Want a little extra cash in your pocket?
The internet is full of fun and interesting ideas that can put a little extra cash in the bank account. Just Google “how to make extra money on the side,” and you’ll have more Google pages than you have time for.
What are some of the top ideas that people can make some money? Many ideas involve getting paid to leave reviews, be an uber driver, start your own side business and one other interesting one…renting out your home.
Yes, renting out your home that you paid so much money for and worked so hard on. If you are not brave enough to do that, you would fit into most of the population of the U.S., but you have the potential and the means to bring in some serious bacon.
How does this work?
Renting out your home short-term to travelers, wanderers, weekend getawayers, hitchhikers, renters, vacationers and all the other “er’s” can be done through Airbnb, VRBO and other short-term rental agencies. People put up their home temporarily for a fixed rate per night depending on how many accommodations and the quality of their home. People WILL pay! (Which is the nice part, because it is such an upgrade from a hotel room for about the same price).
If you are ready to rent out your home and have done the research on profits, you know that you are going to do well, and are pretty much set to rock and roll.
Just had your first round of guests and everything went great? They took care of stuff, they cleaned up, they left you a good review and that led you to acquire more people. The same thing happens again and again, and before you know it, the paycheck comes in and all is looking good. We continue this trend of guests throughout the week and weekend, until one day you get a phone call from the people renting out your home.
“Hey Bob this is John, I am renting your place right now. We left the water running on accident and it flooded your house and it caused the circuits to fry which caused sparks in the grass and there was a partial fire outside that damaged the siding on the house that caused half the shingles to peel on the roof. We are sorry about that, but we left the key under the front door mat. Have a nice day.”
At this point, your heart drops to your stomach, your eyes roll to the back of your head and you hit the floor. You wake up to realize that this is not a dream, this is reality. If you are like Bob and this has happened to you, you are not alone. Time and time again, homeowner’s insurance claims are reported from residents of short-term rentals. To the homeowner’s surprise, insurance is potentially not going to provide coverage to you and the many thousands of dollars of damage that was done because Bob failed to let his insurance agent know what he was doing and get proper coverage.
Some insurance carriers now have endorsements on homeowner’s policies that can get you coverage for damage to your property and contents while the home is being rented out on a short-term basis. The best thing to do: talk to your current agent about what options and coverages the carrier has available.
If your agent does not have an option for you, call an agent that does. It will be better for you to be properly protected than to work with somebody that can’t help if a claim arises.
Still thinking about renting out your home? Don’t let Bob’s situation scare you, if you have the proper coverages and endorsements on your policy, you are going to drastically minimize the chances for a claim not being covered.
