Dmitry Fokin - about what can be rented out, and how the era of consumer activity is being replaced by the era of rental
IT tools used by Dmitry Fokin
- Slack
- Redmine
- Skype
Entrepreneur from Omsk Dmitry Fokin believes that the current economic crisis will radically change the consumer behavior of Russians: in his opinion, more and more people will rent necessary things, rather than buy them and stand in queues. Dmitry and his partners launched Rentalist - a website for renting out and renting almost any thing. People can choose and rent various good options ranging from toys to a car. The main advantage for the client is the cost of the service, and for the organization - constant income and goods in property. Dmitry Fokin told the Biz360 portal about what kind of profit you can get, how to open a business, find premises and equipment.
Dmitry Fokin, entrepreneur, co-owner of an online rental service Rentalist.me. Born in 1979 in Omsk. Graduated from the Moscow State Construction University and the Institute of Real Estate and Construction Business. Gained experience in various fields - consulting, economics, trade, law, e-commerce, etc. Since 2015 - one of the founders and head of the Rentalist.me rental service.
Dmitry Fokin
Russians are cautious about rentals
This is not our first business. After completing the next project, we began to think about where to move next. By that time, the dollar began to jump.
My partner and I simultaneously came up with the idea of creating a rental service, combining a large number of offers on one site. At that time, we believed that everyone desperately needed a service where they could rent something, and as soon as people found out that there was such a place, all our servers would immediately go down.
In fact, people need rentals, but many don’t think about it, they simply don’t allow the idea that they can just call and rent from other people for half a day, for example, a saw or a bicycle for the weekend. There is a stereotype that if you need something, you can find it from friends, or go buy it, or borrow it from work
After the New Year holidays in 2015, we composed everything, and in April we started. Quite quickly we realized that people themselves were not yet ready to make money on the things that were lying on their balconies. There are professional services that provide rental items, some owners of these businesses willingly cooperate with us, but there are also those who say - why, we have our own website, why duplicate somewhere else.
Thickness gauge for rent
If our project is compared with something, then it can be compared with Avito - of course, in terms of structure, and not in terms of scale yet. On Avito, an auto store can display its own cars, and an ordinary person sells Zhiguli. It’s the same here: there is an opportunity for rental businesses to exhibit their range, and anyone can rent out their skates through us, which they’ve had on their balcony for 20 years. Accordingly, you can rent anything - from mixers and board games to construction formwork, cranes, and heavy equipment.
The assortment is quite wide, we included almost the entire product range, made catalogs - you can find everything from rakes to helicopters. For example, renting a hookah per day costs 300 rubles. Or here’s a thickness gauge to see if the car is painted or not, 300 rubles a day. Soap bubble generator for events - 400 rubles per day. Go-pro camera - 500 rubles. From the original - a set of hex keys, 5 rubles per day. Books, board games, roller skates, photographic equipment, lenses, tripods, carnival costumes, wedding accessories, historical uniforms, life-size puppets, wigs, evening dresses, cocktail dresses, etc.
At the start, we devoted a lot of time to creating a digestible catalog so that a person could find what he needed. We have divided all this into 11 large sections, and they also have subsections that include more categories.
Marketing and promotion
As for promotion, we probably haven’t invented anything here, SEO promotion, content marketing, etc. The project is federal, we implemented geolocation, that is, if a person is from Yekaterinburg, for example, then he sees proposals for Yekaterinburg. While the programmers were finalizing the service, we were collecting a database of rental companies that do this as a business. We collected about 2 thousand companies across the country and sent out a newsletter. The result was this: website traffic increased, but the amount of content at the very beginning did not meet our expectations. That is, rental services decided that they probably don’t really need it now.
We went to the second round of promotion, sent out press releases to local and federal media. An online news platform responded and we recorded an interview. Then the local TV channel, then the Metro newspaper. Attendance has increased twenty times.
The bulk of visitors are people who want to take something, because demand is now leaning from purchases to the consumption of rental items. But ordinary people don’t want to rent them out yet.
When we launched the project, we studied how things were with rentals, for example, in Soviet times. There was a system of rental shops, many people used rental TVs for several years, this was due to a total shortage. In the 90s there was nothing at all, in the 2000s there was a surge in consumer activity, people simply forgot about rentals. Now, due to the economic situation, people will remember him little by little.
When we launched, we were aware that this culture needed to be developed - both by people who are consumers of rentals and by those people who provide things for rental.
This is a forgotten story, but if you remember it, people will start using it. A couple of months ago I took part in a comparative interview, where the guys studied how things were going with box office in Russia and America. They said that in America they rent out a lot of things, and it is very popular. When they receive their diplomas, those famous gowns with tasseled caps, for example, are also rented. There is a whole industry there, there are things that are needed once in a lifetime and there is no point in buying them. This has been an idea for more than one year to somehow develop this topic.
“We need to reach high speeds”
Now there are more than 1.5 thousand products on the site. The main cities are Omsk, Moscow, Krasnodar, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, St. Petersburg. At the same time, more people from neighboring countries are joining us - Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan.
So far there is only an investment in the service. This is a kind of investment in the future, it will work someday. When some quantitative limit is passed, it will begin to bring in money.
The system of interaction between the tenant and the landlord works through our service; settlements are also carried out through us, so that people do not exchange money. Reserving deposits on the website, signing lease agreements, providing some paid services, advertising. The commission percentage is 5-10%, the question is in turnover. Now the question is not about self-sufficiency, but about reaching some high speed. We set a deadline of a year or two. Investments in the site amounted to around 100 thousand rubles.
We are currently developing a system for automatically adding products to the service to expand the range. I see that there are many requests for products in cities where we are not present. That is, people go to search engines, see us, go further and do not find what they were looking for. It turns out that there is demand, but we cannot satisfy it yet. As soon as we satisfy it, the client flow will grow and recognition will expand. When people start renting, they will be able to rent.
Rentalist project team.
Renting has become a trend in the US. People have realized: borrowing something that you will use 1-2 times is much more profitable than buying it. Previously, this only concerned apartments and cars, but now it has taken over the entire material world. We did some research and found out what Americans rent most often!
1. Dresses
Girls, let's admit it: splurge
- it is expensive. We're not rich enough to buy designer clothes for every event, let alone shoes and accessories. That's why we're loving the new trend: dress rentals. On American sites (for example, Renttherunway.com and Lendingluxury.com), a dress can be rented for 3-5 days for 10% of its full price in the store.Like we have:
RENTMANIA has more than 1600 models of dresses: for holidays, parties and photo shoots. The filter allows you to select the desired color and size. The average rental period is 4 days. This is very convenient if you have a trip or business trip coming up: there is no need to fuss or urgently change plans in order to return the dress on the same day.
2. Tools
Whatever you have in mind: cleaning the carpet, mowing the lawn or simply devoting the whole day to household needs,
- tools will always come in handy. But instead of buying an item for one time, first check: what if it can be rented? Lowesforpros.com rents everything from a window cleaner to a spray gun. At least for a day, at least for a week.
Like we have:
RENTMANIA has more than 250 tools : drills and screwdrivers, hammer drills, compressors and much more. This is enough to make a complete home renovation, saving on the purchase of an expensive set of special equipment.
3. Video games
Are you crazy about Wii Boxing? We understand. We also understand that passion for games can cost a pretty penny. To protect your wallet, do not buy, but rent games. The site is popular among American gamers
Gamefly.com. It works according to the principle of the media giant Netflix: a fixed subscription fee, the ability to stream without a console and a huge library of games in which every gamer will find something to their liking.
Like we have:
RENTMANIA is slowly catching up with American sites. For gamers we have a whole catalog: consoles, games, joysticks, steering wheels and a super new product this fall
- SONY Playstation VR virtual reality helmet! You can also rent a TV- this is going to be the weekend!4. Lenses and photographic equipment
Do you want to capture a friend’s wedding or graduation as a souvenir, but you realize that a soap dish won’t cope with the task? American aspiring photographers have found a way out
- they rent lenses,"carcasses" and light. At Sharegrid.com, all this will cost much less than buying new equipment.
Like we have:
If you also want to test an expensive camera or
lenses - welcome to RENTMANIA. In our catalog- models Canon, Nikon, Carl Zeiss and Sigma. Rental prices are reasonable: from 300 rubles per day. That's only 1% of the cost of a new lens!5. Anything!
Situations in life are different. You feel the urge to get a beach chair or a gorilla suit in the middle of the night
- what to do? In America, aggregator sites like Zilok.com are gaining popularity, where anyone can rent out anything. Almost like a social network- only about rent. It saves a lot of money and effort, and you can also make new friends. Think about it: how can a person to whom you give a gorilla suit under the cover of darkness remain a stranger?
Like we have:
https://www.site/2018-02-05/kak_sekonomit_i_zarabotat_desyatki_tysyach_sdavaya_i_berya_v_arendu_chto_ugodno
“You don’t need a thing, but only its function”
How to Save and Earn Tens of Thousands by Renting and Renting Anything
The world is gripped by consumerism. However, more and more people are coming to the realization that it is not things that are important, but only their functions. Pete Maclaine/ZUMAPRESS.com/Global Look Press
The sharing economy, built on the principles of sharing things, is spreading faster and faster. People started sharing apartments (Airbnb), cars (Uber), and now you can rent anything on the Internet. On the one hand, this helps you save money, because why buy expensive things if you can only buy them for a few hours or days? On the other hand, this is a new opportunity to earn money: if you have any useful item, you can turn it into an asset, renting it to other people and receiving benefits. In this material, prepared with the support of the OneTwoRent portal, we tell you how the service for renting everything in the world works. To do this, we will answer several key questions.
Why rent something if you can buy it?
One of the founders of the international rental website OneTwoRent, Alexey Nikonov, explains that often people do not need the thing itself, but the function that the thing performs. “What we need is not a drill, but a hole in the wall, not a car, but the ability to get to a certain place at a certain time. You can get a function by renting an item rather than buying it,” says Nikonov.
According to the businessman, there is no point in spending your whole life on endless work in order to constantly buy things, because you can refuse unreasonable purchases and fly off on a trip with the saved money and get the most important thing - knowledge and impressions.
Today, the idea of sharing is very popular in the world, based on environmental friendliness, savings and ergonomics. People try to make their consumption of things conscious, so they start using some things together.
What can you rent?
All! On the OneTwoRent website you can rent a car (and even a motorhome), construction tools, a game console, a camera, a printer, clothes, textbooks, a parking space, a bicycle and a catamaran.
Screenshot of the site otr24.com
OneTwoRent has things you probably never thought about renting. For example, if you wish, you can rent an oar for 50 rubles a day, a cow for 2000 rubles an hour, and for 100 rubles a day you can put a figurine of a happy Chukchi in your office. In the product description, its owner writes: “Chukchi with happy karma. What if someone needs a little fortune? I feel calmer with him. I don’t know how it will be for you...”
How to rent an item you like?
In the catalog of products presented on the website otr24.com, choose the one you like. It is better if you find several similar products at once so that you can choose. There are two ways to contact landlords: call the phone number indicated in the ad or start a chat on the website.
When you have discussed all the details with the owner of the item, you only need to conclude an agreement where all the details will be spelled out, and take the item for yourself.
Is it possible to make money by renting out your belongings?
Businessman Alexey Nikonov is confident that annually you can earn an average of 45 thousand rubles by renting out your expensive items. And if you don’t buy things yourself, but also rent them, you can save another 30 thousand a year.
Earnings could be higher. For example, if you have a game console and a lot of video games, then you can rent them for 10 thousand rubles per month. But you can also rent joysticks, virtual reality glasses and other attributes, which will increase your income.
Screenshot of the site otr24.com
It is very profitable to rent sports equipment: bicycles, snowboards, skis, skates, as well as tourist equipment: inflatable boats, catamarans, tents. For renting out such things you can get from 200 thousand to 5000 thousand rubles per day.
There's probably a dusty suitcase full of tools in your closet. Rent them out! Jigsaws, drills, hammer drills, screwdrivers, and wire cutters can bring you up to 500 rubles a day.
How is the OneTwoRent portal different from other rental sites?
Firstly, you can already rent and rent out things on OneTwoRent in 44 cities of Russia. The creators of the project have ambitious plans and say that in the near future OneTwoRent will become the only international service in the world that people from all over the world can use. There are similar services in Europe, the USA and Australia, but they are local (so far, in addition to Russia, Kazakhstan is represented on the site). In addition, OneTwoRent brings together a variety of things on one site, from real estate to services, clothing and even construction equipment. Thirdly, OneTwoRent is a turnkey service that provides opportunities to promote your product on the portal, legal advice and a system for verifying counterparties, PR and advertising for the rental company brand and much more, said Alexey Nikonov.
RENTMANIA community member Anna knows the correct answer to this question.
My house has been sitting idle for 10 years Cardio machine. They bought it for me, but I almost never worked on it. I didn’t really want to sell it either; after all, it was in perfect order. So a great thing turned into a hanger.
About a year and a half ago, I finally decided and put the simulator on Avito for 5,000 rubles. But I couldn’t sell it. The ad was posted on the website for several months, and no one called or wrote to me during this time. The simulator was simply not needed by anyone.
I put myself in the shoes of people who want to buy an exercise machine and tried to understand what was stopping them. Yes, this is a huge thing that will stand in the apartment and take up space. I thought it would be easier for a person to rent it. Try it, you might like it. On the other hand, it’s also easier for me: I’m not selling it, and if I change my mind, I can keep it when the lease expires.
I started searching the Internet for sites dedicated to renting things. I needed some kind of guarantee that I would hand over the simulator and it would fall into caring hands. The only website that has such guarantees is RENTMANIA. And most importantly, they had delivery! I can’t bring or take the simulator anywhere. What if the tenant doesn’t have a car? Then just take a taxi.
I was lucky: my offer on the site turned out to be unique. Everyone else rented sophisticated, professional exercise equipment, but mine was an amateur, inexpensive one. I set the price at 1,500 rubles per month. I found someone who wanted it right away: one young man took my simulator for a month. And then the applications started pouring in! In February, I passed it for six months at once. In August, this girl and I extended our lease until January. For a year my thing « earned » already more than 10,000 rubles - and I wanted to sell it for half the price!
I hope my simulator will continue to be in good hands. Nice to know that my thing does not sit idle in the corner, but brings benefit to someone. And to the othera person is pleased to use it and not overpay- in the end everyone is fine!
Inspired by Anna's story?
Place an ad on RENTMANIA and start earning money!
Transferring property for paid use to third parties is a reliable and calm business. In most cases, generating income requires a minimum of effort: periodically checking the tenant's compliance with the terms of the use agreement, and issuing invoices for payment. Therefore, if you own a rental property, then you have a good source of passive income.
We will tell you in this review what you can rent out as a business and where to look for tenants.
How to become a landlord
In fact, anyone who owns or legally uses things that do not lose their properties through use can become a landlord and rent out those things. There are no restrictions on the range of objects and subjects in the legislation of the Russian Federation.
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What to rent
It is allowed to register for temporary paid use such property as:
- real estate (including land) and transport;
- household items and household equipment;
- shoes and clothing;
- furniture, books, etc.
And this is not all that you can rent out and make a business out of it. Enterprising citizens rent out their discount cards for goods and services at retail outlets for a small fee and, thus, receive material benefits even from such an unobvious asset.
The forms of organizing the rental business directly depend on the object. So, for example, the owner of a residential property who plans to rent out all or part of the living space does not necessarily have to become an entrepreneur. It is enough to declare income to the Federal Tax Service at the place of registration.
There are also no special requirements for citizens who lease their car to third parties.
You also need to register with the Federal Tax Service to work as a rental point for household items, furniture, clothes and shoes, etc.
The rental business requires a more complex organization than the simple rental of personal property. Therefore, if there are plans to provide household rental services to the population, then you need to prepare a full-fledged service point.
The exception is rental through a website or social networks. But this option of making money on rent has one significant drawback: difficulties in ensuring the return of leased items.
To search for potential tenants, you can use local newspapers, free classifieds sites, social networks, and your own blog. Posting notices in the entrances of multi-storey buildings and in busy places in the city - markets, train stations, etc. is also considered effective.
If there is no property
What to do if there is nothing suitable in the property, but a rental business seems quite attractive? You can rent out other people's things and do business by subletting.
However, for this type of income the conditions are more stringent. The subtenant has the right to transfer the thing taken from the owner for use on terms that do not contradict the agreement with the owner of the thing.
So, for example, if the subtenant has the right to use the property for five years, then he cannot sublease the leased property for a period exceeding the expiration date of the lease agreement.
The subtenant must comply with all restrictions on the use of the property that the owner has established and that are defined in the agreement between the owner and the tenant.
Registration of contractual relations
The success of the entire business in terms of rental payments almost entirely depends on how well the lease/sublease agreement is drawn up. Read about which ones are necessary.
The main points that a landlord must provide to protect his property:
- replacement cost (what amount the tenant will have to compensate if the object is destroyed through his fault);
- who bears the costs of maintaining and storing the leased property;
- is it necessary to insure the object;
- when and in what condition the tenant is obliged to return the rental item to the owner.
Important! When drawing up an agreement, all the features of the object must be taken into account, otherwise, at the end of the lease, it will be difficult for the owner to return the item in the form in which it was transferred to the tenant.
Financial side of business
If the transaction is executed correctly, then the lessor should not have any obligations regarding the maintenance of the thing leased. In fact, costs are reduced to zero.
However, if an item is in constant rental circulation, then it must be in good working order, neat and attractive to customers. Here the entrepreneur himself is interested in spending money on repairing items that are rented through rental points.
The mechanism for determining the rental price again depends on the specifics of the property.
You can read about how to register a real estate agency as an individual entrepreneur.
If the organizational form of a legal entity is chosen for the real estate agency, you can find out everything about the preparation of the relevant documents at this address:.
If commercial properties are rented (premises, transport, equipment, etc.), the amount of rent depends on the income the tenant received from using the facility. For example, when it comes to renting premises for a retail outlet, the fee is set as a percentage of the store’s monthly revenue, but when renting an apartment, the fee is calculated based on the market value of such services in the city.
In any case, the legislator did not restrict tenants and landlords in any way in terms of setting the cost of services, so they have the right to independently determine the rental price and find options that are beneficial to both parties.
Find out what else you can earn money on with minimal investment -.
Tips for those who plan to rent out their own residential property in the next video.
