How to generate additional income from my 10 unit property?

[Ben S.]

I have a property in southern Maryland with 10 single family homes (around 950 sqft each, most 3/1) on 5 acres. It's my own little community as its in a pretty rural area. The homes are roughly in a circle with a small common area in the middle with a large shed. 

I still have a few months of heavy rehab until they are all complete, probably a month until the first is ready. Aside from the base rental rate, how can I generate more income?

A few ideas I've had:

- Meter and charge for water. It's well and septic, with a central system with two wells. 

- Charge for internet. I talked to Comcast about the bulk/community plans, but it's only for 75+ units. I think I could do a business internet plan and setup a wireless system to provide accounts to everyone (I used to work in IT so this wouldn't be hard for me). Maybe this is against some rules though? Also not sure if there is a way to get cheap TV service and then charge tenants for it.

- Have a small dumpster on site and charge an additional trash fee. Have the risk of other people coming around to dump trash though. 

- Get some vending machines for the covered area by the shed (there's a small covered seating area already there). I plan to put a couple picnic tables and maybe grills out there anyway, so a drink machine in particular may be helpful. There are some small stores pretty close (within a mile).

- I thought about providing lawn care for free since the yards are small and there's community areas, but maybe I should just try to offer lawn care for a cheap fee?

- There's a state park and marina really close by (easy bicycle distance), I may talk to the marina about giving a discount to tenants and giving me a few bucks or something.

- Make some storage space in the shed (or build another shed) and offer storage for a fee. Maybe good since the homes are fairly small. 

- The homes are all on 2 acres, with the other 3 acres behind wooded. Maybe something with hunting on those acres? Anything else to generate income from the extra land?

[Nathan Gesner]

I think you're putting the cart before the horse. In other words, you could spend money on storage units and then learn your tenants don't care about storage. Even worse, you may find that you can't even find tenants!

Get the units renovated and filled first. Prove that your property is a solid investment. Then - and only then - should you focus on ways to maximize the return.