One of the biggest duties of homeownership is simply paying the mortgage. But what if that was a cost you didn’t have to shoulder? In reality, it’s possible to cover the entire cost of a mortgage without spending any of your own money. It just requires a bit of planning.
There are several options that can allow homeowners to potentially bring in enough cash from their property that their mortgage gets covered by someone else. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or have owned your home for some time, here are seven ways to pay your mortgage without using your own money.
1. Set Up an Airbnb
If you’re living in an area that’s popular with tourists or business travelers, setting up your property as an Airbnb could be a great way to cover your mortgage. It’s flexible for hosts and popular with travelers, particularly those who want something outside of what they can find in traditional hotels.
Often, the rates you can charge would allow you to capture more money than with longer-term arrangements, as the pricing is usually closer to hotels than traditional rental properties. As a result, you may only need to host guests on occasion to earn enough to pay your monthly mortgage payment.
Pricing your Airbnb competitively is essential. That increases your odds of securing bookings, allowing you to cover your mortgage with greater ease.
2. Rent Out Parking Spaces
If your home is near a popular events center, sporting arena or similar venue, renting out parking spaces could be a unique way to cover your mortgage. The same is true if you’re in a popular downtime shopping or entertainment area and local parking is either scarce or comes with steep prices, or your property is a short Uber ride from an airport.
With this option, you simply find a driver who needs a place to park in your area and set a rate that makes sense for the duration. If you want to simplify matters, you can use parking spot apps like ParqEx, CurbFlip or SpotHero to connect with renters and even manage payments, depending on the app features.
3. Buy a Duplex or Triplex
If you’re looking for a long-term, steady income stream that can cover your mortgage, consider skipping a single-family home and buying a duplex or triplex instead. Then, you can live in one unit and rent out any remaining units, using the rental income to cover the mortgage on the property.
The benefit of this approach is you maintain some privacy, as you won’t have renters entering your home. Additionally, utilities might be in your tenant’s hands, so you won’t have to worry about how their usage would impact you.
4. Turn Your Home Into a B&B
For anyone that wants to offset the cost of their mortgage and launch a business, turning your home into a bedand breakfast could be a solid option. You could keep one bedroom and bathroom to yourself. Then, convert the others into guest accommodations, and alter your living room to make it a reception area.
Generally, you’ll need to make sure you’re willing to make breakfast for the total number of guests each day, as that’s a characteristic of a B&B. Beyond that, the amenities and services you offer can vary depending on your needs and preferences.
5. Rent Out Rooms to Travel Nurses
If you live near a larger hospital that brings in travel nurses, renting out rooms in your house to them could be a great way to get your mortgage covered by someone else. Travel nurses can have trouble finding quality rentals, mainly because their contracts tend to be short.
A standard travel nurse contract is just 13 weeks long, so a typical landlord won’t have lease terms that fit their needs. However, paying for a hotel or Airbnb for that long could be impractical, as those don’t always have pricing with stays of that length in mind.
By catering to travel nurses, you can create short-term lease agreements that meet their needs. Just keep the cost fair based on normal rental prices in your area, and you could easily cover your mortgage by welcoming a few travel nurses into your home.
6. Get a Roommate (or Charge Adult Children)
One of the classic mortgage tips if you need to reduce your monthly expenses is to get a roommate. The same goes for charging adult children rent, if they’re in a position to work.
Depending on the arrangement, this could let you fully cover your mortgage through their rent payments. Alternatively, it could at least reduce what you’d need to pay out of pocket, making it easier to stay on budget.
If you want to go for the former, you’ll need to make sure that enough is included to justify the cost. For example, you may need to ensure the roommate has a large, private bedroom and their own bathroom. Including utilities, cable and internet in rent can also go a long way, as can guaranteeing a parking space or offering up some room in your garage for storage.
7. Sell Your Home (and Buy a Cheaper One)
One of the most straightforward ways to pay your mortgage with someone else’s money is to sell. If you have a larger, higher-value home and can reasonably downsize, sell that property and use the proceeds to purchase a smaller house outright. With that, the buyer of your old home essentially covers the mortgage of your new one, ensuring you won’t deal with a monthly payment.
However, even if you can’t fully cover the cost, using the profits from the sale as a down payment on a smaller home does make a difference. You might be able to reduce your mortgage payment enough that the monthly cost isn’t challenging to cover, allowing you to live more comfortably overall.
