If you were persuing a way to bring in additional income on your farm, would you rather:
A. Board
B. Give lessons
C. Do short term rentals (Air B&B or similar)
D. Something else entirely
This is something I’ve been mulling over personally and have my own pros/cons list for each. But I’m curious to hear the perspectives of others!
People who you only have to see for a short time are usually the best and come with the least drama, just saying.
I’d grow leafy greens and sell them.
Board retirees. My neighbor had it great - about 3 boarders who never rode or used the facilities, and only showed up zero to twice a year to visit their horses. She stopped doing it this year because she thought she might sell the farm, but it brought in enough money to pay for her horses, too, and she didn’t have to deal with any of the issues most people have with boarders.
I wouldn’t do short term rentals unless I had somewhere to do them that was NOT in my house.
Giving lessons isn’t really my favorite thing to do, and if I had that sort of extra time I would probably offer dog sitting/walking instead
I know you’re somewhere on the Eastern Shore, have a fairly young child and are/were a teacher. How about tutoring or before/after school care for another kid?
Depending on where you are located and what you have already set up/how much $ you’d need to put into it, AirBNB or other short term rentals would probably be the most profitable and require the least time/effort on a daily basis. I’ve stayed in some very nice cottages/houses on beautiful farms. (All were separate from the main house.) Unless somebody has an issue, you pretty much only need to clean/turn over at the end of each stay.
I do AirBnB specifically so I don’t have to board or give lessons. So that’s my answer! Feel free to ask any questions about it.
BO does Air BnB on the property and also has a small rental. I asked if she’s had any bad stories and so far, no issues!
Of those choices, it would have to be D. I’m jot qualified to give lessons, I’d maaaaybe consider boarding a few low key horses, but no way would I want to rent space to people for an Air B&B/VRBO.
I’d probably doing something boring and nerdy like medical transcription part time. But that’s me.
If you have a separate cottage/guest house, I’d Airbnb if you can charge enough that you don’t have to work too much at it (ie you can hire a cleaning service). I think there can be a lot on the property management side of Airbnb, so if you aren’t handy to fix things and running to the store to get supplies or communicating with guests would bother you, then maybe also hire a company to handle that stuff.
Boarding and teaching are both very time consuming, so unless you have a passion for teaching lessons (and can charge enough to make it worth your time) or you really like caring for other’s horses and managing boarders, I’d skip those ideas.
I was also going to say board retirees, if you have the set up to make it pretty low effort. The risk with retirees is someone abandoning their horse but you could mitigate that with references and background checks.
If you already have a separate living quarters then Airbnb is a good second choice. But not if you have to build or invest a bunch to get one set up.
I would pick D as I would want my side hustle to be something extremely flexible. As in I do it when I feel like it.
I create oil paintings when I feel like it. Somehow it seems to be mostly dogs this year —previously it has been houses, horses, barns, occasional person --I don’t like to paint people. It keeps me in carrots. My daughter is a carpenter (as a hobby) and makes frames for my pictures.
I’m planning to board a retiree or two (in addition to my own mostly-retired guy) once DH and I get a barn up on the farm we’re building. Intent is for board to cover the bedding/feeding cost of my own horses.
AirBNB a separate residence if you have one, or can easily build one.
Or
D Something else entirely.
Grow bamboo in pots for landscaping companies
Grow any plants really, in pots easy to sell
Build jumps for sale
Build wood furniture or decor pieces for sale
There’s also some websites you can list your property for daily rentals for things like photo shoots and indie films and stuff. You can choose what parts of the property they can and cannot use.
Dog boarding can also be a fun option
All of these options require considerable time, skill, longish startup period, and some investment in materials and cash. And none of them are guaranteed to be a money maker in your particular market. A lot depends on where you are. There are lesson factory barns in Metro areas running packed to the limit but how many students can your one person farm sustain and do you think offer enough to keep them, and do you have lesson horses?
Air bnb in tourist or metro areas can have heavy traffic but I bet there’s lots of offerings in average places that are quite sporadic and don’t get the outrageous rents.
I would pick something that fits your skills and aptitudes then research the local market and crunch the numbers.
I appreciate the thought. There would be minimal startup costs for options A-C because the infrastructure for all three is already in place. I have a farm that can support more horses than I currently house; I’ve been giving lessons on/off since I was a teenager; I have an ADU that could be rented out.
They also fit my skills and aptitudes and have a demand in my market.
That’s why they are always under consideration.
There are major pros and cons to all three options, which is why I asked for outside opinions. A fresh set of eyes, ya know?
My best friend is an assistant trainer at a large show barn, and she Air B&B’s her house while they are gone for months at a time. She loves it. She has a good property manager and crew since she is gone so often. She mentions that is like having a roommate but without the roommate.
So far, nothing crazy has happened. They did use her house to film an episode of the MTV show Catfish once. 
I can tell you that retirement board is often more time consuming, labor intensive and heartbreaking than regular board. I’ve done it as my side hustle for 20 years. Old horses are hard, even if they are relatively healthy. Granted, you are set up well for it, so that would be my recommendation. Do your due diligence on potential boarders. I’ve run into a few I am glad to have avoided! On the other hand, my long term boarders were wonderful horses and people.
I have to say, I’m somewhat surprised AirBnB has so much support. That one gives me the most pause. While short term guests are potentially the least amount of drama, they are also the scariest to me.
I include it because my apartment is very small and much better suited for short-term rentals than a long-term tenant. It seems like an obvious source of relatively low maintenance income that could be put towards the farm and improvements.
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