Im on my way out too! Not only are my car values dropping like a rock but Turo guests are getting worse and worse! Hopefully Turo will do something to vet guests or protect hosts that are the face of their terrible business model. After 3 years hosting on the platform I am fed up! Damages, filthy guests, and poor Turo policy is driving me off the platform. Thanks for all the help and information along the way. Best!
Had 5 luxury cars on Turo. Saturation came in, price of rent cut in half, and value of cars upside down from purchase. Left the platform 9 months ago. Did it for 3 years.
Also I recently sold a one year old Buick to a Chevy dealer that also owned a Buick dealer. They were going to Certify the car and sell it through their Buick Dealership. I got more for the Buick than I paid for it new. Buying right has always been critical.
Unless you maneuver very carefully it’s super difficult do this on financed high end cars, your so susceptible to be economic trends, most of the cars should be bought cash if possible or modest cars with larger down payment to minimize loan payments, 3 cash for every modestly financed vehicle. I know there’s a another school of thought to buy newer car with for warranty coverage, but it’s too risky from consistent profitability standpoint. Sad to see you bailing out sort off, but thank you for your very helpful content. I have 3 cars and hope to get to 5 by end of year, no financed cars.
I only have one car on the platform, but I get roughly $900 a month in profit after Turo fees on a 2016 Jetta I bought for $9k last year. The market has been fine for me, but it looks like the higher value cars have a lower ROI from what I’ve seen. It’s hard to imagine a $40k car making $3,600 a month. I’m also a big believer in buying the car outright to avoid the crazy interest rates right now!
Your $900 is, unfortunately, not profit. That’s your earnings after Turo fees. Your profit is $900 minus costs and depreciation. Costs include insurance, car washes, repairs, maintenance, parking, Uber, interest (in case of loan). Depreciation is the hardest one because you can only estimate it. You will only know your true profit once you sell that car.
@@glimabostonyeah I guess I assumed that went without saying. I said it that way because everyone’s situation is different, so seeing what someone makes after fees gives a good baseline for their own calculation.
@@glimabostonwhat most people don’t take into consideration is that the depreciation offsets your tax liability. So you if you balance it right, you can skim money from this business model tax free. So long as you have your back stops in place to eat up negative equity and major accidents. I have 15 cars currently and have been at it for about 3 years. Sure I have a few cars that are upside down but I have had consistent positive cash flow even with 4 totaled cars and plenty of other incidents. It’s not as bad as everyone assumes. It does suck lately though in regards to Turo’s bias towards guests and dealing with a difficult consumer.
Oh and make sure you nickel and dime the h out of everyone when it comes to late fees, fuel, mileage, smoking whatever you can get . The fees are plentiful with a decent sized fleet.
I think the writing was on the wall for a while now with the platform. Here in my market (South Florida) it actually would cost you more money to rent through Turo than the actual big chain agencies. Still a good side hustle tho. I still list a car from time to time that I'm selling. Good way for the car to make something while it's for sale.
My associate found this out several years ago. Before he sold his fleet, he thought he was making money hand over fist. After putting in all the numbers after selling, it was a loss
Did you talk about where to store your vehicles, and whether to deliver or have guests pick up at your location, etc? I'm in Orange County, CA, so I hope you can give some insight.
I’ve been finding best way to do Turo in Houston and I think I have came out the best way to maximize in Houston but I still think to Ron needs to come out with add on feature, so Host can make more money such as, asking customer if they would like to sign up for EZ tag pay they can get unlimited easy tag for $10 a day just like rental companies do.
I believe she used to host near LAX, now Turo has restrictions and added super expensive airport fees, plus mid to high end car listings will scare off most renters. Blue print of what not to do 😮
I used to host LAX in 15’ 16’ 17’ and 2018 but after that the Orange County market really grew so I no longer had the make the trek out to LA. Also during those days turo used to have a dedicated LAX turo lot which they had to shut down due to it losing money which was huge blow for people operating in that area. These days catering to LAX clientele is way harder especially with the regulations from the city. Back then you just didn’t encounter these types of issues at all because turo was still under the radar.
Thank you for all your knowledge, and good luck with your next adventure! My fleet is located in the Minneapolis market. Do you feel that the saturation is ubiquitous across the country or do you think certain markets are underserved compared to your market? Thanks, Raj.
so what if you rent your scatpack challenger out, 20 year old fraud used his sisters account to rent and pickup car, then totals the car, gives my insurance to the cops instead of his at the scene, and flees to other state while posting pictures with alcohol infront of the car then a picture of it totaled right after!?
I just cut my 25 car fleet down to 8 cars, Turo is a downward business model anymore. You can probably make more money working at McDonalds..legitimately. Haha
Tried Turo on 2 stints, over 60 Rides on my Chevy Suburban, but I'm now done !!! The guests destroy the cars, and the insurance and customer service is inadaquate, you don't make money long term... You'll most likely lose.
There is going to be a debt crisis. Not only personal but public debt. It is going to get ugly really fast. I expect stagflation will become the new norm.
Saimah, one of your powerhost members here. Why didnt you just sell the business as entirety? The buyer would be buying the reviews, repeat customers, brand, and overall BUSINESS assets and projections for future revenue growth? Why'd you part it out?
Great question and thanks for being a member! In this environment I've only come across a handful of people interested in buying the business but generally it was with the stipulation of having me run the operations. So you can consider that more of acquihire transaction which I am not interested in doing. Also I don't think I'm done hosting just yet :) I have my eye on a few cars along with a few co-hosting opportunities which I would still like to explore. 😊
@@saimahsexperience There will be some screaming deals available on lease returns and repo'd cars as the economy changes. Many people cannot afford their overpriced cars bought in the last couple of years.
Check out my video on the main channel page where I walk through every year of my hosting journey and show my actual turo 1099’s 😇 also I don’t believe in having a “brand” - my content is always autobiographical in nature meaning it’s just a documentary on what I am doing in my real life 🫶🏼
I was interested in the Turo platform. However after selling millions on Ebay and Amazon and realizing the platform eventually gets too greedy I passed.
@@saimahsexperience Platforms are the greatest model for the platform, not the user. I.E. Facebook users don't get benefit from their identity being sold, Amazon vendors if their products do well Amazon will copy them and put you out of business---for example Amazon Basics are all copies of great selling items that Amazon buys to compete with their own vendors.
Yes however I have a strong hunch that demand will surge again sometime in the future. There’s a lot of potential for it as turo grows. Demand and supply tends to cycle a lot over time
