Andrei Echeverria isn’t your average car enthusiast: In 2019, he turned his hobby of fixing up cars and trading them for flashier models into a lucrative side hustle.
Echeverria, 32, brings in up to $14,000 per month renting his six vehicles out to strangers in Boston on the rental platform Turo, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
The side hustle started with one car, a great location and some clever strategy. Echeverria lives mere miles from Boston Logan International Airport, and capitalizes by undercutting the prices of nearby car rental companies.
His 2021 Jeep Gladiator, for example, is listed on Turo at $89 per day. Renting the same car from the airport’s Enterprise Rent-A-Car costs $204 per day, according to the company’s website.
That strategy particularly paid off as people returned to travel in 2021, seeking cheaper-than-usual ways to get around amid the Covid-19 pandemic. One car’s revenue helped Echeverria buy a second car, a third, ultimately a sixth — all flashier models that allowed him to charge more per customer and quickly grow his business.
Last year was his most successful year so far, bringing in more than $94,000 — including about $60,000 in profit — on top of his $80,000 per year salary as a full-time nursing home maintenance manager, he says.
Here’s how Echeverria turned his passion for cars into a nearly six-figure side hustle: