Uber launched in 2010 in San Francisco with just a few cars and in the fourth quarter of 2024 paid their drivers $20 billion. Airbnb’s w
ebsite says that it was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests in their home and in 2023, hosts earned more than $57
billion. Your clients aren’t just living in their homes and driving their cars to wo
rk and back. They are “driving” the sharing economy in their cars, trucks, homes, pools, RVs, their time, and more.
In an economy where people are feeling the squeeze in every direction, sharing apps bring the promise of some extra spending mo
ney, while at the same time, getting better use out of the things that people alread
y own and use. As the sharing market has matured, it has also evolved. What was first a question of whether or not someone wa
s listing a bedroom online, or whether or not they were logged into a delivery app is now a question of what they can’t share.
And the worst part is that, unless their insurance agent specifically asks the question, many clients won’t think to mention it.
Monetizing everything
Think about the premise behind sharing your home, or a part of it, from the eyes of your clients, who are renting out their space.
They own the hous
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e. They aren’t using that room, and they put an outside door in when their 25 year old came home from college for a couple of years
. It’s just sitting there, why not make a few extra dollars on the side. Since it’s my home and I’m already paying for insurance on my home, it has to be covered. It’s not even worth mentioning bec
ause they’ve paid for homeowners insurance for the last 25 years, never had a claim, and can’t imagine having one.
Now, take that thought process into the realm of everything else that they might be sharing.
“I’m already out running errands, I might as well log into Uber Eats and see if I can make a few deliveries.”
“I get off at five. I can take a few minutes for a quick supper, and head out to the airport for a few hours and give some rides.”
“I only use my travel trailer one or two weekends a month. I can set it up in the backyard and list it online. Someone else might as well enjoy it and help me make the payments.”
The hardest thing to get clients to consider is that this isn’t just about sharing their stuff with someone else and making a buck. T
heir insurance company looks at it differently than that. Pull out any of your clients’ policies: HO-3, HO-4, HO-6, Personal Auto, or Recreat
ional Vehicles. They’ll all tell you why the insurance company sees these exposures differently.