Want to make money in your neighborhood? Here are some proven, reliable ways to make money without going long distances. It’s good in the hood.

How to Make Money in Your Neighborhood

There are hundreds of ways to start a side hustle and make extra money in your spare time.

Making money online is great for people who have marketable digital skills. Gig economy jobs like driving for Uber or shopping with Instacart are another way to quickly start earning money fast.

One of our favorite ideas will get you out of the house, allow you to make money at the prices you are willing to work for, pays in cash, and will make you a hero and go-to resource amongst your neighbors!

We’re talking about jobs you can do to make money in your neighborhood!

The density of most major US cities ranges from ~5,000 – 8,000 people per square mile for urban areas to 1,000 – 4,000 people per square mile in suburban areas.*

This means that, depending on where you live, within half a mile in any direction from your current home there could be up to 8,000 that need help washing windows, landscaping, walking their dogs, etc.

Whether you are looking to turn this into a full-time career or just want to make a little extra money to help improve your budget these jobs can be a great fit for anyone.

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How to Make Money Around the Neighborhood

Anyone with some extra time on their hands and willing to put a little effort into marketing themselves can start picking up jobs almost immediately.

The prevalence of social media and niche neighborhood networking sites makes it super easy to get your name out there.

A few of our favorites to get started are Facebook and local town talk, buy/sell or job groups.

By marketing yourself as someone just looking to help out with odd jobs you won’t come across as spammy as a bonafide company marketing their services.

NextDoor is also a great platform to use as it is hyperlocal to your specific area. I frequently see people who are looking for odd jobs for their kids and the response is typically overwhelming.

This is a great fast money opportunity for kids and teenagers to find summer jobs

Once you start getting a few jobs under your belt word of mouth will become your best friend.

Everyone seems to have a favorite person or company they have worked with in the past and are more than happy to recommend them when other people post help wanted requests.

Our Favorite Neighborhood Jobs to Make Money

These are our favorite jobs to do within your own neighborhood to start making money fast.

Money Making Opportunities for Kids and Teenagers

These neighborhood jobs for kids or teenagers are perfect for after school or summer work.

Landscaping

While the pros may have the market cornered for large landscaping projects that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of room for someone with a shovel, lawn mower and some time on their hands.

Try going door to door or posting on relevant local Facebook groups that you are offering lawn mowing services for the entire summer. One way to lock in recurring customers is by offering an upfront discount like offering 2 free weeks of mowing or a free garden weeding if they sign up for the summer.

Basic landscaping services like planting flowers or spring and fall yard cleanups are another great upsell to build up a profitable customer base.

Potential Profit: $20/week per home with yard cleanup upsells worth $100 – $200

Watering Gardens

We have noticed locally that many of the new developments being built around town don’t include sprinkler systems for the lawn and landscaped areas.

This leads to many of the homes having hoses spread out around their yards all summer which damages the grass and can look unsightly.

Offer up a 2 or 3 time/week lawn and garden watering service. By watering in the morning or evenings that still leaves your day free to pursue other jobs or just enjoy the summer months.

Homeowners can also reach out to you when they are away on summer vacations to do the watering for a week or two.

And since you’re becoming the go-to person for all things local these are great opportunities to upsell your other services like dog walking or house sitting while they are away.

This takes us to…

Potential Profit: $20/week per home

See Related: Best Part-Time Jobs to Consider

Dog Walking

Every morning on our way to dropping the kids off at daycare we pass a dog walker who has a kid in a stroller, another in a baby carrier and anywhere from 2 – 6 dogs on leashes.

They live in a fairly small subdivision but he has clearly figured out a way to get the kids out of the house every day and make some money on the side.

One way to get started finding new customers is with Rover. Rover is an app that connects dog walkers with pet owners. While Rover does take a fee from every visit this can be a good way to establish a clientele.

You could extend your dog walking service to include feeding pets, cleaning litter boxes or full-blown pet sitting while families are out of town.

Potential Profit: $10 per dog/per walk with pet sitting as high as $50/day

House Sitting

During the holidays, spring break and summer months many families will head out of town on vacation and are uncomfortable leaving their house empty.

You can offer to either stay in their home while they are gone to keep an eye on things or pets or offer to come by once or twice a day to check-in, water plants, feed the cat and bring in the mail.

Depending on how much they are asking of you will dictate how much to charge. Overnight stays will be the most profitable as you can get paid to stay the night and spend the day working for other jobs.

Potential Profit: $20 – $100/day

Babysit

Babysitting is a great way for teens to make some extra money in the evening or on weekends. One great way to find new opportunities is to get infant CPR certified and volunteer at a neighborhood daycare.

Parents are ALWAYS looking for trusted babysitters and volunteering after school or in the summer at daycare is a great way to get in touch with parents and show that you are responsible around their children.

Many busy working parents are often looking for someone who can help out in the mornings and drop their kids off at daycare so if you have mornings free this can be a great way to make some extra money every day.

Potential Profit: $15/hour

See Related: Best Weekend Jobs to Consider

Home Care Jobs Around the Neighborhood

Become the neighborhood must call a person for any job to keep homes sparkling clean.

Wash Windows

Window washing is a task around the house we always leave neglected for way too long. Granted, we also have some pretty tall windows that require some extra gear to reach but I can guarantee that if someone walked up to our door today and offered to wash the outside of all of our lower windows at $5/window we would gladly say yes.

Picking up a cheap window washing kit from Amazon which includes a microfiber washer, squeegee, and telescoping pole will cut your washing time per window down to minutes and give a feeling of professionalism.

Window washing is one of those jobs where when neighbors see you doing it on one house they will stop by and ask if you can clean their windows as well.

After every job, commit to knocking on 10 doors in the immediate vicinity to see if you can pick up an extra job or two.

Potential Profit: Doing a quick count of the downstairs windows in our house. At $5 per window and an average cleaning time of 3 minutes per window, a person could make $80 in a little under an hour of work.

Clean Gutters

Cleaning gutters on single story homes is a fairly simple task with the right tools. You can pick up a gutter cleaning wand that attaches to a hose for around $30. One of these Orbit gutter cleaning wands should do the trick.

This eliminates the need to bring a ladder and the potential liability from falling associated with it.

Offer a gutter spray out once in the spring and again in the fall. This job can also integrate well with other landscaping services!

Potential Profit: $100/house

Power Wash Driveways

Power washing is one of those jobs that homeowners don’t realize they need until they see the results. Take a power washer around the neighborhood and spray the words “power washing” and your phone number on the sidewalk in a few locations.

This is an eye-catching way to show the value of power washing and will start bringing in calls.

We recommend you stick to driveways only as the potential damage that can be inflicted on homes by power washing siding or windows is best to be avoided if you aren’t carrying insurance.

When you do this, think of it like renting out your equipment for profit. You can either rent it to them or do the job for them for an additional fee.

Potential Profit: $100 – $200/job

Clean Homes

Become a full-service house cleaner. This can be a highly lucrative business and can easily keep you employed full time.

Invested in some good cleaning supplies and tell the homeowners that you will be using their vacuums to cut down on expensive purchases.

Alternatively, you can buy a vacuum of your choice to get going on the cleaning process. You’ll likely be able to charge more if you have your own supplies.

As you grow your business you can even start to hire other cleaners. Word of mouth is huge in the cleaning business so do a good job early on and watch the jobs roll in.

Offering discounts for bi-weekly cleaning is a great way to keep customers on the books.

Potential Profit: $150 – $300/home

Neighborhood Jobs to Help out the Community

These are a great selection of jobs you can do to bring a little value to the community.

Start a Bread Club

If you love to bake consider starting your own local bread club.

Many states have what is called a Cottage Food License which is available to micro-businesses making food from their homes. Do your research into what laws apply to your situation.

This is a fun way to meet the neighbors and make delicious food.

The story of Alchemy Bread in California is a great example of a person who started baking loaves of bread for the community and has turned it into a full-blown business including writing their own cookbook!

Potential Profit: $5 – $7/loaf

See Related: Ways to Make Money With Your Van

Organize a Community Garage Sale

If you are thinking about clearing out your own garage and closets and holding a garage sale consider inviting others as well.

Offer to let them sell their items for a percentage cut of the profits. Advertising the sale as multi-family can bring in more shoppers which will benefit both the sale of your own items and commissions on other sales.

We used colored stickers as price tags at our multi-family garage sales and put them on a page of paper in columns after each sale. That makes it easy to total up exactly how much each family is due at the end of the day.

These are some of the easiest items to sell for profit.

Potential Profit: 10% of all sales plus sales of your items

See Related: Personal Capital Review

Go Grocery Shopping

Personal shopping apps like Instacart make it easy to find neighborhood customers who are looking for grocery delivery.

You can also put a personal spin on it and advertise more out of the box shopping options. Runs to Costco or Sam’s Club for bulky items like toilet paper, Home Depot for plants or other out of the way errands are perfect to advertise to busy families.

Potential Profit: $10 per errand

See Related: 12 Best Delivery Apps to Make Money

Other Ways to Make Money From Neighborhood Jobs

Wash and Detail Cars

Offer to come to customer’s driveways and wash their cars every couple of weeks. All you’ll need to bring along are some buckets, sponges, drying rags and car soap.

Bring along some interior cleaning supplies as well like a shop vac and cleaning spray to charge even more per job.

Potential Profit: $25 – $50/wash

Hang Christmas Lights

Help out around the neighborhood during the holiday season by offering to hang lights and decorations.

A package of gutter or siding clips and a light hanging pole can make quick work of the job and you can easily charge $10 – $20 per string of lights.

Potential Profit: $100 – $200/home

See Related: 20 Best Side Hustles to Consider

Final Thoughts on Ways to Make Money in Your Neighborhood

Neighborhood jobs are a great way to start earning money fast. By diversifying your income and becoming a go-to worker in the neighborhood one can easily turn this into a full-time gig with a lot of job flexibility.

Ready to make money in your neighborhood?

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