They'll Help You Buy a House if You Airbnb It and Give Them a Cut

When Yifan Zhang and her husband bought a home in Seattle, she put her extra room on Airbnb to earn a little extra income, and soon that income was paying their whole mortgage. That experience inspired her and a partner to start a new company Loftium. "It will provide prospective home buyers with up to $50,000 for a down payment," Tara Siegel Bernard writes in the New York Times.

Saving enough money for a down payment can be difficult especially for first-time buyers. Many think of 20 percent as the typical amount to put down on a home, in part to avoid fees for mortgage insurance. But "[f]irst-time buyers put down far less on average – roughly 8.2%," Siegel Bernard reports. For young home buyers with student debt, saving more can be impossible. Loftium is hoping those people will see using their homes as hotels as a practical solution.