All Forum Posts by: Lance Langenhoven

Hi Alex,

Another storage option you might want to look into is Boat & RV Storage. Especially in Florida. 

No.... we just built our own Wordpress website using someone from UpWork and we host it ourselves on SiteGround. That keeps hosting fees way down. Also, SiteLink manages the payments.... you don't need another service, it's built into their system if you choose to add that module. 

Hey Rafael,

We had that exact situation at the boat & rv storage facility I purchased back in 2016. 

We firstly changed to have a management system (SiteLink) and after a year of collecting checks & chasing people about late paying we switched to everybody having a credit card and we run that card on the 1st of every month. 

Result.... a TON fewer hassles and all payments are on time. Year one we ate the credit card fee just because it was quite a big change. Year 2 we switched the merchant fee to the tenants. 

Without knowing how much capital you have to invest it's tricky to answer. If it means you can only invest in one of those categories as a minority owner I'd try to get more capital together first unless you can find a small enough deal for you to do by yourself or where you're the majority owner. 

As to the three options you listed, I'd pick the self-storage option simply because you don't have people sleeping on the property. More people = more problems. 

I would add a fourth option that you might want to consider and that's boat & rv storage. It's cheaper to build than self-storage and a lot easier to manage. It doesn't have as high a rental income as self-storage but the consistency of the tenants and the lack of hassle makes it very attractive for many. 

@John Kim I had a similar situation at a boat & rv facility I purchased Jan. 2016. The rates were as far below market as you say yours are. Right off the bat we first fixed up a bunch of stuff.... added a gate with key-pad access control. Asphalted the entrance driveway, set up a proper management system, added cameras, etc. 

Six months after the purchase we raised all the rents about 50%. Nobody moved out as we were still the lowest priced in the area.... they couldn't go anywhere unless they wanted to pay even more!

Now, every year we review the rents and set new rates for all the spaces. The vacant spaces get upgraded to the new rates immediately but existing tenants stay at their existing rates. Every two or three years we catch everyone back up to the market rate so nobody gets to be too far behind. 

We always try to notify everybody about any big change coming well in advance of the change. We typically try to make changes 1st of every year so we'll start notifying them in October and remind them again in November & December. That way nobody can say we didn't tell them about the change. 

Hey Jason,

Sorry, I don't know how one does the little @ sign and then the person's name? 

My existing boat & rv storage facility was on 2.7 Acres when I bought it. I managed to take some land back from a house that was on the property by fencing the house in so that took it to 3.1 Acres. 

Anyway, I think one could start with 2 Acres and make it work if the shape is good. Here in Texas (near Houston) we have to provide really big detention ponds so that can affect how much you can put on the land. So, in the Houston area you might want to start with about 2.5 Acres. But, I've seen people do boat & rv storage on an acre!!! This particular site I'm thinking of has quite a narrow strip of land and they have just one covered / open building that can take maybe 10 RV's and then they have a few outdoor parking spaces as well. I've been driving past it since the guy bought the little tract and built it up and now he's filled up. So.... he's done well as I know he bought the tract for very little. 

I'm expanding my existing one into the additional 4.7 Acres I've got under contract and I have another +- 8 Acre project that I'm doing 50/50 with a friend and that will have boat & rv storage as well. We're currently working on obtaining building permits for that one. So... I think I'm going to end up doing parallel development on both projects within a few months!

I own Capitol Hill Storage in Conroe, TX. It's a boat & rv storage facility. In March (when covid lockdown started) we had a record month. In April, right in the middle of lockdown, we beat the March results. 

So, in our case it's like nothing was going to stop the train. 

In fact, we've just bought more land to quadruple the square footage that we currently have. 

@Matt Brown, @Jason Vo, @Marshall Montazeri, @Andrew Flanagan,

I just came across this post. I own a boat & rv storage (Capitol Hill Storage) in Conroe, TX. I bought it Jan 2016. I've learnt a lot about the business since then as we got it as a real Mom & Pop deal but have since turned it into a professionally run super-easy business. I've just managed to put two neighboring tracts under contract so now we're expanding into an additional 4.7 Acres which will add another 66,000 SF of boat & rv storage buildings. 

Andrew.... I also like buying commercial unrestricted land. I've made just over $1.8M USD in profits doing that in a 4.5 year period. So, agree with you on that strategy for sure. 

Nice one Bruce Runn! I'm kind of in the same boat.... started seriously buying commercial real estate about five years ago (when I turned 52) and I just love the deal making. It's also been incredibly profitable! I've made some good money turning some properties and put the profits back into a few that I'm keeping... mainly my boat & rv storage facility. That's my favorite property / business and luckily two owners next to me agreed to sell me their land so now we can expand into an additional 4.7 Acres.