If you want to earn passive income, consider starting a rental business. But what can you rent for cash? In this article, I’m going to cover 18 in-demand items you can rent for cash.
You need to first identify what items people want to use, but not own. Then, you’ll need to buy these items, and start renting them out.
This venture could be a side hustle to supplement your current income, or you can make a full-time career out of it. How do you get started? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Rental Business Ideas: 18 Things You Can Rent For Cash
1. Spare Room
If you can stand to have neighbors with this much access to you, you can rent out space on your property. Some people clear out their garages and convert them into small apartments.
Others just rent out an empty bedroom for cash every month. You can include utilities and even wi-fi in the arrangement.
2. Storage Space
Most people change their living space at least a few times throughout their lives. When something like that happens, they’ll need a temporary storage site.
If you own enough land, you can have storage sheds built where people can keep their stuff. Sometimes situations change, and people end up needing to keep their belongings stashed for a long time. This can mean long-term income with little consistent effort.
3. Office Space
When businesses start to increase their workload, they need the proper space to do it in. It can be expensive to acquire office space, but companies can be expected to use them for years if nothing goes wrong.
Established companies are usually reliable tenants.
4. Parking Space
This option can be lucrative. Parking spaces in well-populated cities are highly valuable. Denizens can pay over $10 for just an hour or two of parking.
Employees can be hired to patrol the lot to make sure everyone’s paid up.
5. Gardening/Farmland
This one might not be discussed as commonly, but it can still prove an effective revenue stream. An aspiring farm can obtain livestock and other necessities elsewhere. If they still need land, they might be willing to pay handsomely for it.
6. Money
Loan out your money! Loaning people money allows you to collect income from the interest on the deal. You could set up a loan agency, or you could loan money out by yourself.
If you don’t want to loan out large sums, you could do microloans. There are websites that allow people to loan small amounts out to small-time entrepreneurs.
7. RV
Recreational vehicles are used for a few different reasons. They’re taken on cross-country vacations. They’re also lived in full-time.
If you own an RV you can rent out that space for cash. If you build up enough capital, you can rent out to entire communities of people who wish to live in RVs.
8. Cars
If you’re interested in car rentals, you might want to work for Hertz.
When it comes to renting out cars, you’re dealing with an industry that predates the Internet Age. Most other options on this list are still evolving as the economy reacts to technological innovations.
Car rentals, however, are still set in stone for the foreseeable future. This shouldn’t discourage you entirely. Just know that if you seek to start a car rental business, you’ll need to set yourself apart with a specialization, such as in high-end cars.
9. Advertising Space
Advertisement is a multi-billion dollar industry. Businesses are always looking to get the word out. If you have a space that advertisers consider valuable, you could have significant opportunities available.
Billboards can be big business. You can even get paid to advertise on your property. There are placards that show ads as you see on taxis and other professional vehicles. They can be situated on automobiles you own. You can also have logos superimposed on car doors or rear windows.
There’s a lot more to it – the sky’s the limit. You can even take that figure of speech literally by Be creative.
10. Boats/Jet Skis
This is more of a seasonal venture. Most customers are going to want to rent something to take out on the water during the warm season.
You can charge a premium price depending on what type of vessels you’re offering, and to what clientele. People with disposable income are often drawn to jet skis.
11. Golf Carts
You’d be surprised how many golf courses are out there. Some of them undoubtedly prefer to source their own carts, but not all of them will.
Some courses will be fine renting high-quality carts. Each golf course requires a considerable number of carts to ferry around its patrons. They’ll also probably have the money to rent in bulk.
12. Bikes
The United States is definitely a car-driving nation. That being said, bikes are still popular for different traveling needs. Some people have given up on traffic, and bike to work. Some exercise junkies love the great workout biking can give you.
No matter why they need them, people will want to rent out bikes.
A number of common situations can result in people temporarily needing a bike. Someone could be on vacation in a bright and sunny place with lots of energy to burn, for example.
13. Tools
Individuals and companies need tools that can be cumbersome to own full-time. Instead, they can rent them from you. Think about doing business with trade positions like electricians, technicians, plumbers, etc.
It can be heavy machinery like drills. or any kind of industrial equipment. This can be a boon to fledgling businesses.
14. Bouncy Houses
Kids are always having birthdays or special events. Even if the day in question isn’t about them, there should be a distraction there for them to have fun with.
Bouncy houses are a time-honored classic. They entertain for hours without the need for any screens. This venture can be profitable year-round.
15. Tents
Some people like to go camping once in a blue moon. That doesn’t mean they like to be responsible for camping equipment. If you can have it available for them whenever they need it, you can establish a thriving business.
Tents aren’t all created equally, either. Some larger tents are designed to house expositions.
16. Musical Equipment
You can rent out musical equipment for cash to schools and other educational facilities. All sorts of musical ensembles are also potential clients. Musical gear can be temperamental to maintain, but shouldering that burden can be profitable.
You can consult experts about the best way to take care of and store instruments and musical devices.
17. Website
This one might be a little surprising. These days one of the most important characteristics of a website is its ranking. The higher a website is ranked in its niche, the most attention and traffic it receives.
Depending on what’s currently trending or valuable, you can rent out ownership of a website and make money from it.
18. Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a given range of frequencies for signal transmission. It’s one of the things your internet bill covers. If you don’t use all of it per pay period, you call sell or rent out the rest of it.
Starting a rental business FAQ
How much upfront, ongoing work, and effort does it take?
As many know, there’s likely no such thing as truly passive income. With any business prospect, you’ll probably have to put in some additional effort from time to time.
Renting out property is a way of leveraging assets that are already in your possession. This means you’re breaking the cycle of being paid directly for your time, and instead are being paid mostly for your efforts and results.
There will certainly be a lot of hard work getting the business started. You also won’t be able to kick your feet up once everything is up and running.
That being said, you’ll earn income steadily, even as you’re tending to other matters. Also, keep in mind that this process does not have to be particularly labor-intensive.
How much does it cost to start a rental business?
This question depends entirely on you on what you wish to accomplish. Setting up a sole proprietorship or an LLC isn’t that pricey. Many other costs are also involved, however. There’s storage, advertisement, IT services, and more.
Fortunately, there are ways to offset costs. You can rent out items that you already own. If you purchase something new instead, renting it out can eventually cover the initial cost.
Can the rental business model be scaled?
When the time comes, you can expand your rental outlet. Ordering anything in bulk usually lowers the price. Whatever object you’re renting out, ordering several of them at a time can be ideal if you’re looking to branch out.
How much competition is there in the rental business space?
It depends on what you’re renting out. Car rentals have been monopolized by a few companies, but there probably won’t be a similar situation with kayaks anytime soon.
Do some market research. Find out what there’s a demand for in your area, or in an area you want to work in. Fulfill that demand and you’ll be in business.
Rent things for cash: The bottom line
Whatever you decide to rent out, there will be obstacles and setbacks like any other business. It’ll be your responsibility to ensure your customers treat your wares well and return them in a timely manner.
If you’re zeroing in on an object you’d like to rent out, you don’t have to start from scratch. Study the business models of other successful enterprises. See what they do that works, and do it yourself.
Once you’ve built a respectable business model and have funding ready, you can start bringing your dream of finding things to rent for cash and starting a rental business to reality.
