Starting indoor car storage

[pacnwstorage]

We have several people with their own car repair shops in the building. They are not allowed to have customers in the building. Just drop off and pick up. We don't take a cut and it is zoned for business. We also have a lot of tenants that store vehicles bought at auction. I also have several tenants that store their commercial equipment with us. The only problem I have is they occasionally try to sneak in more cars than they pay for. When I drive in if they have extra cars they run up to tell me so I don't tow them. A few have finally learned that if I see extra they get towed right away.

Yea, tenants with something to hide always hate it when you PAY ATTENTION! Every time I drive by an open unit, I LOOK INSIDE. I am looking for items that are not supposed to be there or anything that would have a VIN that they did not give me a current copy of the title or registration. I always ask at rent up if anything with a VIN would be stored. I also tell them what is not supposed to be in unit. That way, when I see those items in the unit and confront them and always get the, "I didn't know" excuse, I tell them, "Yes you did but you chose not to follow policies". Tenants always love it when you look over their items with the unit door down but don't like it when you look in the unit.

[Clarkstoragellc]

BRB Storage
Congratulations on you and your teams success. Taking Coal and making a diamond.

The reason I wanted to know how much you paid is because there had to be a Business Dynamic for this to work. Cheap land and Building. 5.5 acres is 239,580 sq ft. I have a quote to build a 100 x 400 (40,000 sq ft) facility for $800,000 for building material and erection. Does not include concrete for the building and for exterior driveways. If I was to build your size building it would be $4,800,000 along with approximately $4,000,000 in concrete plus land and land prep costs. Totaling around $8,800,000 without other costs (lights, security, bathroom, fence, electric, office, etc.).

That's without knowing if it would fill before you built it. Also your rental rates would have to increase and your occupancy rate might decrease. For example if I built closed storage for RV's we would need $225 to $350 per unit to make the math work. Our city doesn't have enough of that need to justify that. Our buildings are going to be for contractors, who will pay triple these figures, to make our numbers work.

breakmywallet

So you have the same concept going, just again, do the numbers work out. And also does the business operation model work. If this warehouse doesn't work out, look for out of business car dealerships- lots of buildings and pavement; Truck transfer stations, etc.

[KrisinWA]

https://www.a1carstorage.com/self-st...medium=organic

Check out this storage in San Diego.

[breakmywallet]

Great starting with a Real Estate investment. Keep going for it.

We do outside parking. Recommend you do the following before getting to deep into the business plan.
a. Take your car and a truck.
b. Take some nylon string, measuring tape, masking tape.
c. Lay out the parking and flow plan. Get a number of possible parking stalls. Park your car and extended cab truck and see if the logic works. Although 8 foot is normal width of vehicles, I would recommend a minimum of 12 ft width of parking stalls to make the turns possible, otherwise your driving lane has to get wider.
d. Two way or one way lane?
e. To fit most cars, the stall needs to be 25 feet long. You can do 20 foot, but you have to be real strict with your customer about parking in this short lane. They can't stick out into the lane.
f. If you want to do long pickup trucks or boats (tongue to prop), you will need 30ft or longer. Boats will need to be "Wheeled" and parked, can't make the turn if still attached to the vehicle. Otherwise you will need a 45 foot wide drive lane to park a 30 foot boat trailer.
f. Recommend you park at 60 degree angle versus 90 degree. 90 degree takes a wider drive lane than a 60. Plus it is easier for your customer.
g. Have them turn in on the "Drivers" side and not the "Passenger" side to park. You will need two way driving to do this.
h. Take your number of parking slots. Go onto Sparefoot and check out prices for those "Drive up" unit sizes. I used Milford, since I've been there. 10 x 25 runs $250 to $400 in the area. Based on what you said above about limited access, group versus individual parking. You have to be below $250 to compete against, individual parking (no scratches) and anytime access versus limited.
i. Just for kicks, you change the math, but still do the logic. Say you have 50 stalls, assume 70% occupancy, at $200 per month= $7,000. Sounds great. Will your customers pay $200? What is your building rent?
j. Now lets look at your customers. Anyone's restored vehicle, corvette, or exotic car isn't going into there, unless you are putting in a $2mm Car elevator and bar. Your customers will be $5,000 to $25,000 vehicles. Will they pay $200? If not lower your price. 50 Stalls, 70% occupancy, at $100 = $3,500. Check your rent and expenses and your time meeting and opening the door.
k. Its a beautiful Saturday in January, no ice, no weather and I want to take my 51 Dodge pickup out at 9:00 and bring it back 2 hours later. You need to meet me both times.
l. Keep doing this until you are happy you have tested it and you are comfortable to do this.
m. Sounds like your going to lease. Recognize your business can be dissolved anytime the building owner decides to terminate the lease.

Don't think of the above as a futile effort. Keep coming up with ideas and testing them. Even ones you know you don't want to do, so you get the approach and a sense of what makes the numbers work.

Take installing gutters versus the above project or Self Storage. Installing gutters is labor intensive, low capital entry, and skilled. Storage is just a Financial deal, no skill, High entry capital. Yes there are nuances to it, but the primary business plan is purely financial. Good job seeking out info, because your talking a new business model for you. Keep at it. You are on the right path with Real Estate investing.


Truck.png

Thank you this is great advice. you have some valid points. and thats why i posted in this forum. i have already started to learn.

[breakmywallet]

[QUOTE=GM - StacieJ. - BSS;n199465]

Welcome, I'm in CT. What part of CT are you looking into? I have experience with the operations of car/boat/camper warehouse storage not the start up part of it. I can tell you how it was ran with the big box company I worked for at the time. So as far as the warehouse I ran, we stored high end show/classic cars, boats and campers. The warehouse was divided in half, one half was leased out to a commercial tenant a little over 12,000 sq. ft. they paid about $8,250 a month.

Thank you for the insight. i love seeing the breakdown.

[bwmary]

I'd think you'd be better off offering RV and boat storage over car storage. I don't think there are that many owners that would pay to store their car in a climate controlled warehouse apart from where they're living. If you're looking for classics, hot rods and collector cars, there may not be enough potential customers in your area to support your overhead.

RVs and boats/watercraft are plentiful, don't get used nearly as much as people think, are usually owned by people with disposable income, and would benefit greatly from indoor, climate controlled storage. Add an outdoor wash rack and maybe a dump station, and I'd think you'd be in better shape to succeed.

I am close to an airport, I have 4 or 5 customers that park inside a unit. and have 3 truckers that park inside as well. I have 2 that park their classic inside and a waiting list for 2 other units. There could be a market if in a high show car area.