All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Have been plowing snow for the last 2 1/2 days. Was at one of the locations and I cut to deep and got into the driveway base. It was Pea Gravel. This doesn't happen at our other locations where it is either Concrete or crushed rock. So I got to thinking about driveways. It's pretty boring pushing snow for 2 1/2 days, near record 2 day totals.

Drive ways-

Dimensions:

a. Widths-
- We use 25 foot widths. Most vehicles and trailers are built to be no more than 6-8 feet wide. Two vehicles passing is 16 feet using the 8 foot width. If you consider the two sides next to each vehicle and the space between the vehicles, or three spaces then there is about 3 foot for each space (25 width less 16 foot width of two vehicles= 9 feet/3 spaces). This is fairly comfortable for all of our tenants. Our speed limit is 5 MPH, and they can comfortably pass each other.

- 20 foot widths. Same math, except now there is 1.3 feet for each space (20 width less 16 foot width of two vehicles- 4 feet/3 spaces). Most vehicles would still be comfortable passing, since your smaller vehicles are more towards the narrow width of 6-8 feet wide. I might actually prefer this width, since on our 25 foot width, some people try to back up and turn around in the middle of the driveway; or try to back a U-Haul or trailer into the unit with the wider driveway.

b. Turn arounds- We use 50 feet. This is mainly due to ease of access for our customers. This is a little excessive and could be narrowed down to 35 feet, they just have to come around the corner a little slower and you need heavier Bollards on the building corners. Zoning set backs may come into play. We have one area that requires a 50 foot setback at the entrance, so we are not giving up anything using 50 foot turn arounds there.

c. Depth or thickness-
- In the country side, there is no set depth for our drive ways. If we are using just Rock, we would use 3 inches of 3 inch rock or Crushed concrete "Clean" with no filler for the BASE. Either drive something heavy over it to push it into the ground or wait for a good rain and drive a vehicle over it. You want it to sink into the ground and form the BASE. Otherwise if you put your smaller 1 inch to 1.5 inch and filler (dust and smaller parts), directly on top o the 3 inch rock without compacting the 3 inch first, it will mix together. You want a smooth road surface, so you don't want the 3 inch rock on top. Then put about 3 inches of the 1 or 1.5 inch with the fines on top. Never use just "Clean" rock for your surface. It's like driving on marbles, they just move around and are loose under your tires.

- If you use "Engineering Fabric" on the dirt, then you don't need to put BASE rock down. Just put your 1/1.5 with fines. This material comes in rolls, with widths of 12 or 15 foot wide. It is a solid black mesh with no holes, although it will let water seep through slowly. We have started using this on all our rock roads. Takes less rock and you never have a pothole. This material is super strong and by putting the rock on top, you stretch the material. The impact of a dump trucks wheel pressing down, is distributed in a circle by the fabric, versus just below it. Also the water not soaking quickly into the ground prevents puddle forming and making a pothole. You just lay out and put a few pins in it. Then have the dump truck drive over and spread the rock.

- In the City where we are building, they give an option of 7 inches of Asphalt or Concrete; or 4 inches of Asphalt or Concrete over 6 inches of rock base. We chose to go with the 7 inches, since it is hard to get a consistent height and compaction on the 6 inches of rock base. Plus it takes more steps.

Drive way Material:

Your common drive way materials are Concrete, Concrete with Rebar, Asphalt, Reclaimed Asphalt (with tar and oil still, not extracted), Rock, Recycled Crushed Concrete, Pea Gravel, River Rock, Water Absorbing Concrete ( Did I say Water Absorbing Concrete?; not good for Freezing areas), Road Mats.

d. Zoning- always check first.

e. Cost- Generally from high to low in this order; Concrete with rebar, Concrete, Asphalt, Reclaimed Asphalt, Rock, River Rock, Pea Gravel, Recycled Crushed Concrete. The new technologies, I haven't seen prices. Part of the cost on concrete is the forming, laying rebar, pouring, levelling, wait time to "set", wait time before driving on (7 days and up). Won't get specific prices, since some of these depend on availability, distance and delivery cost. Example: If your near a river system, River Rock may be super cheap. If your in the middle of a mountain range or farm ground areas, there may be little River Rock and it might only be used for landscaping at a high price.

f. Pro's/Con's-
- Concrete, expensive and time consuming. Repairs are expensive, hard to do just a patch. Low maintenance.
- Asphalt, quick to lay down. High maintenance cost. Easy to do patch jobs.
- Rock- the saying here is the "Ground" ate it. Have to replace it, every few years. When you drive down a rock road and see the dust flying, that's the rock slowly being crushed into dust. Easy to spread and compacts into a nice solid surface.
- Recycled crushed rock- cheap since it is not mined and is usually close to you. It breaks down a lot faster than mined rock.
- River Rock and Pea Gravel, try to stay away from it, unless its just cheap and you have a relatively flat drive way. But hey you have Self Storage, it better be fairly flat. The worst surface to Plow snow on, since it does not readily compact.
- Water Absorbing Concrete or pads- you might not need Storm drains and/or Storm retention ponds. Less Pond, more rentable ground.


Product Warning:
No material or technical input was received from MIT, GIT, CIT, or my guys LSU. Yep, just me riding a tractor or skid steer working with different material and paying the bills. If you have a different experience, thought or input, please add for our benefit. Thanks.

Help your Storage renters drive safely, provide them a good drive way system.

@Yonah Weiss

Please add comments in general or by asset type.  Issues or improvements you would recommend to people on record keeping or level of detail needed.  Wanted to bring a little more to the discussion on this topic.  Thanks.

Wrote this for a Single Family/Multi Family new investor, who was having trouble focusing after three weeks entering Real Estate investing. Adapt to fit Self Storage.

Lets see where your at:

Step 1: "Financial FOCUS"- What are you financing capabilities? Determine this so you can narrow your search field down. If you have $100,000 to invest and are working with a Banker offering you 40% LTV, then your max deal is $250,000. Use that to limit your search. No point wasting efforts on $400,000 flips, BRRR's, etc. Determine your LTV 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 40%. Changes the numbers as you see fit. Have you met your banker? Go say hello. Let them get to know you in their way: Supply last three tax returns. Fill out their Personal financial statement. Credit scores. Investment background, Open up an account with them. Might be the difference between 40% and 35% LTV. Pick a banker who knows your business. Show them your business model and numbers. Etc. If your Financial number is not enough for SFH/MFH, re-focus to mobile homes or RV's. Build your capital.

Step 2: "Build your team". Make a list of all of the functions you will need. Surveyor, landscaping, financing, legal, plumbing, electrician, drywall, insurance, city/county zoning, inspectors, title search or insurance, etc. As you are researching/talking/meeting/etc. Start to develop a "list" by category. Start finding out who you want to work with. Don't go looking for them. Find them along the way. Even if you had a great property right now, you probably couldn't act on it. Build your team.

Step 3: "Focus your time"- Start reducing what your reading, who you are listening to, etc. I love a good "NO". You need to go back and thank those initial investors who told you now is not a good time to invest. They gave you a good solid "NO". Stop talking with them, don't add them to your team. Why do I like a good "NO". I did door to door sales for three weeks when I was 17 years old, right out of high school. First week I made $25, carrying a 25 pound case door to door in 95 degrees and 80% humidity in Louisiana. This was going to be my money to go to college in 3 months. Second Week, made $300. Third week, made $700. Went back to construction week 4.

Lessons I Learned:

Week 1- they don't like/love me.

Week 2- they don't care about me either way, I just don't know how to sell or know my product.

Week 3- I learned how to sell my product and more importantly I knew it was a numbers game. 1 out of 10 doors was now going to buy from me. At that point, "no" meant nothing to me. I actually grew to dislike people who were nice or polite to me. I wanted a solid "NO". Not, till my spouse comes home. Not, come back later. Not, can I afford it? Not, I was just leaving. etc, etc. Unless I got a solid "NO" I kept on selling to them.

Step 4: "Stay in your Lane": Pick a business model and stay in that lane. All the things above that you know to ask; and then all the things that you don't know, until you do some deals. Its a huge learning experience. Don't learn two business models at once.

Step 5: "Get out of your Lane": Find other people that are in your lane, but also out of your Lane. Talk deals with them. There is a lot of cross learning that can occur, that you can take and apply to your model. Might not even be in REI.

Step 6: Zoning: For your business model get to know the details of your particular type of business. Setbacks, drainage, add ons, Minimum square footage, etc.

Step 7: How Smart are you?: a. Dumb- keep making the same mistake over and over., b. Smart- learn from your own mistakes., c. Brilliant- learn from other peoples mistakes. Yes, you want to find a way to learn from other peoples mistakes. Most of this, you can bypass by picking good team members and sticking with them. Don't keep switching each time a new contractor says they can save you 5%. I love my contractors. Can turn my back on them and know when something is up, they will catch it for me, while a decision can still be made. There are cheaper contractors. My contractors I can call them on a Sunday or 8 at night for some input and they are happy to talk with me.

Step 8: Lets make a Deal: First of all the above steps are in no order. Let me go with your a SFH or MFH model person. 1. You want "that Deal". The one where you can tell everyone you put $20,000 down on a $400,000 house. Re-did the carpet and netted $50,000; 2 weeks later. Don't look for that deal. You want to minimize your risk. Know your exit strategy is realistic. Learn a little bit, not everything at once. Pick something that is easy, one or two of the following: Landscaping. New Roof. Pet stained carpets, New kitchen, Outside face lift, etc. So you make only $5,000. You learn $20,000 of lessons and you finally jumped off the "Cliff". Making the deal- earnest money, due diligence period, inspections, etc. Make a closing list. A 35 unit Self Storage location or cargo containers is a great place to start.

Determine your financial and personal objectives ahead of time. COC, NOI, Payback, sweat equity, etc.

Step 9: Lets find a Deal: Build your network, but for now lets look at properties that are actually for sale. Look at the following two properties. Forget whether they are out of your price range or not in the correct location. Start doing deal analysis, to the nth degree. Self Storage, go out on Loopnet and pick some Self Storage in your area or near you. Analyze them, run the numbers.


Get signed up with the national Self Storage Brokers, talk with your local Commercial brokers, look on loopnet, get to know and keep in contact with all Mom/Pop storage locations within 40 minutes of you. The Baby Boomer is aging and their kids moved away. Give them an exit strategy.

Do two thorough Deal analysis in the next 4 weeks. You want to get so good at Deal analysis, without having bought one, that when the right deal comes along and you have only 1 week to analyze, your not mired down in information collection. I'll put a separate post out on Deal analysis. Keep analyzing deals.

Step 10: Join a group: If you go down this path, you will find no one wants to discuss with you or can relate to you. Find a Real Estate group to have these conversations with. My buddy has a Laundry Mat and a car wash. Totally different businesses, but we can relate.

As always Zoning/Zoning first.


"Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early"

Lets see where your at:

Step 1:   "Financial FOCUS"- What are you financing capabilities? Determine this so you can narrow your search field down. If you have $100,000 to invest and are working with a Banker offering you 40% LTV, then your max deal is $250,000. Use that to limit your search. No point wasting efforts on $400,000 flips, BRRR's, etc. Determine your LTV 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 40%. Changes the numbers as you see fit. Have you met your banker? Go say hello. Let them get to know you in their way: Supply last three tax returns. Fill out their Personal financial statement. Credit scores. Investment background, Open up an account with them. Might be the difference between 40% and 35% LTV. Pick a banker who knows your business. Show them your business model and numbers. Etc. If your Financial number is not enough for SFH/MFH, re-focus to mobile homes or RV's. Build your capital.

Step 2:  "Build your team".  Make a list of all of the functions you will need.  Surveyor, landscaping, financing, legal, plumbing, electrician, drywall, insurance, city/county zoning, inspectors, title search or insurance, etc.  As you are researching/talking/meeting/etc.  Start to develop a "list" by category.  Start finding out who you want to work with.  Don't go looking for them.  Find them along the way.  Even if you had a great property right now, you probably couldn't act on it.  Build your team.

Step 3:  "Focus your time"- Start reducing what your reading, who you are listening to, etc.  I love a good "NO".  You need to go back and thank those initial investors who told you now is not a good time to invest.  They gave you a good solid "NO".  Stop talking with them, don't add them to your team.  Why do I like a good "NO".  I did door to door sales for three weeks when I was 17 years old, right out of high school.  First week I made $25, carrying a 25 pound case door to door in 95 degrees and 80% humidity in Louisiana.  This was going to be my money to go to college in 3 months.  Second Week, made $300.  Third week, made $700.  Went back to construction week 4. 

Lessons I Learned:

Week 1- they don't like/love me.

Week 2-  they don't care about me either way, I just don't know how to sell or know my product.

Week 3-  I learned how to sell my product and more importantly I knew it was a numbers game.  1 out of 10 doors was now going to buy from me.  At that point, "no" meant nothing to me.  I actually grew to dislike people who were nice or polite to me.  I wanted a solid "NO".  Not, till my spouse comes home. Not, come back later. Not, can I afford it? Not, I was just leaving.  etc, etc.  Unless I got a solid "NO" I kept on selling to them.

Step 4:  "Stay in your Lane":  Pick a business model and stay in that lane.  All the things above that you know to ask; and then all the things that you don't know, until you do some deals.  Its a huge learning experience.  Don't learn two business models at once.

Step 5:  "Get out of your Lane": Find other people that are in your lane, but also out of your Lane. Talk deals with them. There is a lot of cross learning that can occur, that you can take and apply to your model. Might not even be in REI.

Step 6:  Zoning:  For your business model get to know the details of your particular type of business.  Setbacks, drainage, add ons, Minimum square footage, etc.

Step 7:  How Smart are you?:  a.  Dumb- keep making the same mistake over and over., b.  Smart- learn from your own mistakes., c.  Brilliant- learn from other peoples mistakes.  Yes, you want to find a way to learn from other peoples mistakes.  Most of this, you can bypass by picking good team members and sticking with them.  Don't keep switching each time a new contractor says they can save you 5%.  I love my contractors.  Can turn my back on them and know when something is up, they will catch it for me, while a decision can still be made.  There are cheaper contractors.  My contractors I can call them on a Sunday or 8 at night for some input and they are happy to talk with me.

Step 8:  Lets make a Deal: First of all the above steps are in no order. Let me go with your a SFH or MFH model person. 1. You want "that Deal". The one where you can tell everyone you put $20,000 down on a $400,000 house. Re-did the carpet and netted $50,000; 2 weeks later. Don't look for that deal. You want to minimize your risk. Know your exit strategy is realistic. Learn a little bit, not everything at once. Pick something that is easy, one or two of the following: Landscaping. New Roof. Pet stained carpets, New kitchen, Outside face lift, etc. So you make only $5,000. You learn $20,000 of lessons and you finally jumped off the "Cliff". Making the deal- earnest money, due diligence period, inspections, etc. Make a closing list.

Determine your financial and personal objectives ahead of time. COC, NOI, Payback, sweat equity, etc.

Step 9:  Lets find a Deal:  Build your network, but for now lets look at properties that are actually for sale.  Look at the following two properties.  Forget whether they are out of your price range or not in the correct location.  Start doing deal analysis, to the nth degree.

Loopnet Commercial 42 Manchester RD, Derry, NH-  I see this as a MFH- 2 1,800sqft rental units 3br, 2 bath each.

Daycare- Rockingham County, NH.  Can't see details, but I see MFH.

Do what everyone else is doing, Drive for dollars, Wholesalers, contacts, road signs, etc.  But also, if your market is that tough, look at some "Coal".  Look in the Commercial arena, above.  Look for depressed businesses- Daycares, restaurants, etc.  Realize the Covid shots are coming, but by now a lot of these types of businesses are on their last fumes.  "Help" them out, give them an alternative.

Do two thorough Deal analysis in the next 4 weeks.  You want to get so good at Deal analysis, without having bought one, that when the right deal comes along and you have only 1 week to analyze, your not mired down in information collection.

Step 10:  Join a group:  If you go down this path, you will find no one wants to discuss with you.  Find a RE group to have these conversations with. My buddy has a Laundry Mat and a car wash.  Totally different businesses, but we can relate.

As always Zoning/Zoning first.

If I'm ever in your area, you owe me and my family a lobster dinner.

"Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early"

Would prefer to write a post on how we cleared 8 to 12 inches of snow at 4 locations in 4 hours, but that's not going to happen. Have about 3 inches on the ground in the last 3 hours. The rest is supposed to fall through now, 12:30 pm to 6 am. All of the equipment is filled up. Skid steer engine heater is plugged in. Literally just waiting for snow to fall. So writing a post on Cost Segregation related to Self Storage. This is just the basics. Read a lot of other posts on Cost Segregation, but never saw any detail or summary statements/break downs.

Basics.- Anyone wanting to get real technical, please write a separate detailed post. KISS- Keep it simple.

Cost Segregation- Dissecting an asset into its different cost components as you will see below. (Fence, Storage buildings, electric/lights, roads, etc.)

Why?- This is to take advantage of IRS early depreciation tax write-offs. Example: If we had $15,000 of security equipment, versus depreciating it over x years, we write it off in year one.

Which Assets can we take Early depreciation?- Below are the IRS asset class life's. Any asset with a life of 15 years or less can take Early depreciation. We will be more descriptive in the Self Storage analysis below.

A. 3 year/5 year/7 year/10 year/15 year

B. 20 year/27½ year Residential rental property/ 39 year Nonresidential real property

Benefit?- Making the math easy, so disregard incongruities. Say the above $15,000 had a 10 year life (KISS). Then your depreciation would be $15,000 divided by 10 years (KISS- not bringing in accelerated tax methods of depreciation); then your first year depreciation expense would be $1,500. With early write off, it would be $15,000. In year 1 you get to take an additional $13,500 ($15,000 - $1,500) of excess depreciation. If your tax rate is 30% (KISS), then you saved $4,050 tax/cash ($13,500 x 30%).

Carryforward- If you don't have the applicable income to utilize all of the $13,500 excess expenses, you can carry forward the tax benefit into future years to use.

Recapture- If you sell this property early, then you may have to recapture some of the excess early depreciation taken in prior years.

Cash Flow- Self Storage is usually Cash poor in the first year or two, and then Cash rich in later years. By taking this early depreciation thru Cost Segregation, you are reducing your income tax payments (Cash) in the early years, and you are increasing your Taxable income in later years since you will have less depreciation expense then (when you have more cash to pay taxes).

Date Placed in Service- If your developing a project and want to do Cost Segregation for the Current year, have a discussion with your Tax Accountant as to the date your assets are "Placed in Service" and when you can do the early depreciation write off. Not all projects get completed based on 12/31 tax year.



We will use the following Budget numbers for a Self Storage Development.
We will come back to an existing Self Storage location's "Purchase":


Self Storage Development:

Key- have your vendor or vendors bill you separately by asset type.

Keep in mind, Cost segregation is already performed if you are building a new location and have the Vendor/Vendors bill you separately by asset type. It becomes a Tax accounting exercise after that.

A few discussion points:
a. Land- is not depreciable, thus not part of the discussion.
b. Magnitude of order- Landscaping below is $5,000; and the Concrete Roads are $676,000. Both can be written off with early depreciation. Keep the integrity and conciseness of your documentation at a higher level for your larger magnitude write offs.
c. Buildings- Material, foundation and Erection components cannot be separated and are all classified under the same asset and same life.
Use the below list and expand on it with your Tax accountant, to help with your segregating the costs.

Self Storage Purchase:

Same situation as above, but we are purchasing a pre-existing Storage location. All of the items below, you should discuss with your Tax advisor, there are more implications, than just the topic of Cost Segregation.

A. Try to purchase the "Assets" and not the Business. This gives you a chance to segregate the assets of the business and gives you a little more IRS credibility on Cost segregation.

B. Try to put in a Non-Compete agreement. This can be amortized/depreciated for tax purposes. Work to move less value out of "Land"- not depreciable or Buildings- Longer lives.

C. Create Assets from the Total purchase price. Example: Accounts Receivable is normally just part of the purchase price and not considered other than cutoff date. Same for existing Lawn mowers, furniture, etc. Create Assets to absorb more of the purchase price so that less of the value goes to the Long Life assets that can't have early depreciation write off. Forget the impact to the Seller, they need to catch that.

D. Whether you purchase the "Assets" or the "Business"; you might still decide to do a Cost Segregation Study. Look at the different line items above and consider their "Order of Magnitude ($)" and then think of the time/Cost it might take for a Cost Segregation study. For example: if you give the same amount of due diligence to establish a value for Concrete Roads ($676,000) versus Landscaping ($5,000); it would actually take more time to do the Landscaping. Make sure you specify the degree to which you do/don't want to capture these segregation items; and the degree to which you want support should you meet an IRS challenge with your Professional.

Well it's lunchtime and I'm going to plow some snow before it gets to deep.

@Alesandro Breguez

Without getting to much deeper into this post.

One of the reasons we picked Belize is because it is tied 2bzd/1usd to the US dollar, to your point on FX.  You can also see my comments on inflation above, which is also tied to FX/government.

Regulations is another reason, we picked Belize, its land laws were developed under the British Common law system, which is similar if not the same to the US's.  Due diligence and you own the property.

I believe @Mike Lambert and I are looking at the same thing and have two different views/approaches.  Because we are using two different sets of values.  We looked for a spot within easy flying (2 hours to Houston, versus 11 hours to Maui, relatives there).  Low cost of agriculture land, Teak plantation.  Easy access to both Ocean and inland.  And value add propositions.  @Mike mentioned Belize does not have a ready Real Estate market and I totally 100% agree with him.  For our approach this is good.  No where in the US can I buy a pristine piece of ground on a clear blue/green river for $4,000 per acre, yet be near the cities.  Was on the market for 15 years.  Or buy 5 miles away 100 acres of nice farm/timber ground for $35,000 per acre.  Local side deal.  Can't do that in Costa Rica/Panama near the towns or in the countryside.  We are not looking for Condos or Houses to flip or as investments or Air BNB's.  Our investment time Horizon is 25 to 35 years, three way proposition.  We are not looking to make money off the local citizens, because it isn't there.  Belize is "Rough" which is what I am looking for, from this investment.  For refined or city, Montreal is great, Seoul is wonderful, Nice-France is fun, Northern Italy relaxing, actually Uruguay per @Mike mention looks like a very interesting place.  These aren't my investment arenas.

Steel prices:

We do Self Storage and surface RV/Boat/Vehicle storage.  Steel prices have gone up.  This is a covid issue.  You could wait till trade fully resumes.  Luckily Steel is only a portion of your costs.  Concrete, land, Erection costs, fence, electric, security; keep your building steel cost down as a percentage of the total.  In other words your total project isn't going up 20%.  For us, the steel increase is not enough of a financial factor.

In your shoes: (don't know if this is a general question, or just in relation to the steel price), but I will answer generally:

There is always a market for RV/Boat storage, its just hard to make the numbers work.  Plus you have a location that is expensive/good location, even if you own it, it has a higher $ usage.  Surface parking is a good "Hold" strategy subject to finding a higher paying usage.

Break the RV market down between RV's around $30k to $50k; and then ones over $150k.

Your enclosed storage will take a rent of $250 to $350 per month to work.  Your lower end RV units won't pay that much.  Your higher end RV's will also be bigger, taking up more space and also more road.  Example a 50 foot enclosed bay for a Class A Mobile unit will require at least a 65 foot drive way, parking at a 90 degree.  Thus your actually giving up more ground for less "total" sq foot rent, with a higher investment up front. Also these folks will want a remote entry fob, which will require about a $3,500 panel door, versus a chain pull up Roll up door.

Surface parking do at 60 degree angles with driver left shoulder back up for all spots.

General comments:

Zoning obviously.

Can you do rock roads and are you required to put Footings on the enclosed.  If you have to do hard surface roads which would be concrete (asphalt won't work) and footings, the cost gets a lot higher.

Also check to see if you have to put in a Storm retention pond.  This will cut down on your 9 acres and the placement/drainage of the pond might impact where your buildings go.

Surface parking on Rock, is a low risk, add as you need, removable product.  Good "hold" strategy.  Takes a long time to break even or pay off (if you include your land cost and don't call it free).

Enclosed or canopy parking, takes up a lot more space because you are dealing with a larger size unit.  Have to commit a lot more investment up front and in larger and not incremental segments like surface parking.

I would look at doing Contractor bays for Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC up front.  Doing mechanics, landscapers, tow truck operators, welding in back.  Take advantage of your central location and easy highway on/off for them.  Along with Surface parking in back.  See if you can do Cargo Containers for storage.  No property taxes.  Add as you need.  Put some rock at the front and back to get them about 4 inches off the ground.  They are expensive now, due to less trade.  Used 20 footers.

You should be able to get $1 per square foot for Subcontractors and less driveway requirements than Enclosed RV.  RV at a small 12w x 50L with at least 14 ft height doors would be 600 sq feet at the top end $350 equals $.58/sq ft plus a large 65 foot driveway.  Subcontractors would be $1.00 per sqft with smaller drive way.  Building would be more expensive.

Below are some notes. Did not update for your situation.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR RV OR VEHICLE STORAGE

A. Pull through- The front, pull as far forward as possible, gives the person next to you an easier angle to turn into, from behind you. Align your front with the fronts of all other vehicles. Be courteous and leave enough room on the Driver side, so that RV can open their doors.

B. Back to back parking- our locations are set up at 60 degree parking. Also, they are setup for the driver to back in on their side, so they can use the lot next to them for alignment. This way you only have one blind side on the right side backing in. Otherwise you have two blind sides.

We have 20/30/40 foot parking at our location at 26763 Highway 34, Glenwood, IA. Each size has a different width due to how hard it is to park a longer unit at the very front angle of their turn in. 20’s- 10 wide; 30’s- 12 wide; 40’s- 15 wide. Although you could park an RV in any of these sizes, it is easier with a wider width to make the “front” turn. Or ask for an end parking spot, so you are doing a 90 degree parking, but have the whole drive way to back in with, without a turn.

C. Canopy- same issues as others, depending on if 60 degree or 90 degree parking.

D. Enclosed- Really a matter of width and depth. Keep in mind all measurements for storage are relative. For example: A 10 wide x 20 deep x 8 tall unit, with studs, roll up door and door jambs; is really 9 wide x 19 ft 6 inch deep x 7 ½ foot tall. Also if you have a 20 ft boat or Camper, its really 22/23/24 ft depending on Propeller, bumper or front hitch.

E. Surface- Rock or hard surface (concrete/asphalt); If on rock/asphalt put your tongue leg or stabilizer pads on wider pads to spread the weight out. These pads are needed on Asphalt since in hot weather they will sink into the asphalt.

F. Pest control- we put mouse bait out along the fence lines and under the units, mow excess weeds and grass. You should put both rodent and bug control in your unit. Dispose of all food sources, for long term storage. If you want to be really diligent with pest control, don’t park next to overhead lights. They attract bugs at night and then mice underneath. Put scented drier sheets in all compartments and rooms. Open all cabinets and doors.

G. Stabilizers- if doing long term storage put you stabilizers down. Most parking is in an open area and the units can rock and move with the wind. This will also help with taking pressure off your tires so they last longer.

H. Security- Put a lock on the hitch. Although you are in a secure location, RV’s and trailers are the easiest storage to break into or take without notice. Recommend you put in motion sensors or GPS tracking security. Check your vehicle at least twice a month. Most Security systems only maintain footage for 2 weeks due to camera memory capacity.

I. Propane Fuel Tanks- disconnect and store if leaving for long term storage.

J. Electronic Lifts- disconnect the battery if leaving for long term storage.

K. Insurance- most storage unit insurance policies do not cover vehicles. Keep your insurance, just have them adjust your automobile to fewer miles or just comprehensive coverage. Wind, Flood, tornado, Hail, or third party damage or theft can still occur. Traditional insurance coverage, RV’s normally stay a flat rate throughout the year, thus you will still need to maintain full coverage. Or, if you seek out a specific RV or rec vehicle insurance company, you can move in and out of winterization rates.

L. Pricing- use a 30 foot vehicle as an example:

-In the country about a $1 per foot on rock.

-With Paved access and parking spot, this might run $60 to $90

- Enclosed parking this will cost about $120 to $170 for a 30 foot.

- Enclosed parking for a 50 foot, might cost $225 to $350.

The price extremes are the cost of the concrete/asphalt road and the storage bay. Also the longer the unit the price goes up significantly because it takes more driveway width to park and the type of door changes in both size and type (remote operated). A 50 ft RV will require about a 70 foot wide driveway to back in.

We are only addressing the long term Parking portion of storage. Other items are specific to each vehicle such as water clean out, Tire/window shades, etc.

Quick non Parking list:

Wheel/tire covers; Vehicle cover.

Remove and store your tires.

Store with a full fuel tank to prevent condensation

Add fuel stabilizers

Place RV completely off the ground to prevent flat spots on your tires, if left for a long time.

Cover your HVAC, skylights, vents and windows to prevent exposure to sun and breakdown.

Boats leave your plug out, whether covered or not.

@Jason Turgeon

Forgot your $200k into it comment.  We footed the $200k in cash.  SBA 10% could have been $2mm loan.  But we only needed around $1.6mm.

Everyone has a great deal they did or that they passed on story.

This was a great deal story.  Was looking for land, had 3 spots I had identified with a realtor.  Came back to their office and I wasn't really excited by any of them.  The owner of the realty company sat down with me and the realtor as we went through the 3 properties.  He said, I have a property you need to see, its not even listed yet, just came in yesterday.  It was not in the location I wanted.  He told me the price, 8 acres for $200,000.  I said let me drive over right now.  Came back 30 minutes later and said we will take it.

3 siblings in their 80's decided to sell their old homesite.  No house on it, just 5 acres of soybeans and 3 acres of mid growth timber and brush.  Wanted to sell it quick.

Bought the land for $25,000 per acre.  See appraised notes above.  About 2 years later after we cleared land, put in 2 acres of Self Storage, and added all utilities, the same appraiser, appraised the land at $145,000 per acre.  So we end up with a lot of appraised collateral, which we can use on our next projects, with only having put the original $200k in to begin with.

Part of the big discrepancy, is when they originally appraised the land, he only appraised for about $28,000 per acre.  I argued it should be in the $100k comparable, but he said since I just bought it for $25k, no way could he go that high.  Maybe a year or two later.  Which he finally brought it up to comps.

Key is a lot of chainsaw and bulldozer work; bringing utilities up, really increased the value of an agricultural property.

Our land is bordered on one side by Iguana Creek, and the front is the Belize River. Actually have 5 to 7 foot big Iguanas.

Haven't seen them, but my contractor says we have 7 foot crocodiles.

@Jason Turgeon

Thanks for the detailed response.  Just because of that and you said you went near Philadelphia.

Please check out these three properties; researched that area for another post person, who never responded.

Loopnet:

240 Sickle Lane, Woodbury, NJ

105 Cedar Brook Rd, Sickerville, NJ

Bldg 801, 300 Thomas Ave, Williamstown, NJ

Not in my area and I am done opening new locations.  With the high storage rents in that area, and high population, I would be looking at these types of properties.  Realize you have to turn over 10 boulders to find gold, but I like the looks of these three, from several angles.

I see regular Self Storage, Large storage units, inside/outside vehicle storage, lay down yard, MFH, Wedding/Reception hall, subdivision lots, Contractor bays, etc.

$200,000 gets you into any of these with build out.  SBA 10% on a $2mm loan.  They won't do contractor bays.

Hey, I need a big Iguana art piece for our property down in Belize.  Is it cheaper to ship it from Maine, to ship you down there to build?  ha ha.

Again, thanks for input.