Passive income is the holy grail of entrepreneurs who want to generate steady income and be free from daily responsibilities. It is what enables wealthy individuals to go on month-long vacations, several times a year, without a worry in the world about their businesses.
The challenge is that it can be quite difficult to build such an income stream. You must invest a lot of time upfront and often receive little or no return over a long period of time.
Sometimes you’ll even go months or years without making a single dime from your passive income activities. But like with everything valuable, passive income takes patience and persistence to achieve.
In this article, we shall be discussing 21 side hustles that can make you passive income as a real estate agent. Some of the ideas might not be within your field of expertise, but they’re all fairly easy to start and manage.
21 Side Hustle Business Ideas for Real Estate Agents
1. Rent out a room in your home
This one should be a brainer as it’s right in your wheelhouse. If you happen to have some extra rooms in your home, let’s say your family went out of town for a few weeks, then you can make passive income by leasing them out through sites like Airbnb.
2. Airbnb arbitrage
With the arbitrage model, rather than renting out rooms in your home, you instead lease an entire house, furnish it, and then sublease the rooms on Airbnb. It’s a great passive income side hustle for real estate agents.
3. Rent out unused space
If you have some unused space in your home, such as in your basement or attic, you can rent it out to other people through platforms such as Neighbor and STOW IT.
STOW IT can help you rent out spaces like driveways, land, and garages for vehicle storage. You still control the price, access, and items allowed but they handle the marketing, payments, and even evictions.
4. Rent out your parking space
If you live in an area that has poor parking, you can make a few hundred dollars each month by renting out your spot through Neighbor and Justpark.
5. Rent out your tools
Another great way to make passive income is by renting out tools such as lawnmowers and carpet cleaners. Once again, you can use Neighbor to find people looking for such tools.
6. P2P lending
Peer-to-peer lending is a loaning system where you lend out your money to people who are not eligible for bank loans.
While it can be a very risky business, you can use platforms like Prosper to find loan seekers who have been thoroughly screened and have met certain criteria. Through Prosper, you can make up to 30% interest on your loans.
7. Invest in a small business
A less risky alternative to lending is investing in small businesses in exchange for a share of the income they generate each month.
You can use Mainvest to find businesses to invest in. It doesn’t take much capital to get started. Even just $100 could do.
8. Advertise on your car
If you don’t mind driving around in a car that looks like a billboard, you should definitely check out Carvertise, a marketing company that pays people to wrap their cars in ads.
You get paid according to the miles you drive. Carvertise claims that you can make as much as $1,500 from just a single campaign.
9. Start a YouTube channel
As a real estate agent, you’re probably charismatic. If you also happen to be comfortable in front of a camera, then you should seriously consider starting a YouTube channel showcasing various houses available for rent or sale.
Unlike most other YouTube channels which only make money through ads, you also be able to charge clients a fee to feature their homes.
9. Start a podcast
If YouTube just isn’t for you, then you can start a podcast instead. This time around you won’t be able to showcase properties, however the podcast can be on any other topics you’re passionate about.
It’s very easy to get started. You just need a microphone, a laptop, and a podcast hosting service. Occasionally you can invite guests to make the podcast more interesting. Over time, as your audience grows, you’ll start making money through ads and sponsorships.
10 Start a blog
If you love writing then starting a blog should be a no-brainer. Blogging is one of the best ways to create passive income in this digital age where people love reading articles about all sorts of things.
Your blog can be on literally any topic you’re knowledgeable about, even if it’s outside the real estate field. Once you start to gain traffic, you’ll be able to make money through ads, affiliate marketing, and even through selling various products and services. If you don’t have any web design experience, you can use tools such as Wix to set up the blog in just a few hours.
11. Publish an e-book
Publishing an e-book is another great way to generate passive income. Nonfiction e-books, which educate your audience about topics like online marketing and business, often sell better than fiction books.
You can use Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to publish an e-book that fills a gap in a niche you are familiar with. In this case, it would be real estate.
Although Amazon takes a cut from your sales, it gives you access to millions of its users, which means you won’t have to spend a lot of time marketing.
12. Create an online course
This is a passive income idea that requires a lot of work on the front end. If you have profound expertise in an area that people are interested in learning, then you should consider creating an online course through Teachable.
The course could be on anything, whether that’s cooking, pet training, or even a real estate masterclass.
The bulk of the work will go into creating the content, but once is completed and uploaded on Teachable, students will be able to enroll without any further work from you. It’s one of the best side hustles for real estate agents.
13. Affiliate marketing
If you have a large following on social media or a blog/YouTube channel, then you can sign up on affiliate networks like CJ Affiliate and Amazon Affiliate to find products to start promoting.
Whenever somebody purchases through your links, you make a commission from the sale. Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to generate passive income online.
14. Create a smartphone app using no-code tools
Do you have an app idea that could be the next Uber? Or perhaps some sort of convenience tool that would be helpful to real estate agents like yourself?
If so, then you can use no-code platforms such as Adalo to build it yourself. Apps can make money through ads and subscription fees.
15. Sell digital products on Etsy
Some examples of digital products include templates, spreadsheets, pdfs, user guides, etc. You can make passive income by selling them on Etsy. For instance, you could sell your rental agreement or house purchase contract as a template that other people could use.
16. Monetize your website
Do you happen to have a website for your real estate practice? If so, then you can monetize it by adding ads using Google Adsense. Depending on how much traffic you have, you could make hundreds or even thousands of dollars in passive income each month.
17. Sell stock photos
If you love taking photos with your smartphone, another great way you can make passive income is on stock photo websites like Shutterstock and Adobe stock.
Stock photos are often used by advertisers and publishers to help illustrate the products they’re selling or stories they’re publishing about.
Once you sign up and upload your photos on the stock photo websites, any time somebody licenses them, you get paid a royalty.
18. Get a cashback credit card
If you frequently use your credit card, you should look into getting a cashback card that allows you to get a small percentage back from each purchase your make.
Although this income stream won’t necessarily make you rich, it can help you earn some extra cash from your daily expenditures. You can do a few online searches to find the best cash-back credit cards that fits your needs.
19. Cashback from online shopping
If you do a lot of online shopping then this is definitely something worth considering. Through platforms like Rakuten, you can get up to 20% cashback for simply buying things online. Rakuten has so many popular outlets, including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and eBay.
20. Buy dividend stocks
Buying dividend stocks is a great way to generate passive income as a real estate agent. The only downside is that you have to make a substantial investment if you want to get returns that you can live off.
Make sure you do your research to find the best dividend stocks. While you don’t have to know everything at the beginning, it is important to be curious and eager to learn. You can start small, and then build from there.
21. Become an ATM vendor
You can make passive income by installing ATMs in various locations, such as in small corner shops and malls. Your income will come from charging transaction fees for withdrawals.
Make sure to first check if this type of business is legal in your area and what type of licenses will be required.
