Andrei Echeverria brings in as much as $14,000 a month for letting strangers drive his six automobiles on the Turo rental platform.
Andre Echeverria
Andrei Echeverria is not any atypical automobile fanatic: In 2019, he turned his interest of fixing automobiles and changing them with flashier fashions right into a worthwhile aspect hustle.
Echeverria, 32, brings in as much as $14,000 a month renting his six automobiles to strangers in Boston on rental platform Turo, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It.
The aspect hustle began with one automobile, a fantastic location and a few intelligent technique. Echeverria lives simply miles from Boston Logan Worldwide Airport, and advantages from decrease charges from close by automobile rental corporations.
For instance, his 2021 Jeep Gladiator is listed on Turo at $89 per day. Renting the identical automobile from Enterprise Hire-A-Automobile on the airport prices $204 per day, in accordance with the corporate’s web site.
This technique has particularly paid off as folks return to journey in 2021, in search of cheaper-than-usual methods to get round amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The proceeds from one automobile helped Echeverria purchase a second, a 3rd, and ultimately a sixth—all flashier fashions that allowed him to cost extra per buyer and develop his enterprise rapidly.
Final 12 months was his most profitable 12 months but, bringing in additional than $94,000 — together with about $60,000 in earnings — on high of his $80,000 annual wage as a full-time nursing residence upkeep supervisor, he says.
Here is how Echeverria turned his ardour for automobiles into an almost six-figure aspect hustle:
When Echeverria was 16 years outdated, his mom helped him finance a forest inexperienced 2002 Honda Civic. But it surely wasn’t nearly driving: Echeverría wished to work on the automobile in his household’s storage, promote it and use the cash to purchase a Nissan 350Z.
Simply over a 12 months later, he did simply that. Then, at age 18, he bankrolled one other automobile, the Infiniti G37X sedan. Over the following 16 years, he purchased, fastened, and bought his method as much as a two-seater BMW 435, his dream automobile on the time.
Then, in late 2018, Echeverria noticed a YouTube commercial for Turo. He is found that the platform can assist pace up his course of, and he says his BMW is rapidly attracting paying prospects. That summer time, he used his Turo earnings to purchase out a 2014 Audi A7 outright, he says.
In November 2019, Echeverria purchased a 3rd automobile, a Mercedes-Benz, with a $10,000 down fee and a $17,000 mortgage, he says. With three automobiles on Turo, Echeverria says he is introduced in about $3,500 a month.
Having unfamiliar fashions helped, he provides: “I’ve all the time wished one thing totally different. I have never seen as many automobiles on the street as [mine]. “
The next 12 months, the financial results of the pandemic created one other alternative: decrease rates of interest on financial institution loans.
Echeverria took benefit of this, changing the Mercedes with a more moderen mannequin and elevating its month-to-month gross sales to $4,500 a month. The next 12 months, he obtained his fourth and fifth automobiles, an Audi S5 and a BMW C4.
He is in all probability paid a premium: Used automobiles had been a sizzling market in 2021, up 28% from 2020 and 47% from 2019, in accordance with Kelly’s Blue Ebook.
However he says it paid off. As Individuals started to journey once more, the demand for leases soared. Even with the additional automobiles, the Echeverria discovered itself overbooked.
He purchased two extra automobiles, 2018 BMW and Jaguar SUV fashions, a sixth and a seventh. By October 2021, his internet earnings are round $9,500 monthly.
When the market started to chill off later that 12 months, Echeverria modified its enterprise mannequin once more, buying a Jeep to draw prospects who wished a less expensive financial system mannequin.
The transfer introduced his fleet dimension to eight, earlier than prospects wrecked two automobiles in late 2022. As an alternative of replenishing his stock, Echeverría used Turo’s insurance coverage cash — about $21,000 — to repay another automobile loans, he says.
He is additionally realized to chop prices at the price of his time, he says—spending eight to 10 hours every week managing, reserving, and cleansing his automobiles. He provides that he nonetheless pays $20 a month for an all-inclusive automobile wash go.
Echeverria parks automobiles in his driveway and affords free areas designated for Turo on the airport, and says he has developed shut relationships with native restore retailers, who supply him reductions to return him and his six automobiles.
Some of these relationships are important to his success, he says, “You possibly can’t do all the things your self. You will want somebody who is aware of about sure fashions or the way to repair automobiles. It is about assembly the correct folks and constructing belief with them.”
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