Use Your Rental to Make Extra Money

It doesn't take much these days to find oneself strapped for cash. When you own your home, you don't always need outside approval to use your space to make extra money. But with a little creativity and know-how, even renters can use their homes to generate income.

"Around the same time I first got serious with my boyfriend, my roommate moved out," says New Yorker Marsha Arre, a marketing executive from the Astoria neighborhood in Queens. "I needed help covering my rent. So I asked my boyfriend if I could crash with him for two weeks and posted on craigslist that I had a furnished apartment someone could rent for the cost of half my rent."

Though your landlord may not approve of some of these ideas, were he or she to find out about them, if you use them carefully and in moderation, they just might bring in a little extra income when you need it most. By using the following suggestions you can take your rental from "living-space" to "make-a-living-space":