Archive for the ‘Lend’ Category

More Strange Rentals…

This week we have gotten a lot of reports of strange rentals happening in Germany.

Apparently the Germans are leaders in this global revolution for rentals, but it is taking some strange twists and turns that you may not have expected. Of course we are here to tell you all about it. =^)

Want to tell us what you like to rent? Take our survey here…

The most recent story came from BusinessPundit.com, where they discovered the practice of renting farm animals for yard work is on the rise. Huh?

Yes, I am a bit confused myself. Feel free to read the article here. http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/weird_business_ideas_rent_a_duck.php

Apparently people are renting animals like ducks and sheep to do such things as “mow” the lawn (eat the grass, for anyone who didn’t catch it). They even comment that they are happy with the fertilizer!? This seems strange to me as one of my most hated jobs when I was young was cleaning up the “fertilizer” that my dog left in the backyard. Not fun.

We have actually been hearing about strange rentals from Germany for a while now. They got a lot of press earlier this year for a website where people can rent protesters. http://www.psfk.com/2007/01/rentaprotester.html We think this could be a much more popular service in France, but perhaps they are so willing to protest there that they don’t need to offer to pay. =^) View the original story here. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,460449,00.html

Of course every once in a while we all need a German to help us out. We all know they are hard workers, and know how to take a mean 6-week vacation. Well the next time you need a hand making Streusel or trying to sing Edelweiss, you can rent your own German here! http://www.rentagerman.de/

Der Spiegel, the big German publication, tells us about how German schools are renting visiting American students to help them understand us better. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,496731,00.html Apparently in some countries being American is not necessarily considered a good thing. I think it has something to do with some war, or pollution or something. Something about a big Bush? Yeah, I didn’t get it either, but I guess these German students were upset enough they needed some real Americans to come in and prove we aren’t all the great white devil they hear about.

Neighbors driving you crazy speeding around in the neighborhood? Well strap on your plastic citizen McGruff badge and give them a good scare with your rented radar gun! http://www.radargunrentals.com/ Unfortunately you can’t give out tickets yet, and could be arrested for impersonating an officer if you do it in your Halloween costume, but for only $150 a week it could all be worth it to see the look on your neighbors face as you pop out from behind his trash gun and show him he was going 40 in a 25.

Checking out ebay, we see that there is a real need for our rental service. Looks like all sorts of fun things are being offered. Unfortunately the bidding is closed on both of these auctions, but I bet if you ask real nice they will consider listing again.

You have your choice of two interesting eBay auctions. You can either rent-a-family, or you can rent-a-phone-friend.

Rent-a-family This lovely family from Atlanta is willing to offer the whole family, complete with cheafuer service, graphic design services, web design, posters, plus DJ services and even a minister for weddings. Thats quite a package!

Rent-a-phone-friend Maybe you need to talk to someone about the family you already have. Here is the answer to your needs. This young gentleman is offering his services as your new best friend, complete with four hours of phone conversation over the next month. Just what I wanted, a new best friend in Kalamazoo, Michigan! I may do it just so that I can say I have a friend there. People will think I am cool.

A couple not-so-strange rental ideas were presented in blogs this very morning! AutoBelles blog gave a great post about how to make money renting out sports cars. You can read it here.Let me just reiterate, that if anyone wants to rent me that Ferrari I have been talking about, feel free. I might even give you a ride around the block with me.

One last post was made this morning on http://nylusmilk.wordpress.com Regarding the opportunity to rent books instead of buying them. This makes great sense to us, unless you like to pile up all your books and use them to show off to your friends like I do.

Well thats it for our crazy rental roundup. Keep checking back for more crazy rental items, updates on our progress (things are really moving over here), and any other interesting thing that pops up.

iRent2u.com - the Online Rental Marketplace

Popularity: 18% [?]

Do You Need to Buy a Gift for the Person Who Has Everything?

You all know who I am talking about. Often it is some guy you know, or maybe someone you don’t know. How do you buy a gift for someone who has everything?

Recently we have had a lot of people contacting us about the option of giving rentals away as presents. Some of our readers have had great comments, and we thought it was worthy of a whole post.

Rentals can often be the perfect present, for many reasons. We will cover a few of them here.

Buying a present for someone can be tough. You are always trying to come up with something original and interesting, but how do you know they will like it? If they really wanted it then they would probably buy it for themselves, right?

Really you want to buy something for them that they cannot buy for themselves. The problem with this of course is that we aren’t made of money. If they cannot afford to buy it, how are you going to be able to?

The alternative to this is a rental. Think of something they would love, and get it for them for a day, or a weekend. There are many things people would love try. Here I will list a few great options.

Top 5 Rental Gifts for Guys:

1. Ferrari! - Ok, so I shot for the moon on the first one, but there is nothing wrong with dreaming big. I can’t think of a single guy who wouldn’t love to drive a Ferrari for a day. Even my 98 year old Grandfather would probably appreciate a crack at one. Sure they rent of over $1,000 a day, but he won’t mind - unless you just paid with his money.
2. Vacation Rental for a week in the Virgin Islands - Ok, so I am still shooting for the moon. But no one can disagree that a week in the sun next to some of the most fabulous beaches in the world would be a dream present for most anyone.
3. Boat/Yacht/Sailboat - Who doesn’t enjoy spending the day on a boat, having fun with their friends, getting some sun, drinking too much and then getting sea sick? Well maybe not the last bit there, but a boat rental can be a blast. Careful with the sailboat option. If they don’t know how to sail one, it will be a long unhappy experience, believe me. Still, days on the water can be some of the most memorable experiences you will have.
4. Plane or Helicopter Ride - Noticing a theme here? Guys tend to like loud moving machines. Pushing the boundaries a bit by heading to the skies can be a real blast, and not something they are likely to already own 5 of in different colors (including paisley).
5. Red Dawn/Rocky/the Godfather - A bit on the cheaper side, most any guy enjoys the chance to curl up with a nice mellow action movie full of explosions and blood. Don’t like to watch these movies? Pretend like you do for one night, let him enjoy it, and be happy you just got away with paying $1!

Top 5 Rental Gifts for the Ladies:

1. Jewelry - A newer concept that has been sweeping the country, jewelry rentals are a hit! Apparently women like jewelry, even when it is too expensive to buy… how strange. Renting some of the crown jewels will not be possible, but it is doable to rent enough bling to make your lady feel like a princess for the evening.
2. Vacation Rental for a week in the Virgin Islands - Did I already say that one? This one definitely works for both genders.
3. Hot Air Balloon Ride - You, your Lady, a bottle of champagne, and nothing but fresh air, bright sunlight, romance… and the funny guy working the hot air… This one always seems to be a hit, just make sure she isn’t deathly afraid of heights or it will be a long ride home (or a very lonely hot air balloon ride).
4. Wine Tasting Trip - This one is a very safe bet. Rent a mini-van or small bus with a driver, gather up 10 to 30 of her best friends, eat a big breakfast, and head out for a day of sniffing, sipping and wining… Be careful what type of bus you rent though, some of them come with flashing lights and a pole in the back. People either end up dancing or with their heads spinning from the lights, and either one can turn a great trip into an embarrassing memory. Don’t live near some wineries? Get a van and take all the women shopping. Throw in a few stops for wine and you can get an almost frenzied effect similar to shark feeding frenzies.
5. Beaches/Ya-Ya Sisterhood/the Wedding Planner - Just like men love their action movies, women appreciate a good substantive, heart warming, connect-with-your-mother type of movie. Not sure you can take all the jibber-jabber? Imagine in each scene they are about to duke it out in some jello. That should keep you occupied enough to ignore that your arm just went dead from all your happy cuddling.

So rentals can be a great alternative. They key is to figure out what they want, but can’t afford to have all the time. By doing this you can create your own “Shock-and-Awe” gift celebration.

Popularity: 28% [?]

What if everyone could get more value from what they already have?

This is the question we asked ourselves last October when we began putting this company together.

How many things do you own that you don’t really need? In our survey many people told us they own multiple items that for most of the time just sit around collecting dust. Maybe its a stationary bike that you bought during a healthy kick, but now hardly use because you go jogging instead (or not).

Maybe its a tent, or a bookcase, a punching bag, some specialty tools for a one-time job, a pet carrier, a set of golf clubs, old books you have already read, your parents old furniture that is sitting in your garage… anything!

Haven’t taken the survey yet? Go here now…

The fact is, we all own things that are valuable, but are providing zero value to us. What can you do?

The first option is to just sell them. Of course you will be lucky to get half of what they cost, and then you will not have them anymore. Most people don’t want to sell their golf clubs because they only use them three times a year.

We propose a simple alternative. List your items on our site, let your neighbors borrow them, and sit back and collect the money. Everyone wins!

Your neighbors get to borrow something instead of buying it - saving money - they win.

You get to lend your items that are sitting around - making money - you win.

Together we make the world more efficient - people are buying less and thus they are throwing away less trash - all of society wins!

Together we have more. That is what we believe at iRent2u.com, and this September we will prove it to you.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Is Renting a Rip-Off?

Yesterday a visitor to the blog made an interesting comment, and I thought I would create an entire post about it in case other people had similar concerns.

Erik said:

It’s a neat concept on renting stuff… although what I’ve seen of the business model thus far involving renting of items is that they just end up cheating “poor” people.

This is a valid concern that Erik has, as there are definitely some types of rentals that just plain do not make sense.

I think what Erik is referring to though are the “Rent-to-Own” models. These are probably the most common models where people get a bad deal. This doesn’t mean though that all rent-to-own is bad. It just happens that people can lose a lot of money on it, and it generally tends to be people with less money to lose. Let me explain why.

Rent To Own Example

The rent-to-own model works like this. Let’s say you want to rent-to-own something for your house, like a new refrigerator. In fact, lets say you want to rent this refrigerator from Rent-A-Center. This is the Whirlpool ED2CHQXKQ.

Now you could buy this exact refrigerator from BestBuy here for $1,199. So now we know how much one costs. I called up Rent-A-Center to see how much they rent-to-own for. I was surprised to find that they charge over $138 a month for the same unit! This is quite expensive, but lets see how expensive this really is.

So if you rent this refrigerator for 81 weeks then you own it outright. Add all that up and you just spent almost $2,600 for a refrigerator that would have cost you $1,200 brand new. So this is very expensive, but why would this be worse for poor people? Isn’t it the same ripoff regardless of who rents it?

The Problem

The problem with a rent-to-own situation is this. If you rent the item for 12 months and then all of a sudden can’t keep up the payments, then you lose the item. But you also lose all the money you spent renting the item. This would be fine if you paid a normal rental amount, but with rent-to-own you are normally paying a much higher monthly rate. So you just lost a lot of money!

And don’t think these companies are shy in taking away the item. Miss a payment or two and you better believe they will be making a house call to reclaim their goods. So yes, this is worse for people who have less money, because they are more likely to rent it for a while and then lose all the money. When you consider that you can easily rent a refrigerator for $45 a month or less from a normal rental company, this can end up creating big losses.

Breakdown of Losses

12 Months Rent-A-Center = $1,656

12 Months Normal at $45 = $540

Money lost due to Rent-to-Own system = $1,116… Ouch!

Is This Evil?

So these systems exist. For some people who have really bad credit, this may be the only way to get a new refrigerator. So we aren’t saying that the system should be abolished, but it is definitely dangerous. Especially if you have bad credit, meaning you have a history of not making your payments on time.

Is All Renting Bad?

So how is that different from iRent2u.com? Our goal here is to make renting affordable for everyone. We want to make rentals as cheap as possible. You won’t find any confusing and tricky schemes here, just honest and simple rental plans for people who need things on a limited basis.

We fully recognize that some items are not made for renting. If you need a fridge for a long time, then you should probably buy it. But if you are living in an apartment for only three months during a summer internship, then it may make a lot of sense to rent it and save 5 or 6 hundred dollars.

To continue the same example, if you rented a refrigerator for $46 a month, over 3 months you would have paid less than $150. That is big savings over buying it brand new for $1,000. Then afterwards you don’t have to worry about selling it or moving it, because the company will take it back. Everyone wins!

Renting Can Be Great For Everyone!

So renting is not bad for “poor” people. Renting is a tool that is great in some circumstances, and can be a poor choice in others. The key is to pay attention to your costs and figure out when it makes sense to buy and when it is better to rent. Often times when you look at a real comparison you will find you are buying things that you should rent, and other times you are renting things you should buy.

A quick example: I recently bought a new tuxedo for $200. I could have rented it for $110, but the next time I needed it I would have to pay again and would have wasted money. Now I have a tuxedo for the rest of my life, or until I grow out of it. But if the rental had been around $50 I would have just rented it, because I don’t know if there will be four occasions in the next 5 years where I will need a tux.

Renting is great, but you have to do the math. Lucky for you we will build easy tools to help you do the math every time!

Popularity: 13% [?]

What Do You Want to Rent?

One of the neat things about creating an open platform where people can rent out anything they want, is watching what people have to rent out. Of course we are a bit early to start telling you what people are renting, since we haven’t even launched yet, but we can tell you about some of the more interesting requests and comments we have seen.

Below is a listing of some of the items recommended to us by people who took the survey. Not everyone was completely serious when making suggestions, and we were a bit concerned by how many Americans today enjoy entertaining the idea of renting women, but for the most part we got a great response.

Some Interesting Suggested Items to Rent:

• Being able to “borrow” the use of expensive computer software, like Adobe CS3, would be great. I don’t do enough graphic design to want to buy this software, but I would love to be able to rent some time to use it.
• Table saw, circular saw, hot glue gun, weed wacker, hedge trimmer, electric blower, steam cleaner, tile saw
• I have found a real need to rent baby items (car seat, stroller, pack and play) when friends come in town or if I go out of town.
• What about borrow “help”? Like to fix a door, special garden work or similar?
• We might do a rental of art for corporations
• One of the biggest things on this list is the books…University book stores rip off students. This is a good way for owners of books to get the value they paid for it.
• Are you going to do things like cup of sugar? What about favors, I water your plants you water mine?

Do you have any ideas of your own? If so, take the survey and let us know. We are always interested to hear your comments. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Unique Rental Company Items:

Besides what we have seen on our survey, there are other interesting things being rented these days.

One new option is renting handbags & jewelry. A popular site for doing this is www.BagBorrowOrSteal.com This is something that I personally would never even look at, but my wife was quite taken with the idea. Unfortunately we had serious problems with the service when we tried it out, but the concept is great. Rent expensive handbags instead of purchasing them, and then you can trade in for new ones and always have a fun new bag! Be careful with the mail though, send it incorrectly and you will pay for the whole bag, which is what happened to us on our first one.

Another thing I NEVER would have thought of is renting pets! Believe it or not, www.FlexPetz.com already exists, and is helping people enjoy pets who don’t have the time to care for one all by themselves. Now how this works I cannot say, since we are talking about living animals. This does seem strange, but then again there must be situations where this works really well. Perhaps this is good for elderly folks who just are not able to care for a pet all by themselves. As a pet lover myself I am glad to know that this service exists to help out those who have had to go without in the past.

Something a bit in the future is a service called Riot & Return http://www.riotandreturn.co.uk/. This is children’s clothing from the label Keep & Share. Apparently people will pay by subscription, and then return the clothes after they have been used. This seems brilliant to me, as children’s clothing costs a lot for such a short use cycle.

Rent Everything!

We love to see new companies making rentals a more acceptable alternative. Renting increases the use of an item, decreases waste, and is an all around better options for many different things. Hopefully we can provide an abundance of new items for rent on our website once we launch. Our goal is to have at least a little of everything, with hopefully a lot of most.

Once we all start renting more, we are all going to get more from what we already have. That works perfect for us, because we strongly believe that “Together We Have More”.

iRent2u.com, the Online Rental Marketplace - What do you want to rent?

Popularity: 12% [?]