Alternative type of real estate investment. Thoughts?

[Marshall Gerston]

I've been involved in single family homes, multi family apartments, flips, and even a commercial building. But I'm looking at something different and would like to get some opinions. A Toy Barn. An outfit in my area has built these fantastic ownership storage facilities. They are primarily purchased by well off car collectors and enthusiasts. Each project has a fantastic member club house with big screen TVs, sitting areas, outside tables, some appliances, bathrooms and so forth. Then it looks like a huge storage facility with giant garage doors with varying size units - roughly 1200 sq ft. They sell for $230,000 and buyers are fixing them up with upstairs mezzanines, lifts, memorabilia and incredible man caves. Several investors have purchased them as rentals and the going rate is about $1.20/sq ft. So the 1200 sq ft unit would rent for approx $1440/month. About the same as a SFH of the same cost in my area. Except one thing. Its a big square box! No appliances, no hot water heaters, no crazy families, just (hopefully) a high end collector that wants to hang out and tinker with his toys. There is an HOA and property taxes and I'd have to get insurance, but other than that, I don't foresee a whole lot of expenses. And, these things are going up in price. One builder about 15 minutes down the road is selling a little bit bigger units for $1,000,000 and there all sold out! So I guess I'll just throw it out there and see if anyone sees any downside to this idea.

Thanks in advance,

mg