10 Innovative Ways To Make Your Property Work For You

If you have entered 2011 trying to hunt down the latest remortgage rates trying to find the best remortgage deals. Let us show you an easier way. Make money from your home! See our top ten ways of making money out of where you live!

1 Have a Foreign Language Student or visiting Lecturer rent a room: As English is still widely used across the World especially for business then the UK is a popular spot for overseas students to learn English. As such a number of Language Schools have sprouted up across the UK and what do overseas students need, yes, somewhere to stay. So the opportunity here is rent a room to a Language Student on a short term basis! Finding out where if there is a school near you is a good start.

2 Be famous, baby: Yes fame and fortune are just around the corner, well they may well be for your house! Watch television for an hour and spot how many homes are used as backdrops. And where are these homes found? Well, they are owned by normal people like you and me, they are normal homes. The only difference is that the owners have contacted and agent that specializes in finding backdrops for films, magazine shoots and TV programs. The agent has then matched them to a client who is paying for the privilege of using the outside of your house as a backdrop.

These agents are often free to sign up to but will take a commission. As most of the media organisations are based in London we see the biggest demand from this area but locations are wanted across the UK, remember Life on Mars based in Manchester! Depending on the type of property being used, its location and other factors earning can be any up to 900-1,000 per day which sounds very attractive. You only have to consider the disruption to your daily routines when filming starts! Lights, camera and action!

3 Rent out your parking space: This has become an extremely popular concept for homes in more central areas of the UK. If you live within walking distance of an airport, train station, sports ground or arena, this could be a fantastic way to earn some money from your property. It is surprising how much someone will pay to borrow your drive to avoid expensive parking fees. Similarly, renting out your drive or garage to a commuter can also prove very lucrative. Commuters will typically pay around 75 GBP a month to hire out a private space as it guarantees the safety of their vehicle.

Specialist websites advise homeowners to charge around 20% less than the standard event parking rates. Even with these price deductions though, a homeowner could earn anything from 50-300 GBP per month. A further advantage is that it rarely interferes with the homeowners property or life. Many of the websites offer free registration and they will do the paperwork to ensure your parking space is properly advertised.

4 Put Up a Lodger in that Spare Room: Renting a spare room to a lodger can be a great way to make extra cash and because of the Rent-A-Room scheme run by the Government you can earn up to 4250 tax free every year. Ok so you may lose a bit of personal space but think of the extra cash and the excitement of meeting new people and making new friendships! And you will not be alone, according to various sources, the British are taking in more and more lodgers.

With finances getting tighter and tighter, making cash from that empty spare room really appeals to us! Of course you can also benefit from sharing bills and sharing the work needed around the house. You do, of course, need to look up how to find a lodger safely as there are some basic rules you will need to follow, including taking up references, having an agreement in place and interviewing potential lodgers properly. But again loads of sources of information on the web to help you with this. If this is for you and you want to know more about the Rent-A-Room scheme visit the DirectGov website.

5 Weekday Renting: This is probably the most underused form of renting, which is surprising as it can be really quite beneficial to both the tenant and the homeowner. Also known as Monday to Friday Letting or Fractional Letting, this form of renting is designed especially for commuters. The idea is for the commuter to hire out a room in your home through the week to cut down on their commuting costs and hotel bills.

It is a fantastic way for homeowners in the larger cities to earn some extra cash and it guarantees that your home becomes your own once again at the weekends, something which you can not get if you have a lodger. Additionally, it provides another step forward for the UK to become a greener country as it minimizes the distance the commuter has to travel daily to work.

6 Start a Bed and Breakfast: OK so this may be drifting into the major project and large effort arenas but this is an opportunity for some people, maybe the retired, the recently unemployed or redundant. This is probably not the best idea for those of you with already busy lives but if you like a challenge!!

Firstly it does help if the place you live in is the sort of place that attracts Customer to B&Bs. If it is not then you might want to move on. You will also have to understand the legislation that goes with running a B&B and a small business so this definitely a project for the determined. Again Google provides information on all aspects of setting up a B&B including organisations that run course on this subject.

7 Rent an Office: A room in your house maybe a bedroom or just full of clutter but it could be an office during the day. There is a market out there for people who want to rent space as an office to operate from. It is normally because they run a small business from home but do not have the space or have kids and do not get the peace and quiet (I have been there!). It is probably worth advertising in the local newsagents window, I have actually done this and ended up with 100 pounds per month for little inconvenience.

8 If you are Not in your House, Could not Someone Else Be: Having a empty house is like throwing money down the drain. Rent it out. People will rent for short periods but this obviously works best if you are away for an extended period. You need to trust them and preferably use an agent so the protection is in place. Could be good money though!

9 Sell your garden: If you own a large amount of land which you are struggling to find a use for, then you could consider selling it. Farms across the country are continually looking to expand and will happily barter for a proportion of your land to use for animal grazing or crop rotation. Similarly, developers are always looking for areas to build on.

10 Any old iron?: This is one of the easiest and quickest options to earn cash from your home. Take a look in your attic and in your garage and normally you will find items that you no longer use. These will have a value and can be sold through the likes of EBay or the local paper. There is also the opportunity to take them to the local car boot sale. This is a great way to free up space inside your own home and make some serious cash.

So, there you have it, an Englishmans home is not only his castle, it is a potential gold mine too!