The Secret Hack That Allows You To Rent Anything For Free

Sometimes you even get paid to rent them

I discovered this hack by accident many years ago. Since then I use it whenever I can. I also noticed that others use it as well, often without realizing it’s what they’re doing.

So, how did I discover this secret hack? At the time I was starting to learn about real estate investing. Someone had suggested I buy a real estate audio course by Dolf de Roos, a real estate investor from New Zealand.

The course consisted of 12 cassette tapes. Remember them? The course cost around $200 but was no longer available on his website. So I did what I often did at the time and headed to eBay to find a secondhand copy.

I was in luck. There was one available. It was $200, which was the same price as a new version used to cost. I bought it anyway, and over the next few weeks, I listened to the tapes and took notes.

Incidentally, it’s the course that led me to buy a former drug den.

Anyway, back to the audio course. I no longer had any use for it. It cost $200, so I didn’t want to just throw it in the trash. I’m a minimalist so didn’t want to store it at home either. I decided to sell it on eBay, which is where I’d bought it.

I checked past sales prices and many had sold for up to $250. I put the course up for auction. It sold for $220.

I sat back and thought about this. I’d had the course for a couple of months and had been paid $20 to listen to it.

There is a saying that nothing in life is free, but that’s not actually true.

Not only had I got the course for free, but I’d made money from it as well. From then on I bought all audio courses from eBay and re-sold them when I’d finished with them.

This is basically like a free rental. You pay a deposit (the price you buy for) when you get the course and get a refund of that deposit (the price you sell for) when you return the course.

You can do this with almost anything. I live in Thailand part-time and know many people that buy a cheap motorbike, ride it around for a few months, and then sell it for close to the same price that they bought it for. The motorbike is essentially free to use.

Need a suit for a one-off function like a wedding? Buy it from eBay and resell it when you’re done.

Not only does this save you money, but you’re helping the environment as well. It makes no sense to buy everything new if you just need those items for a day, a week, or a month. If we all buy and sell in this way we’re recycle goods multiple times.

It should go without saying that there will be times when you might make a loss. But overall you should more or less break even. You’ll certainly save money compared to buying new every time.