3rd of 29 Ways to Make Money on Your Home-Open a Commercial Shop | Beyond Suburbia | Making Sustainable Real!

By Brian Skeele, on April 15th, 2011

I’ve started a list of good ideas that come about if we rethink the functions and interplay of our home and its neighborhood.  So far I’ve got 29 killer (If I do say so myself)  ideas.  The first 7 are home oriented, the last 22 are more neighborhood oriented. Add your ideas to the list via the comment area!

Home Design 

I like the idea, the signage could be improved!

3. Rent Out a Work Space

Live/work homes have a separate workspace with commercial potential. What if you reconfigured part of your house to be a workshop or a commercial space?  Of course the zoning may not allow it.  Here in Santa Fe, home occupation is an accepted usage, with conditions on how many parking spaces and the number of allowable employees. A big difference between home occupation and commercial in the eyes of Santa Fe regulations is the home occupation is for appointment only customers/

If your clientele would “follow you home” , opening up your business out of your house could be a large saving.

Maybe your house has a great location, and a neighbor is interested in opening up a yoga studio;  maybe you just don’t need such a big house, and could use the income. …

Design Challenges

As we evolve our lifestyle to the sustainable, mixed use neighborhoods will become the norm. To make the commercial space successful, we may well need to add more residential in the community.  Our homes also could use an upgrade to green; more insulation, better windows, higher efficiency appliances and heating system.  How do we pay for all of this?

One possibility is your green upgrade will get funded along with the addition of more residential, and commercial to your home.  The increased rents and leases will cover the cost of new insulation!

Of course you’ll install sub meters during the renovation. Each occupant needs to be aware of and pay their share of the utilities!

All of these creative solutions will come about in the context of a neighborhood working together. It take a neighborhood to create a sustainable village!

Potential income. $12/sf per month and up.

Share your ideas and experiences, lessons learned around Live/work, mixed use house design.  Together we can make sustainable real!

Image courtesy of Kerrville Tx