Earn Money Renting Out Items: 5 Lenders Who Recovered Their Purchase Cost

There's a precise moment when renting out your stuff stops being "a few extra euros" and becomes something that changes how you see the things you own. It's the moment you realize that the item has paid for itself: the camera, the bike, the drill you once bought have returned, rental after rental, the entire amount you spent. From that day on, everything you earn is pure profit.

We collected five stories of lenders who hit exactly that milestone. They're ordinary people with an idle item at home and a bit of curiosity. None of them is a "professional renter": a hobby photographer, a new mom, a student, a DIY dad and a mountain-loving couple. The numbers you'll read are realistic and in line with what we see on the platform — they're not records, they're averages anyone can reach.

1. Luca and the mirrorless camera: break-even in 11 months

Luca, 31, lives in Bologna. Three years ago he bought a Sony Alpha 7 III with a 24-70mm lens: about €2,100 in total. He used it for travel and the occasional friend's wedding, but for ten months a year it stayed shut in a cupboard.

He listed it at €32 a day, with five well-shot photos and a precise description of body, lens and included accessories. The first two months brought few requests; then, once the first five-star reviews piled up, the pace climbed to an average of 9 rental days a month.

Luca's numbers

• Equipment cost: €2,100
• Average price: €32/day · roughly 9 days/month
• Average net earnings: ~€255/month
• Break-even reached: month 11

"What surprised me wasn't the money" — he says — "it was that the camera now 'goes out' constantly. Keeping it idle felt like a waste, and it really was." If you want to understand how he built those numbers category by category, we broke it down in our guide on how much lenders earn on Lendmates.

2. Sara and the double stroller: the item you'd never expect

Sara, 34, Turin. When her twins were born she bought a high-end double stroller for around €780. Eighteen months later, the kids had already moved on to a light buggy and the double was taking up half the storage room.

The insight was simple: plenty of families need a double stroller for just a few days — when grandparents arrive with another grandchild, during a holiday, or to try before buying. Sara listed it at €9 a day. Local demand was low but steady: about 6 days a month, often multi-day bookings.

At that pace, Sara earned an average of ~€50 net per month and reached break-even on the stroller in just over 15 months. In the meantime she added a high chair and a kids' travel cot to her profile.

3. Marco and the power-tool kit: the fastest break-even

Marco, 42, in the Vicenza province, is the classic "guy who fixes everything at home." Over the years he accumulated a power-tool kit — hammer drill, driver, angle grinder, sander and rotary hammer — worth roughly €430. The truth? He uses them only a few hours a year.

He created three separate listings plus a combined "DIY bundle." Power tools are among the highest-rotation items on Lendmates, because someone who needs to assemble a bookshelf or drill a wall doesn't want to spend €150 on a tool they'll use once. The result: an average of 11 rental days a month across the pieces, with net earnings around €75 monthly.

It's the fastest break-even among our five stories, and that's no accident: tools cost little, have very high demand and still face low competition. If that's your category, read our dedicated guide on how to earn money renting out power tools.

4. Giulia and Davide: mountain gear as a couple's project

Giulia and Davide, a couple from Trento in their thirties, turned renting into a small shared project. Over the years they'd built up climbing and trekking gear — two rope sets, harnesses, quickdraws, two pairs of boots and a high-altitude tent — worth an estimated €1,250.

Their strength was well-managed seasonality: full prices on high-season weekends (May–September), small midweek discounts, and a description that conveyed expertise ("we'll show you how to set it up, just message us"). That built trust and enthusiastic reviews, which in turn brought more requests.

In peak months they reached 14–16 rental days across the various pieces; in winter demand dropped almost to zero. The annual average settled at ~€110 net per month, with break-even reached around the twelfth month. For the safety and pricing side, we have a specific guide on renting out climbing gear.

5. Andrea and the projector: the student who broke even in one season

Andrea, 24, a student in Padua, had bought a Full HD projector with a Bluetooth speaker for movie nights with his flatmates: about €340 all in. He noticed that over the summer — between garden parties, graduations and football tournaments watched together — there was constant demand for "projector + audio for one night."

He listed it at €18 a day, often booked for the weekend. At the height of summer he hit 12 rental days a month. In a single summer season (June–September) he earned enough to cover the projector's entire cost, turning a student purchase into a mini side income. The full guide is here: renting projectors and audio equipment for events.

What these five stories have in common

Wildly different items, different cities, different figures. And yet the five lenders did — more or less knowingly — the same four right things.

1. They chose items with real demand

Nobody tried to rent out things no one looks for. Cameras, tools, sports gear, family items, projectors: all categories with concrete, recurring demand. Before listing, it's always worth checking how many similar listings are active in your area and at what price.

2. They got the listing right from day one

Bright photos, a complete description, a price in line with the market. That's the baseline that separates a listing that gets requests from one that stays invisible. You don't need perfection — you need clarity.

3. They built a reputation

The first five-star reviews are the real accelerator. All five treated their first rentals with obsessive care — fast replies, a clean and tidy item, an easy handover — because they knew those reviews would pay off for months.

4. They were patient through the first 60 days

Almost none of them "blew up" in week one. Peer-to-peer rental is a snowball effect: slow at first, then faster and faster as reputation and visibility grow. Quit after ten days and you'll never see break-even; hold on for two months and you almost always will.

So how long does it really take to pay off an item?

There's no single answer, but a simple mental formula helps: divide the item's cost by its estimated net monthly earnings, and you get the months to break-even. A €120 drill earning €20 a month pays for itself in 6 months. A €2,000 camera earning €250 a month pays off in 8. A €300 tent earning €40 a month in about 7–8 months (concentrated in the warm season, though).

The beauty is that after break-even the curve flips: the item is no longer an expense to amortize, but a small source of recurring income. That's exactly the logic behind the circular economy of peer-to-peer rental: use more of what already exists, instead of buying what will sit idle.

And if you want to go from single stories to a concrete plan, we wrote a step-by-step guide on how to build a €300/month side income by combining several items the way the lenders in this article did.

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