We live in a world that’s always changing. There are new things invented and put on the market every single day. That’s a lot to keep up with, especially when you’re trying to get the most out of any properties you might have. Today, we’re looking to discover what exactly parking space storage is.
This kind of storage is one of the biggest things in the investment property market right now. If you own an investment property, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard your colleagues speaking about this product at some point or another.
There are a lot of things to keep in mind when you’re deciding if an investment like this is worth it, for example:
- Start-up costs.
- Return on investment.
- Upkeep costs.
- Use of space.
- Utilization rate.
- Enhancement of existing property.
These are a lot of things to have on your mind when deciding if this is something that would work well for your property, which means that research is essential if you want to move forward with your potential plans for this specific project.
That’s why today we’re going to cover not only an explanation of parking lot storage but also a few explanations of how this kind of storage can help your property. If you’re a landlord, property owner, or property manager, you’re gonna wanna stick around for the rest of this article.
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A Brief Explanation of Parking Lot Storage
Learning about things before you sink your money into them is very important. If you don’t do this, you could end up wasting a bunch of money on something that your property doesn’t actually need. That can end up costing you a lot of money that won’t be made back.
So, parking lot storage. What is it? It’s actually a pretty simple answer, parking lot storage is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Storage that can be put in your parking lot wherever there’s space. There are a lot of different options for this kind of thing, meaning that you can find something that will fit your property’s needs perfectly.
The most common types of parking lot storage are the following:
- Mesh cages.
- Small lockers.
- Large lockers.
- Garage-sized lockers.
Different options offer different benefits for your property, and some are definitely a lot more secure than other ones are. Different options also come with different prices. You should be able to find something that’s secure enough to inspire faith in your tenants as well as fit into your budget.
In fact, the abundance of options in this field of one of the things that makes it such a solid direction to head into. Parking lot storage is incredibly budget and space friendly. The vast majority of properties would be able to fit this kind of storage into both the space that they already have and their budget.
The fact that if you do this correctly it can add to your property’s income just makes things that much better. Parking lot storage can make a huge difference on your property in a lot of ways, but you probably still have a few questions. We’re going to do our best to continue to answer these for you.
How Can Parking Lot Storage Help Increase Your Property’s Income?
Here’s the question that matters the most to the majority of people. How will this affect your bottom line? You might have to spend money to make money, but that doesn’t always mean that the money spent is well spent. If you want a return on investment this point is very important to you.
Well, there are a lot of ways that you can monetize your parking lot storage once you have it installed. Some ways require a bit of creativity on your part. We won’t be covering those because we already know the easiest and most efficient way to do this. It’s actually quite easy.
All you need to do is rent out the units to your tenants for a nominal fee every month. By doing this, you can offset the cost of installation. Once you’ve paid that off or broken even, every penny that you get from this is pure profit.
You do have to think about your pricing. You might feel like you could ask pretty much anything because the convenience factor for this is incredible, but you have to think about who your competition is. Who is your competition for this? You probably already know the answer, but if you don’t, let us explain.
When you install this kind of storage, your competition is off-site storage providers. If you price your storage units too high, you’ll have to worry about your tenants deciding that the on-site storage providers are providing better deals than you do, even with the convenience in mind.
Let’s say, for example, that the closest off-site storage provider is a 15-minute drive. That’s half an hour if they drive, and they have to spend money on gas to get to and from. The convenience isn’t worth so much to people that they’d simply forget that they can get a better deal if they just drive for half an hour every time they want to go get their stuff.
You could get away with charging a bit more for your storage than the off-site storage providers and still be profitable, but just remember that if you set your prices too high your tenants will go for the cheaper option that likely comes with a whole lot more security than you’d be able to provide.
Knowing how to pick the right storage units can be just as important as getting the pricing right. But how does one go about picking the right storage unit for their property? There are a few ways to go about this without having to stress too much about it.
Picking the Right Storage Lockers
There are a lot of options when it comes to your on-site storage project. Knowing how to choose the one that’s going to work best for your property is going to make this project a lot easier for you, and could even help with your return on investment.
The first thing that you should do is avoid the wire mesh lockers. These lockers can be pretty cheap but they don’t really provide a whole lot of security or privacy for the people that are using them. Both of those things are less than ideal.
People that are storing their things want two major things out of their storage unit:
- To be able to keep the contents of their locker to themself, unless they want to share that information.
- For their things to be safe and secure in their spot.
The wire mesh lockers are easy to break into. Most of them just take a bolt cutter and presto, you’re in. That means that they’re easy targets for thieves. The most common form of theft is called a “smash and grab” and these wire mesh lockers are perfect for this.
A smash and grab is a theft where the thief forces their way into something, usually with brute force, then they take whatever they want and run away. This is popular because it doesn’t require too much time.
The shorter amount of time a theft takes, the more likely someone will commit said theft. You’re probably even aware of the thought process that makes this type of theft so common. It’s just another classic example of a risk vs reward analysis.
Because they’re only committing the crime for just a moment, they have a lower risk of being caught for it. The easiest way to get caught doing a crime is lingering on the crime scene. Smash and grabs usually have very low risk with moderate rewards, which is appealing to people.
The way that you can avoid this is to get the locker kind of storage unit. Then you can be sure that it won’t be so easy for people to break into them, and that will make your tenants more likely to want to rent them. On top of the security, there’s also privacy.
That being said, nothing is perfectly secure. If you were omnipotent you could easily break into Fort Knox and walk out with everything, and your storage units aren’t as secure as Fort Knox. If someone really wants to break into your storage units, odds are that they will.
You just need to get something secure enough to keep the common thief out. If someone plans out an Ocean’s Eleven style heist you won’t be able to do much to stop them, and you probably also have much bigger problems on your hands.
Getting What’s Best for Your Property
Your property is probably one of the biggest investments in your life. With that in mind, knowing how to improve the cash flow from your properties can make your life that much better. One of the best ways to do this is with parking lot storage units.
