Items you can rent for outdoor sports and activities include:

• Surfboards
• Snowboards
• Skateboards
• Scooters
• Segways
• Golfing equipment (e.g., clubs, balls, accessories)
• Fishing gear (fishing rods, reels, tackle boxes)
• Hiking gear (backpacks and trekking poles)
• Camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags, camping chairs, cooking utensils)

Platforms you can use

There aren’t many dedicated platforms for these items. However, you can list them on general platforms, including:

• Fat Llama
• FriendWithA
• Spinlister (for surfboards, snowboards, paddleboards, and skis, in addition to bicycles)

Commissions and earnings

You can check these sites to get an idea of how much your kit might be worth to renters. It could be anything from a few dollars per rental to several hundred dollars for more expensive equipment. Note that there will also usually be a commission to pay, with the percentage depending on the site.

FriendWithA estimates that you could make $75 per month renting out your snowboard, $30 renting out your snow jacket, $160 a month renting out your electric scooter, or $90 renting out your Segway.

20. Photography equipment

Photography is another hobby with expensive equipment, and many aspiring photographers lack the means to invest in high-quality gear. If you own professional-grade cameras, lenses, tripods, lighting equipment, or any other photography accessories, you can rent them out to fellow photographers and enthusiasts.

Apps you can use to do this include ShareGrid and KitSplit, which are dedicated to photography equipment. Alternatively, you can use general listing sites to rent your photography equipment (e.g., Fat Llama and FriendWithA).

Commissions and earnings

With ShareGrid, you pay a fixed 15% service fee on each rental. With Kitsplit, it’s 15%–17.5%.

FriendWithA estimates that you could make $145 a month by renting out just a digital camera.

The Kitsplit website claims that you can earn thousands of dollars a month renting your photography equipment. However, this will probably only be the case if you have a very expensive kit.

21. Other hobby gear

Here are some other types of hobby gear you can rent out. There aren’t any dedicated sites for leasing these items, but you can try a general site like FriendWithA.

• Musical instruments
• Sewing machines
• Video games
• Board games
• Lawn games
• Art supplies
• Costumes

Commissions and earnings

Obviously, different rates apply to each class of item. FriendWithA estimates that you can make $150 a month renting out your guitar or $185 a month renting out a go-kart, for example.

If you still haven’t found something that suits you, here are 6 more ideas for things you can rent out:

22. Money

Profit level: Most profitable

You may have heard of peer-to-peer lending, which is a way for individuals to lend each other money without going through a bank or another financial institution.

Instead, borrowers and lenders connect through a platform that matches them with one another based on their risk profiles and loan requirements.

Examples of such platforms include:

• Prosper
• Groundfloor
• LendingClub

Commissions and earnings

Your potential earnings with this side hustle will vary a lot, but Groundfloor investments return over 10% annually on average, at least according to their website.

23. Digital resources

Golem Network is a peer-to-peer platform where you can get paid for renting out digital resources like your computing power, storage, and software applications.

This network is for people who need to complete tasks like rendering 3D graphics or carrying out scientific research. Instead of purchasing resources themselves, they can access the unused resources of others within the network to get the computing power they need.

Commissions and earnings

You can theoretically earn thousands of dollars per month by renting out your digital resources. However, your electricity bill will also go up (quite possibly dramatically), so remember to factor that in.

24. Internet bandwidth

If you’re renting out your CPU and other digital resources, why not also rent out your internet connection? You can do this through sites like Honeygain and PacketStream.

Commissions and earnings

According to the Honeygain webpage, you can make $22–$184 a month if you leave the app running 24/7. Meanwhile, PacketStream says that the average user can expect to earn anywhere from $5 and $15 per month.

25. Space on your car (for advertisements)

You can make money from your car even if you don’t want to rent it out to other drivers by wrapping it with advertisements.

To get paid to advertise on your car, check out platforms like Carvertise and Wrapify.

Commissions and earnings

In general, you can earn around $100–$300 per month by wrapping your car. Neither of the sites listed above takes a commission, and you shouldn’t work with any company that expects you to pay for the privilege of using one of their stickers or wraps—this is a sign of a scam.

26. Friendship

Amazingly, this is a legitimate side hustle. People will sometimes pay to have someone else accompany them to activities and events, or just hang out with them.

You can offer your services through RentAFriend, which is exactly what it sounds like: a platform where individuals can rent companionship.

Commissions and earnings

According to the RentAFriend website, most people charge $10 an hour for their friendship.

27. Other miscellaneous items

Finally, here are a few more ideas for items you can rent on FriendWithA, Fat Llama, or Rent My Equipment:

• Party equipment: You can rent out items like inflatable bounce houses, audio equipment (e.g., speakers, microphones, mixers, and DJ gear), and lighting equipment to event planners and other people hosting parties or gatherings.
• Drones: You can sometimes also list drones on sites for photography equipment, such as ShareGrid.
• Projectors: Sometimes, people need to rent projectors for events or presentations.
• Trailers: You can list camping trailers and utility trailers on Outdoorsy, as well as on the other sites we’ve mentioned.
• Fitness equipment: This could mean treadmills, elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, rowing machines, weight benches, or any other equipment for working out.
• Construction equipment: Lastly, you can rent out scaffolding, tractors, forklifts, and other heavy machinery used in construction projects (if, for some reason, you have any of this sitting in a shed or garage gathering dust).

Commissions and earnings

As you’d expect, your expected earnings for miscellaneous items like this depend on what exactly you’re renting out. Conduct a web search to find out what a reasonable rate is and set your prices accordingly.

Follow these easy steps to start making money renting your unused property:

Step 1: Make a list of rentable items

Think about what items or equipment you have that you could loan out for money. Anything that you rarely (or never) use is a good candidate for renting, but of course, you should think twice about anything that has sentimental value or that you’re worried might get damaged.

Step 2: Sign up on one or more renting platforms

Once you have your list assembled, sign up on a platform where you can rent out your possessions. Find the appropriate sites by searching for your chosen class of item higher up in this article.

Ideally, you want to list your items on multiple sites to gain more exposure. You don’t have to pick just one.

Step 3: Promote your items

As well as using the apps we’ve mentioned, you can list your items on sites like Craigslist or Facebook, or you can advertise them on local bulletin boards in your area. Also, don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth—you can let your friends know you have items for rent, and they may be willing to help you spread the word.

Step 4: Go through with the rental

Once you find a willing renter, you have to hand off your item. The platform you use will probably have suggestions (or requirements) on how the handoff should go.

It’s a good idea to take pictures of the item before the renter comes to pick it up so that you have documentation if they accidentally damage it while using it.

Once this step is complete, you’re all set—all you have to do is sit back and let the money come in.