How to Rent Your Home for a Movie or Catalog Shoot

Lights, camera, paycheck! Getting your home in a movie, on TV or in the next glitzy housewares catalog can be fun and pull in some cash to boot. But there are issues to bear in mind, not only to increase the chances of making your home a star, but to protect it in the process.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Submit your home as a possible location with film studios, production companies and advertising firms, which maintain lists of properties available for shooting purposes.

2. Ask what the rate is. Depending on how long they'll be in your home and the scope of the project, pay ranges from a couple hundred to more than a thousand dollars per diem. If the location is in a television series, they could come back year after year.

3. Expect your home to be taken over by people setting up shop in all parts of the house, including the bathrooms. Find out whether you should remove your furniture or make any changes before they come in or whether the production crews will. Ask if they plan to make any temporary changes and what they'll be.

4. Ask for a written policy outlining what the company does in case anything is damaged. The contract should include a provision to "return the house back to its original state," which may involve repainting or carpet cleaning, and the time frame for doing so.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't expect to make gobs of money renting out your house. Keep in mind that while the production crew is filming, you'll likely have to pay to live somewhere else.

• Production companies use trucks to haul cameras, and tracks and cranes that need off-site parking locations, which could significantly inconvenience you and your neighbors.