6 Ideas to Make Your Home an Income Property While You Live in it. (2024)

What would you do if you could live mortgage-free? One of my personal goals is to not have a mortgage – to be 100% debt-free. We already eliminated our credit card and vehicle debt and are half-way to our goal of NO mortgage!

Check out DIYNetwork’s Income Property, if you also have the dream of living with either completely mortgage-free or where your paying out a significantly reduced mortgage payment each month. Make your home work for you.

Many thanks to Scott McGillivray, the host and renovator of Income Property, which premieres new episodes on DIY Network this fall. They are sponsoring this post. The TV show with new episodes coming on Thursday nights at 10/9c ​on DIY Network, features demolition, lots of design tips for turning a home into an income property.

6 Ways to Make Money Off of Your Home While You Live in it.

Rent a Room.

Gone are the days where a roommate needed their own exit/entrance or even their own bathroom. You can rent out individual rooms as bedrooms. We let someone live in our spare bedroom for a couple of months. This is a great way to save! Worried about having someone in your home? Try it for just a weekend. There are services online where you can rent out your room for just a weekend whenever there are local events in your area.

Garden Share your Yard.

Put your backyard to work. Often people would love a garden, the chance to work the soil and reap the benefits of the foods from a backyard garden. You commit to watering the garden twice a day or as needed and they rent out soil plots in your yard, do the planting, weeding and harvesting! Not only have you made some cash you have also built a community – all around your backyard.

Make Your Office Home. Double use your space.

Are you a fitness coach? A massage therapist? An accountant? A blogger? Carve out a space in your home to become your “office”. You can get tax deductions that can help defray the cost of your home. If you have a large space, consider opening your home to an office-mate or two.

Photography Studio – from your house.

Put your home to work as a studio space for both yourself and other professionals to use. Often lighting and special equipment is difficult to set up and needs a “space” or place to belong. Set aside a room in your home to share that pre-set-up space with others.

Study Hall Room.

We did this last year. It was a great way to help provide a service to families in our area and could be an income source. There are lots of teens who are in the awkward stage of too old for a sitter, but for whatever reasons are unable to go straight home after school. Make an after-school “study hall” in your home. Serve cookies and provide a quiet home work space where tweens and teens can come hangout and get their school work done until mom or dad gets home.

Interest Saved is Interest Earned.

Make your mortgage work for you – not the other way around. Let’s say your mortgage interest rate is 4.25% (that’s what our rate is). It is unlikely that you will easily find a bank that will pay you a 4% or higher return for your investment. SO, every penny that we pay into our mortgage early – to pay it off – is a penny earned. I am earning 4% or more for whatever funds I am putting into my mortgage bill! Paying my house off early is smart!

You can do this too!

Be inspired. Watch the show.

Licensed contractor Scott McGillivray in the TV show DIYNetwork’s Income Property works with homeowners who are transforming part of their home in to a space that can be rented out as an income property. For many of these homeowners, the income from their rental properties help cover their own mortgage, so they are working hard to live mortgage free.

Scott presents the homeowners with two different renovation options, and through an in-depth demo and makeover process they turn an unused or undesirable space in their home in to a beautifully designed space that will bring in top dollar from renters.

The aha moment is at the end of each episode when the homeowners realize that their mortgage is covered, and that they can now live rent free because of their new rental property. It’s hard work and includes lots of demolition, but in the end it pays off with a beautiful space that brings in money.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of DIYNetwork.com. The opinions and text are all mine.