Leasing a parking spot in Chicago

[Michelle Bright]

Hey Chicago! My husband and I are moving out of our three flat soon and want to rent out each of our garage spaces. We plan on offering them for rent to the tenants that we have in the building first but if they do not want to pay for them we will market them to the neighborhood. The big question is what do we charge for each parking spot? It would be in a garage off our alley. We live in the Hermosa neighborhood (60641) not relatively near a train stop. We’re thinking $100 a spot a month especially since winter is approaching. What do you think? What do you charge? Thank you for your help in advance!

[John Warren]

@Michelle Bright a lot of this depends on how dense the neighborhood is and how difficult street parking is. I am getting $350 per month for a three car garage in Berwyn. I have a lot of clients who do this and they charge between $75-100 per month in Berwn and Cicero. I have also seen people try this in other areas that are less dense and it can fail completely. 

Whatever you do, I would recommend keeping the garage rent separate from the main rent. If you mix it in, it will become diluted over time as your long term tenants will eventually be paying less than market for the garage.