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The days you needed to get a part-time job or work extra hours at your current job to make a little bit of extra money are gone. In modern times, making money without doing a considerable amount of work is incredibly easy if you do it right. One way to make extra money is by running a Turo business. So, how do you run a Turo business?

To run a Turo business, you first need a car. Of course, this car will need to have certain specifications. You will then need to take photos of your vehicle, list your car on the Turo website, decide how much you want to charge for it, and then choose the insurance package that suits you best.

Turo is one of the prominent leaders in the peer-to-peer car sharing market. They have the highest number of customers out of any of their competitors. Therefore, it is much easier to get people to rent your cars than any other company. Turo can be an excellent opportunity for anyone to make money semi-passively, so come along to learn how to run a Turo business.

What Do You Need To Start A Turo Business?

You do not need a lot of things to start a business on Turo, and there is not a lot of admin that goes into running the business, but it will not be easy. However, anyone who wants to start a Turo business can easily do it if they are willing to spend a relatively small amount of money on the start-up costs of any business.

Since Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing business, you will need a car that you can share with other people. Unlike property, it is not possible to rent a car from another company and charge a markup on Turo, as you need to prove that you own the vehicle to list it on the Turo website. The other requirements for a car to be listed on Turo will be listed below.

You will also need to choose things like the insurance coverage you want from Turo, and this depends on how big of a percentage you want to take from your total earnings in relation to Turo's portion. Starting a Turo business involves lots of decision-making, but it is worth it once your business is booming.

1. Choose A Car For Your Turo Business

You cannot just list any car on Turo. You will not be able to list a tractor, nor will you be able to list a Rolls Royce. The requirements for a vehicle to be listed on Turo include:

  • No construction or farm vehicles.
  • No limousines or motorcycles.
  • No vans that can fit more than eight people.
  • Cars that need special licenses to operate on public roads or vehicles designed for offroad.
  • You may only list a vehicle registered to you or an owner who permitted you to list it.
  • The listed may not be older than 12 years since production.
  • You may not list any cars with a market value over $125 000 unless it has a valid OEM tracker and is under $200 000.
  • The listed vehicle may not have more than 130 000 miles driven on it.
  • The listed vehicle must have a clean title.
  • The listed vehicle must never have been declared a total loss.

A car must fit all the requirements listed above to be listed on Turo. (Requirements may change based on location).

If you do not have a car and want to buy one to list it on Turo, you must choose the right car. Many successful Turo business owners advise that you should never buy a first-hand vehicle to rent on Turo. This is because cars depreciate, and you want your vehicle to be worth more on Turo than what you are paying for it. Henceforth, it would help if you always bought second-hand cars to list on Turo.

When deciding on what car to buy, you should try to find the lowest average price you can pay for that car. Then, you can choose the car you think fits best in that rough price range. It is also much cheaper to buy a car from places like Facebook and Craigslist (private dealers) and a public dealership. 

Many successful Turo users say that people looking into listing cars on Turo should never finance the car they buy and should rather buy it in full instead.

2. List Your Car On Turo

Once you have decided what car you will list and you own that car, you now get to list that car on Turo. Again, this process is relatively simple and should not take you very long. But make sure to list your car with honesty, but there is still an element of promoting the vehicle that needs to go into your listing.

All you need to do is go onto the Turo website and click ‘become a host.' You will need to take and provide photos of the car you are going to list, how much you are going to list it for as well as other administrative documentation like your driver's license, your proof of ownership of the car, the VIN and license plate information and a few other things. All of this information will be asked for when listing the vehicle on Turo.

3. Decide How Much You Will Charge For Your Car

You do not want to list your pricing at an extremely high rate and expect people to use the car, and you make lots of money. However, the truth is that there are likely to be many people listing the same sort of car as you, and you will want to compete with them.

Therefore, you need to first go on Turo and see what others are charging for your type of car and choose a price to compete with them from there.

4. Choose Your Insurance Package From Turo

Insurance packages on Turo change depending on how big a percentage you want to take from the total earnings of your rental. The more you want to earn per rental, the less insurance coverage you will get from Turo. 

For example, if you want to earn 85% of the total earnings from the vehicle, you will have much fewer insurance benefits than if you chose only to take 60% of the earnings. This is your choice, and many people go for a package in the middle of the two percentages above.

Conclusion

After you have done all of the above steps, all you need to do is wait for your first rental. Turo will give you instructions on dealing with rentals when they happen. You will also need to make sure that you keep up the maintenance on your car, so do not expect that there will not be any expenses on the vehicle.

Turo is a great way to earn income semi-passively. If done correctly, you have a lot of earning potential, and you can eventually start listing more than one car. Make sure to do all the adequate and relevant research before you start your Turo journey, and be patient for the income to start proving itself.