Make More Money in 2023 With These Real Estate Side Hustles

Have you already seen our detailed list of over 25 real estate side hustles for agents? 

That list includes gems like:

1. Blogging: savvy agents are already blogging for leads anyway, so you might as well turn your blog into an income stream!
2. Property tax appeals: appeal your clients’ property taxes to better serve your real estate clients and make some good money on the side. It’s easier than you might think!
3. New home photo shoots: help your buyers show off their new home on social media (while making some money and earning some Instagram leads!).
4. Rental property investing: you know the benefits of real estate investing, so make this the year you start your investment portfolio!
5. Tool and equipment rentals: you can provide much better service than Home Depot. Earn some extra income helping your clients and prospects handle maintenance issues and complete DIY renovation projects.

Since publishing that list of 25+ real estate side hustles, we’ve heard from agents all over the country with more ideas for real estate side hustles. So this post is going to cover those ideas that the big list overlooked. (PS: If you haven’t already seen our list of 25+ side hustles for real estate agents, check it out now!)

The Elephant in the One-Bedroom

We have a big issue to address before we dive into the list…

Should you even side hustle?

Real estate professionals are torn on the idea of hustling.

Some agents say that you should never take on a side hustle; that a hustle would only distract you from your real estate business. If you’re not making enough money in real estate, these believers say you should double-down and spend every spare moment prospecting for real estate business.

Some agents think every agent should have a side hustle as a means of diversifying their income.

And some agents feel that there’s a place for side hustles if you really need the money. As long as they don’t take away from your real estate business.

All these viewpoints are valid. It’s an individual preference. You need to do what works for you and your business.

I personally love the idea of having a couple real estate side hustles that complement your real estate business. Hustles that bring in quick income while helping you gain buyer and seller leads.  Here are the criteria for real estate side hustles that work with your business:

• The side hustle must truly serve your clients and prospects.
• You should be able to reach new real estate prospects through your side hustle, so you’re always prospecting even while earning your side hustle money.
• The side hustle should diversify your income so you have some protection against changes in the real estate market.
• And the side hustle should be relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive to start and manage.

So if you’re a hustler, read on! Here is our list of real estate side hustles to help you make more money in 2019.

Make More Money in 2019 With These Real Estate Side Hustles

1. Credit Repair

Duh! How did this not make our original list of 25+ side hustles?

Credit Repair is a great service for real estate agents to offer to their clients! If you’ve been in the business for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered buyers who were unable to qualify for a home loan due to poor credit.

What do you do in those cases?

Most agents refer the buyer to a credit repair specialist and move on to the next buyer. But if that’s your strategy, you’re missing out on both a sale and little side income from helping your buyers repair their credit.

The basics are credit repair are straightforward.

1. Have your clients review their credit report to make sure the information on the report is accurate. Simply correcting mistakes by sending a letter to the credit bureaus can raise your clients’ credit scores.
2. Go over your clients’ credit reports to see what’s dragging down their score. Old unpaid debts are often the culprit behind poor credit.
3. Reach out to the lenders of that old unpaid debt and negotiate a settlement. The lender may be willing to remove the mark from your client’s credit if your clients agree to pay (even a portion of) the old debt.

It may take a little waiting, but at the end of the process, you’ll have a qualified buyer who likes and trusts you, plus some extra money in your account!

2. Digital Product Creation

We have a whole post on creating and selling eBooks. We love that ebooks are one of the real estate side hustles that produce passive income once they’re published. But why limit yourself to eBooks when there are tons of digital product options available?

You could create templates, design elements, printable wall art, calendars, mailers…use your imagination!

Etsy is a great place to get ideas for digital products that are selling. It’s also a great platform from which to start selling your digital products once they’re ready to hit the market.

Transaction fees on Etsy are minimal: just a $0.20 listing fee per item (which will cover the listing for 4 months) + a 5% transaction fee for each sale (that’s 5% of the price + any shipping). Etsy is a simple, inexpensive platform on which to try your hand at digital product creation!

Here are just a few genius ideas from Etsy that would be a great fit for real estate agents:

• Landlord helpers (lease agreement templates, renewals, move-in/move-out inspection sheets, etc)
• Change of address printable postcards
• Kids game printables (after all, you’re an expert in keeping kids busy so parents can focus on the home, right?)

Spend a little time browsing Etsy for more ideas. And while you’re there, check out the real estate marketing products available on Etsy. You can potentially save yourself a fortune by purchasing Etsy templates for your business instead of relying on a print shop for your marketing needs. You can even find modern logo design packets if you’re struggling with professional branding.

3. Estate Sales

You’ve probably been to an estate sale or two in your time.

Not a yard sale where you are limited to the items displayed on the seller’s lawn, but a full estate sale where the home is open to the public and everything from the furnishings to the linens to the spices in the cabinets are for sale.

Estate sales are necessary when homeowners pass away, move into assisted living, or move in with their grown children. The family will remove all items not-for-sale from the premises, then an estate sale company will come in and sell everything that’s not permanently fixed to the property. The estate sale company will price everything (often grouping things for easy pricing changes as the sale dwindles – “anything with a green sticker is just $10” easily becomes “anything with a green sticker is just $2” by the final day of the sale). They’ll also take care of any required set up as well as the complete tear-down, which includes removing all unsold items from the property. Unsold items may become the property of the estate sale company or may be donated, depending on the terms of the contract.

Consider making estate sales one of your real estate side hustles.

In exchange for your hard work on the estate sale, you’ll receive a commission on all proceeds. Plus you’ll be able to cross-promote your estate sales business and your real estate sales businesses. People requiring an estate sale are most likely selling the home, so you could earn a substantial amount of money on a single property.

Estate Sales Warning

This income stream can be lucrative, but there are a few warnings before you jump in:

• Estate sales typically take place on spring and summer weekends. This poses an obvious problem for real estate professionals who should be showing homes during this time. The solution? Partner or outsource. You can have a business partner to take care of the day-to-day operations of the estate sales business. Or think like a business owner and hire a manager to handle that.
• Not every house is a gold mine. You might invest a lot of time on one sale and not make much money. The good news is that your estate sale business could provide a competitive advantage during your listing presentation, so agreeing to take on a less-than-perfect estate sale could win you a listing.

Estate sales are a lot of work, so this side hustle is best suited to the highly ambitious real-estate-empire-builders.

4. Bookkeeping

Thanks to reader, Wendy H., for recommending bookkeeping as one of her real estate side hustles.

If you’re detail and numbers-oriented, bookkeeping might be a good fit for you. You could focus your bookkeeping hustle around real estate to keep your hustle relevant to your real estate practice.

For example, investors may need someone to keep track of their security deposits, rental incomes, and property expenses. Naturally, they would want to work with someone they already know and trust. Like the real estate agent that helped them acquire the asset, perhaps! Likewise, you might take on investor clients for your bookkeeping business who may want to use you as a realtor to purchase their next investment property.

Bookkeeping is also a recession-proofing hustle. As the market goes down, the demand for bookkeepers typically goes up because property owners want a pro to keep their financials in order in the hopes of saving money in the long-run.

As with estate sales, bookkeeping can lead toward the time-consuming end of the real estate side hustles spectrum. Reminder: you don’t have to handle your side hustles alone. If it makes sense to delegate your bookkeeping tasks to an hourly bookkeeping assistant, do it!

5. Home Organization

Thanks to reader, Diana B., for the final entry on today’s real estate side hustles list: home organization.

As a professional real estate agent, you know homes, and you know organization! Put these two specialties together to help your clients organize their homes.

You could help sellers organize their homes before they hit the market. Or you could help buyers by creating and installing home organization systems to keep their new homes organized from Day 1.

For those of us who are ultra-organized, it’s tempting to dismiss home organization because, really, who needs a professional to organize their homes? Let me assure you, there are people on every street in America who could desperately use help getting their homes organized! Don’t believe me? Check out Tidying Up on Netflix.

Not everyone has decorative cubbies for each kid’s shoes and backpack to be put away as soon as they walk in the door. There are people who don’t have labeled bins for seasonal needs like Christmas decorations or summer patio accessories. Some people need help creating spaces for their things to be put away so they can find what they need when they need it. Home organization is a skill, not a given.

So why not start your own home organization business? Help your fellow homeowners live more organized lives! And get paid to do it.

What Did We Miss?

Did we miss any real estate side hustle opportunities between this post and our big list of 25+ real estate side hustles? Let us know in the comments!

Get Your Complete Recession-Proof Guide!

If you’re serious about growing your real estate business during a slow market, check out The Recession-Proof Real Estate Agent. This book offers a complete step-by-step guide to recession-proofing your real estate business.