Is RV and Boat Storage Right for You?

There is another aspect of self-storage that we haven’t discussed in a while. When you are in the right location, RV and Boat Storage can be profitable additions to your self-storage facility. Sometimes, when you purchase a property for a conversion, it will come with a large parking lot. This is a great place to put RV and Boat Storage if you are in the right location. You may be planning on adding to your facility down the road, but this is a way for that parking lot to be profitable in the meantime.

The first thing that you need to determine is whether or not there is demand for RV and Boat Storage in your area. If you are in an area that is near navigable waters, then people probably own boats. This means that they need somewhere to park them. If you live in an area where people go camping a lot and so there are a lot of RV dealerships, again, people need a place to park those RVs. However, if you are in the middle of Manhattan, this may not be the best use of your space.

There are two models that you can follow with RV and Boat Storage. You can simply provide a place for people to park their vehicles, or you can offer additional services. Those additional services will provide you with additional streams of income, but they do come with more responsibilities for you.

For example, you can offer to pull out peoples’ RVs or Boats for them so that they are ready to go when the renter arrives. This is a convenient option for them, and it prevents inexperienced drivers from being in your lot.

There is always the option of providing maintenance on their vehicles. The question is how much maintenance are you going to offer? Are you going to offer winterization services? Are you going to have a mechanic on call? How in depth do you want to get into this area? Can you make it profitable?

You can provide cleaning services. There are areas where boats have to be completely cleaned before they can be used again. This can be a big draw for boaters. You can offer a dumping station for RV’s when they are done with their excursion. This is another convenience for them.

Another potential stream of income, if the city will allow it, is to rent out the RV park to short term tenants. You will need access to water and dumping facilities if you are going to offer this feature.

If you are going to offer services, you are no longer in a business where you rent a unit and collect rent. You are now in a business where you must provide services at your renter’s beck and call. This means that you have to have people on staff to be available to do that for you. Is the potential profit enough to outweigh the additional expense? If you don’t want to be in the service industry, then stick to the first model.

RV and Boat storage can be a great use of unused land. Your job is to determine if it is realistic in your area and how many services you want to provide. Don’t let vacant land go to waste. As always, happy investing.