Business Ideas for Homeowners: Movie Location Rentals

Wide open market
Homeowners can make a decent amount of money by starting a movie location rental business. There are hundreds of movies being produced every day. This provides an opportunity to make money with your home even when you are not there. You can hire a friend or relative to watch your house while you are out of town or at work during the time that it is being used to a movie production. Movie location rentals are a great business idea for homeowners. It allows anyone who owns real estate to turn a liability into an asset with little work involved.

Keep the insurance current
Depending on the production, some movies are created with no insurance. However, it is vital to keep your homeowner's insurance current. You will never be able to tell when an accident is going to happen at your home. This can have a deep impact on your movie location rental business idea. If someone is harmed in your home, you must be able to protect yourself from lawsuits and the like. It is also important to have insurance if damages to your home occur during a movie production recording.

Be flexible with prices
Rental rates for movie productions must be flexible in order for you to generate as much money as possible. If you live in a large city that produces many movies, it may be possible charge high rates. However, if you are not in a large city, try to keep your rates as low as possible. The rates for your movie location can be determined by the hour or day. You can also charge based on the film production budget. This can be done by negotiating prices with filmmakers.

Some movie production companies may be able to pay you hundreds of dollars for one day. Unfortunately, independent filmmakers cannot afford to pay expensive rental rates. By offering flexibility, you can develop relationships with more producers. This can lead to repeat business. Having a constant flow of clients will boos the profits from your movie location rental business idea.

Be your own Real Estate Agent
Market your home online and at film related events. It takes about five minutes to post the availability of your home on websites like Craigslist and Backpage. Other websites such as Myspace can be valuable resources. In fact, Myspace has a "location" category in the classified section of the website. There is a classified section for almost every city in the country on Myspace. Homeowners can turn their movie rental business idea into a booming operation just from Myspace alone.

You can also advertise your home in movie related publications like Filmmaker Magazine and Filmthreat. It could be helpful to join an online filmmaking and movie forum and place a few postings in there. Film festivals offer a great opportunity to get your home in front of thousands of film producers at once. Contact film festivals and ask them what the process is for advertising on their website or in the festival program. This is a great way to jump start your movie location rental business.