Renting My Truck Camper

[moonlitsouls]

Hey guys so im wondering , do any of you rent out your TC? Ive been living full time in my camper for the last 7 months or so, its been really fun but im looking into other options as far as off grid living, tiny homes, cabins and some land upstate ect....

So with that, i decided id like to rent my camper out to people who want to experience this lifestyle for themselves. There a few different online platforms i can use, but im a bit concerned about people driving it around. Its really difficult to drive and it takes some getting used to.

Do you think there would be a market for people who want to rent a camper like this at a specified location and not necessarily move it ? For example, client wants to go camping, they book themselves a campsite for the week, i transport the camper to the campsite for them to use, they dont drive anywhere, they use it , when they're done i pick it up. Maybe they want to see how it feels to live in sucha vehicle, maybe they want something different and unique. Or is it unrealistic to expect that someone who rents a vehicle on wheels is not going to want to use the wheels ? lol

As far as liablity and insurance goes, there is a lot to consider. What do you guys think?

[RetiredRealtorR]

toedtoes wrote:

mkirsch wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

Sounds like a response from someone who has never been deeply involved in the rental industry. Understandable.

You don't even have to be involved in the rental industry to know how meaningless references can be. I've lost count of the number of people my company has hired based on GLOWING references only to find out how worthless and clueless they really are.

There is a way to utilize references. First, you ask the prospective renter specific questions regarding their prior renting. Questions like: have you ever had a structural/plumbing/electrical problem while renting? If so, what location and how did you handle it? Have you ever failed to pay rent on time? If so, what were the circumstances? Then, you call the landlord for that property and ask if that is what happened. This lets the landlord discuss a specific incident rather than just being asked to give an opinion. Most landlords, and employers, hesitate to make general comments about someone - sometimes because they don't to be mean, but more often because they don't want to get into a case of slander. By focusing on a specific incident, the risk of slander is very much minimized. It also allows you to catch the potential renter in a lie - after which you can remove them from the running.

And for as bad as a reference may be, using career choice as a factor is even more useless.

The military itself has slightly better odds because of the "control" a commanding officer has on their subordinates. But that is not a guarantee - military personnal can and do make bad renters and their behaviors are not always corrected.

As for any other career, there is no "this is a good career to which to rent" or "this is a bad career to which to rent". Lawyer A may be a horrid tenant, Lawyer B may be a great tenant. Musician F may be a great tentant, Musician L may be a great tenant.

Just out of curiosity, how many active duty military personnel have YOU rented to over the years? My wife and I did some quick figuring this evening -- for us it has been somewhere in the 400-450 range, spanning about 18 - 20 years. We used to own a LOT of rental homes, and actually purchased homes that we could rent for an amount equivalent to what our tenants received as a monthly housing allowance. And frankly, it worked quite well for us. If you've rented to anywhere near that amount of military families, I will fully accept your experience and input you provided as being valid, at least for you, but if not, then all I'm seeing is input irrelevant to the OP's questions, and frankly holds no water at all relative to the information and suggestion I am offering to the OP.

[toedtoes]

mkirsch wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

Sounds like a response from someone who has never been deeply involved in the rental industry. Understandable.

You don't even have to be involved in the rental industry to know how meaningless references can be. I've lost count of the number of people my company has hired based on GLOWING references only to find out how worthless and clueless they really are.

There is a way to utilize references. First, you ask the prospective renter specific questions regarding their prior renting. Questions like: have you ever had a structural/plumbing/electrical problem while renting? If so, what location and how did you handle it? Have you ever failed to pay rent on time? If so, what were the circumstances? Then, you call the landlord for that property and ask if that is what happened. This lets the landlord discuss a specific incident rather than just being asked to give an opinion. Most landlords, and employers, hesitate to make general comments about someone - sometimes because they don't to be mean, but more often because they don't want to get into a case of slander. By focusing on a specific incident, the risk of slander is very much minimized. It also allows you to catch the potential renter in a lie - after which you can remove them from the running.

And for as bad as a reference may be, using career choice as a factor is even more useless.

The military itself has slightly better odds because of the "control" a commanding officer has on their subordinates. But that is not a guarantee - military personnal can and do make bad renters and their behaviors are not always corrected.

As for any other career, there is no "this is a good career to which to rent" or "this is a bad career to which to rent". Lawyer A may be a horrid tenant, Lawyer B may be a great tenant. Musician F may be a great tentant, Musician L may be a great tenant.

[RetiredRealtorR]

mkirsch wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

Sounds like a response from someone who has never been deeply involved in the rental industry. Understandable.

You don't even have to be involved in the rental industry to know how meaningless references can be. I've lost count of the number of people my company has hired based on GLOWING references only to find out how worthless and clueless they really are.

I can't speak for the quality of your company's hiring practices, however I can tell you of MY experiences in renting (after all, that's what we're talking about in this post -- not some company's hiring practices). Please re-read what I wrote. I say nothing about references, glowing or otherwise. I just know, from firsthand experience, and PLENTY of it, that renting to active duty military personnel has been the best experience for us that a landlord could ever ask for. As for your company, I'm sorry for their issues. Hope they get it figured out.

[specta]

I know this may not answer your question but I only have few friends that I would even consider lending my camper too.

I would NEVER rent it out.

[d3500ram]

moonlitsouls wrote:
... ~snip~ and i would feel more comfortable renting the camper off the truck on my own land ...~snip~

Not to hijack the main topic, but I recently asked about renting out only a parking spot on my land. Seemed simple, but the more I thought about it I decided against it. The potential liability for me was not worth it.
That topic is HERE if interested in reading.

[mkirsch]

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

Sounds like a response from someone who has never been deeply involved in the rental industry. Understandable.

You don't even have to be involved in the rental industry to know how meaningless references can be. I've lost count of the number of people my company has hired based on GLOWING references only to find out how worthless and clueless they really are.

[RetiredRealtorR]

toedtoes wrote:
Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

Sounds like a response from someone who has never been deeply involved in the rental industry. Understandable.

[toedtoes]

Expecting a specific behavior out of people due to their career choice is a guaranteed disaster.

Ask for references, including current and past landlords, and base your choices on actual past behavior.

[RetiredRealtorR]

Kayteg1 wrote:

Killingsworth wrote:
, you have to rent to a higher class of people blah blah blah... .

My worst nightmare tenant was school teacher.
For my father it was a lawyer

When we had our rental homes, the BEST people we ever rented to were active duty military. They take care of things, turn them back over to you in as good (or better) condition than they were when they took possession, and if anything EVER went wrong (which it almost never did), a quick call to their CO straightened things out in a hurry.

Want some advice? If you decide to give it a try, advertise HEAVILY to attract military families. Although I was never able to serve myself, these folks are the greatest to deal with, and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat (that is, if I were younger and had a bit more stamina!)

[Kayteg1]

Killingsworth wrote:
, you have to rent to a higher class of people blah blah blah... .

My worst nightmare tenant was school teacher.
For my father it was a lawyer

[mkirsch]

Supercharged111 wrote:
The mere title of this has me contemplating buying a camper expressly to rent to see how profitable it could be. Sure one won't make you rich, but if you committed to multiple at what point could a guy make a living? Using the online apps to find renters and hold them accountable should alleviate most of the pain

Yeah, how, exactly, do you propose to "hold them accountable?" They will simply laugh in your face and walk away. "What'ya gonna do tough guy, beat me up?"

Lawyer and legal proceedings will cost more than simply eating the damage done by the delinquent renter. Any judgement you may get against them, is up to YOU to collect. Usually they don't have anything to go after anyway. That's by design.

[valhalla360]

Supercharged111 wrote:
The mere title of this has me contemplating buying a camper expressly to rent to see how profitable it could be. Sure one won't make you rich, but if you committed to multiple at what point could a guy make a living? Using the online apps to find renters and hold them accountable should alleviate most of the pain

I know of more than 1 business that does exactly this. They buy used trailers cheap rent them for a while and sell when someone offers enough.

But it is a business and it does have overhead costs. You need insurance , storage yard, pay taxes, pay for marketing, plus your time.

Keep in mind, you want to reserve charging people for damage for something substantial. If you get a reputation for dinging people for every little issue, the internet will come back and kill your business with reviews. Also, it's not as easy as it sounds to put a deposit on a credit card. Credit card companies tend to side with the card holder if there is a dispute. You can waste a lot of time fighting over it.

[Grit_dog]

^Agree whole heartedly. Wife and I need to buy a property before the end of the year, so we don’t have to write a big check to Biden in April…and the thought of buying a rental somewhere that is in a housing boom is attractive, but our track record is about 1 in 4 for good tenants and the bad range from just owing some back rent before you get them out, to a lot of rent and trashing the house. And we’ve only leased out expensive homes. So not even dealing with the people who can’t even pretend to be qualified. And pre Covid when you might actually be able to kick someone out.
That idea lasted like 5 minutes and decided no rentals.

[Killingsworth]

SuperCharged, please rethink that whole idea of holding ANY one accountable, it just wont happen. Ive had enough expeirence with people to know they will NOT take responsibiity for any thing. As mentioned above Ive had rentals over the years and the incident free rental days are disappearing rapidly. At this point they move in and you cannot get them out, not that it was an easy proposition before whole virus thing.
Its just my humble opinion that renting any thing is a losing proposition, of course there are many who will claim, you just dont rent to the right people, you have to have faith in your fellow man, you have to rent to a higher class of people blah blah blah... I will not say you will never get one out of many who will respect your property, but they are far and few between. People will generally scam just about any thing and everything.
Again its just an opinion, every one has one.

[Grit_dog]

Supercharged111 wrote:
The mere title of this has me contemplating buying a camper expressly to rent to see how profitable it could be. Sure one won't make you rich, but if you committed to multiple at what point could a guy make a living? Using the online apps to find renters and hold them accountable should alleviate most of the pain

You mean a tow behind? Yes, I think it could be a good side hustle, provided one has the proper protections in place for repairing damage.
And not one that I'd be interested in, but I don't have the time to clean/tinker/fix more things, to make it seem remotely attractive to me, personally.

Guy at work here from Cali, said he and a couple buddies used to buy a new camper every year (he doesn't even camp), rent it out for Burningman and a couple other events and then sell it and made pretty good side money.