With the rise in startups aimed at using technology to solve problems in daily life, it’s no surprise that apps that leverage the ability to pool resources from the community and pair them with side hustles or alternative income streams has increased. From ride sharing to short term rentals, we’ve seen a boom in this space, and these options are talked about frequently as sources of additional revenue. Less often talked about but also interesting are apps that allow you to share other resources such as your vehicle or swimming pool, but we do sometimes get these questions in our online physician communities. As costs of rental cars increase, it’s no surprise that car sharing options are becoming popular alternatives to traditional rental car opportunities. In addition to options such as Uber or Lyft, apps like Turo are becoming more popular, and more physicians are considering renting out their cars. Less frequently asked but in a similar vein is the idea of renting out your pool on an app like Swimply. Below, we cover advice from our hive mind and what to consider when assessing these options as possible side gigs.
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What is car sharing and how does renting out your car through an app like Turo work?
Car sharing is a type of short-term car rental where people rent cars for a short period of time, which can be as brief as by the hour. Unlike traditional car rentals, car sharing is coordinated with a private owner of a vehicle, often through a person-to-person car rental service, versus a traditional rental car company. The pricing is often significantly lower than car rental companies.
Car sharing through platforms like Turo work very similarly to listing an investment property as a short-term rental on sites like Airbnb. You can use popular third-party P2P car rental services to list your car as available to rent. They help match you with drivers (for a fee) and help you collect payments and coordinate drop offs and pickups.
The pros of this model are being able to make money off of an asset that’s not being used and the flexibility of only engaging in the side gig when you want to. Physicians who have used Turo say that Turo is very easy to use and makes it easy to communicate with renters, offers protection plans with differing levels of coverage to adequately cover cars at different price points, that they have 24/7 customer support that is helpful, and that they offer roadside assistance for your customers.
Some entrepreneurial folks have even scaled this business to the point of buying cars specifically for this purpose, and may even buy specialty or experience type cars that they can rent out at a premium depending on the market and supply and demand for these.
Over the past several years, members of our physician Facebook groups have asked about renting out their car for an additional income stream. We’ve compiled some of the most frequent concerns and tips for this side gig below.
Considerations when renting out your car as a side hustle
When assessing if renting out your car for extra income is a side gig you want to do, our members recommended considering the following areas of potential concern.
Risk of damages and liability. The biggest caution we see from doctors who have done this side gig is the risk of damage to the vehicle while rented. Stories shared within our physician online community include:
A broken back axle
Smoke damage inside the car
Voided warranties for unapproved car repairs
If you plan on doing this as a major side gig, you may want to consider opening an LLC specifically for this side gig and having the vehicle(s) you rent out owned by the LLC. This can help protect you from liability associated with the car rentals.
Insurance coverage is a minefield to navigate. While third-party platforms may offer some sort of insurance protection for your vehicle while it’s rented through their platform, members warn that the coverage may be minimal and can be a nightmare if you have to make a claim. As with any insurance coverage, it’s in their best interest to deny your claim, which leaves you with a lot of risk and liability and not a lot of protection in the case of a bad renter. Before you get your car setup for renting, make sure that between your personal policy or a commercial policy and coverage provided by the third-party platform, you are covered.
The pay off might not be worth the hassle. While you can make money with this side gig, it can be difficult, especially once you factor in fees to the third-party platform you use to list your rental’s availability. Given the opportunity cost of your time, especially for doctors, some members caution that the amount of time it takes to manage this side gig might not be worth the hassle for the income it can bring in.
Traffic violations. Drivers may run red lights or go through tolls without paying. As these traffic violations are captured automatically by license plate, they will trace back to you as the car’s owner. This puts an additional administrative burden on you to go back and research who was renting your vehicle at the time and to try to collect on the additional costs and implications of the traffic violations, sometimes long after the fact of the rental being completed. While not common, if your vehicle is involved in any illegal activity or is in an accident, it may be difficult and stressful to prove that you weren’t involved as the owner of the car.
Renters won’t treat your vehicle with the same care you do. Most of us are probably guilty of this one if we’re honest. Many members commented on how we often don’t treat rental cars the same way we treat our own vehicle. We may return them dirty or are more likely to accelerate and brake harder than normal because we aren’t concerned about the wear and tear and resulting maintenance bills. While you may be able to charge additional cleaning fees, it’s additional work you need to factor into this side gig. The additional maintenance that may be required, or required sooner, is an additional cost that also affects your overall profitability with this side gig.
Tips to optimize your car sharing side gig
While our members had the areas of caution above, many have also seen success and had good experiences with this side gig. Some tips from our community for making this a worthwhile side gig include:
This side gig likely works best when there’s someone in the household with a flexible schedule that can help coordinate drop offs and pick ups and to handle any issues that may arise during the rental.
Consider renting leisure vehicles only versus renting out a car you depend on. If you have an issue with a rental, you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you’re stuck and can’t get to where you need to be because the car is unavailable.
Not all third-party services are the same, so do your due diligence. Check the reviews and what others who have utilized the platform say.
Use a third-party service that vets renters. This won’t completely protect you from having issues, but it can help minimize the probability.
A final piece of insight that might help physicians with this side gig was to treat this alternative income stream like investing in a single stock or in cryptocurrency: be in a mindset where if you lose the car and the money invested in it, you’ll be okay. They equated that as the investment risk for the potential reward of the additional income from renting the vehicle out.
Given this piece of advice, renting out older cars may be the best fit for physicians interested in this side gig, as opposed to purchasing a new car specifically for this side gig, or offering up a new vehicle for rentals.
Renting out an RV or camper
Along with car rentals, renting out your RV or camper has also become another popular side gig opportunity. While this option carries many of the same considerations above, we’ve noted that many of our physician members consider this a slightly better side gig opportunity if you already have the equipment parked in your driveway than renting your personal vehicle(s) out. For one, while RVs and campers are still depreciating assets, in the long run, they tend to depreciate less than cars (though new RVs and campers may take a harder hit upfront the first year or two). You’ll likely also be able to ask for a higher rental fee, which can make the effort of setting up this side gig and coordinating rentals more worth the effort.
What about renting out my pool through an app like Swimply?
Similar to renting out a car that sits in the driveway for most of the year, members of our physician Facebook groups also ask about renting out their pools for parties for an additional source of side gig income. Third-party platforms like Swimply exist to help you list and manage your pool as available for private rentals as well.
The allure of this has been created in part by news stories of people making over 6 figures a year renting out their pool. While data shows that this is not the average (which is more in the low 5 figure range), it can still feel like relatively easy money given that your pool exists is likely unused much of the time.
Of course, anything that sounds like easy money likely has a catch.
Considerations when renting out your pool as a side hustle
While less common a question than renting out a car, this is another side gig option physicians consider. With your pool, individuals will be on your personal property versus you dropping off and picking up an underutilized vehicle at the airport. Here are a few considerations our physicians suggest when assessing this potential additional income stream.
It’s more work than you may think: Those that rent on apps like Swimply report that they actually do a fair amount of work between cleaning, maintenance, and testing the water. They caution that pool management is not easy, and that with heavy use of the pool, routine maintenance that you may have on a schedule for your use once a week probably won’t cut it. We’ve probably all seen public or hotel pools get shut down because a user has had an accident or threw up. Some say it’s a better side gig for someone that has someone who works from home or is retired or not working.
You will incur additional costs: Not only do maintenance costs go up, the fees associated with these platforms, though not insane, can take 10-20% off of your margin. Plus marketing, furnishing, and otherwise keeping the pool in a condition where you can maintain a good reputation and keep renters coming in will require some money.
Concerns about liability. Similar to renting out your car, renting out your pool comes with certain liability risks. Kids may be left unattended. People may be drinking. Someone could run and trip in your backyard. They may trash or damage your property. Make sure you have proper liability insurance in place that protects you for all these types of situations before proceeding. Third-party platforms often offer protection, but make sure you know clearly what is and what isn’t covered, that their protection limits completely cover you in the event of an issue, and also check reviews on how difficult they are to work with when a claim arises. You can likely easily see a situation where your third party insurance and your home insurance are at odds about who is responsible for coverage, and you may be stuck in the middle.
Where are people going to use the bathroom? It might seem like a silly question at first, but if strangers are hosting a pool party in your backyard, they’ll likely be there for a few hours so it’s logistics to consider. Many homes have bathrooms with exterior doors leading out to the pool area, but many homeowners might not be excited about the idea of strangers using their bathroom or entering their house while they are trying to enjoy their day as well or worrying about what they leave out if people are going to be coming in and out unmonitored. If you have a designated bathroom, make sure it’s clear of personal effects, especially prescription medications or valuables.
Strangers will know where–and how–you live. Doctors unfortunately know well how litigious our society can be. If you live in a nice area and have an expensive house with a nice backyard and pool, there’s a chance the people renting your pool will do some online digging and discover who you are and your profession. This can open you up for the risk of potential liability from people looking to take advantage of your earning potential.
Other property you can rent out
As these apps become more popular, they are adding functionality for renting out other things as well. Some examples include tennis courts, lawns, basketball courts, and pickleball courts. We’re sure these trends will continue. Most of the same considerations as those raised above likely apply.
Conclusion
As with many opportunities, renting out your car or pool may seem like an easy way to make passive income, but it usually has a fair amount of time and effort involved, especially at the beginning. Profits may also be less than you’d expect. It’s important to do your research ahead of time and make sure you’re clear on the liability side. You don’t want to risk your wealth and retirement for a few hundred extra bucks a month.
Some members have had success with these side gigs and have rented out vehicles for years now as additional income. Others have done it a few times and mentioned it wasn’t worth the hassle. Whether or not it’s worth it can be highly dependent on your situation. For example, this is one of the few side gigs available for physicians on a J-1 waiver or a H-1B visa, so it may be the perfect fit for them. A surgeon, however, may find a side gig such as consulting much more lucrative for the time required, and much less of a hassle. Additionally, some of these side gigs are more amenable to those with non-working family members or those that work from home, secondary to the flexibility needed for car drop offs or maintenance or supervision needed when renting out a pool.
As in many cases, liability and asset protection are large factors to consider before starting with this type of side gig. Make sure you have proper coverage in place and that these types of activities aren’t excluded from claim coverage.
Related Side Gig Resources for Physicians
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You can also search other popular medical and non-medical side gigs for doctors for more ideas for additional income streams.