I let campers rent part of my backyard from $70 a night. It helps pay our high home maintenance costs.

30.09.2024 - 20:07 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rocki McCrocklin, 52, a real-estate agent who has listed her home for three years on Hipcamp, a website that lets homeowners rent out their backyards to people camping in vans or tents. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

In January 2021, my husband and I purchased a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Bend, Oregon, for around $850,000.

We're located in an area called the Golden Triangle, about 10 minutes from downtown Bend and 20 minutes from nearby towns Redmond and Sisters. You can kind of just split off and go anywhere. It's fantastic.

Our property is a little over two acres and it came with an RV parking spot on about three-quarters of an acre.

I used to be a big camper. The first summer we lived in the house, some of our friends said they were taking a trip with Hipcamp. I never heard of it before. Its a website where homeowners can rent out land to RVs and tent campers.

My husband and I weren't using the RV spot at all, so I figured it was worth a shot. I thought, at the very least, it might be fun.

My husband and I worked to get it ready. I planted some wildflowers to make the area pretty and laid down playground wood chips to help with the dust. We bought picnic tables, lawn furniture, and a port-a-potty.

Renting out the spaces has given us an extra little chunk of money that we put toward fertilizer and lawn care for our property. It goes back into the upkeep of the spots, too, but with a two-acre property, there's always going to be high maintenance costs.

We were getting such good feedback on the first RV spot that we decided to make a second. We debated leaving that area just for dry camping, but my husband decided he could hook up power and water.

I really love meeting our guests and getting to know some amazing people.

We get a mix of people staying on the property. People mostly come for mountain-biking, zip-lining, hiking, and rafting in the area.

We have a lot of people come in for concerts at the Hayden HomesAmphitheater and the fairgrounds nearby. There was a big country music festival this summer and a young group of kids came in. They had the best time ever, but we're also super respectful.

They come from all over. We've had guests from as far away as Georgia and Pennsylvania. We had a family this year from Sweden who were spending a month traveling the US. We did manage to get over the language barrier.

Our busiest season is the summer, June through August. We're booked out around 25 nights per month. Nightly rates are between $70 to $74. For the fall and spring it drops down to five or six nights per month.

We don't have too many campers November through February. One time, however, we had a family come