Renting Parking Spaces

[George Wines]

Although most of these discussions are centered around renting/flipping/building/liens, I thought I would ask the BP community about renting parking spaces. I am in the Denver area and just purchased a condo in a 125 unit building. When I was under contract, I went through all of the HOA documentation during my due diligence period to make sure that I wasnt likely to get a special assessment or have my dues raised. In that research I saw that the HOA owns 10 parking spaces in the lot surrounding the building and is talking with the City and County of Denver so they can put them up for sale.

Since this building is very close to the University of Denver campus, the current parking spots are renting around $100/month. Renting a parking spot sounds very straight forward and I believe that this complex's HOA covers the snow removal and resurfacing of the lot. All the other lots aside from the HOA owned ones, are currently owned by people that are condo owners. I believe that parking spots wont be considered liveable space, no toilets, etc and I think that any car that parks there without right could just be towed.

As I see it, here are some simplified the numbers.

rent - 100/month

vacancy percenage - 10% (conservative)

cost of towing - I dont think there is one to call the tow company. I thought they collect from the towee

Theoretical cost of $10,000

Yearly ROI - (1200*.90)/10000 = 10.8%

Things I dont know: 

loans for parking spots

general metrics or rules of thumb for parking

the law

Is there something that I am missing? Does this sound like a good idea? Why hasnt this been discussed in the podcasts (or at least I didnt find it)?

Questions about the law would be if can you rent to people who arent tenants in the building and how does towing work? I am considering towing the equivalent of eviction in the event of non-payment or somebody parking there that isnt authorized.