DENVER — During a time when gas, groceries and everyday items cost us more money than they once did, many people are looking for alternative ways to make some extra money.
Matthew Santamarco is one of the many people looking at their extra space for a solution.
"I don't have you know, a garage full of boxes," the Denver man said.
It's for that reason that Santamarco is able to rent out his garage.
"I can rent out my garage space, which I'm not using," he said.
He thought about the idea after an unexpected car bill forced him to look for some way to make some extra cash.
"The first thing I was thinking was like, OK, how can I make just a side income without having to really do anything with this particular one?" Santamarco said.
He'd rented out his garage once before at the start of the pandemic when he had a different empty garage and used that for storage. Through the Neighbor App, he found someone wanting to rent his old garage space, just as he did this time around, too.
"I took photos of the garage, I measured it, listed where I'm located and immediately already got a response for it in about 24 hours," Santamarco said.
He makes $100 a month for storing a snowmobile that only sees the light of day once a month or so, and he's not the only one trading storage for money. The Neighbor App said its seen a more than four times increase in the number of people signing up to be hosts in Denver since the beginning of last year, with many new hosts saying they've turned to app because of rising costs.
"Right as the pandemic starts to get over, then inflation happens, right? And and you've got gas prices going through the roof, you've got all sorts of supply chain issues, all sorts of construction costs, high lumber, etc, groceries are seeing increasing costs, and people need a way to pay for that," said Joseph Woodbury, the co-founder of the app.
For Santamarco, it's the easiest way to bring in the extra income he needs.
"It's, you know, 1,200 bucks a year," he said.