how much is a garage bay worth?

[andy sheridan]

i was wondering how much a guy could ask for renting out garage bays hourly.
the general idea would be to try to find a place in the city and build or buy a shop with multiple bays, then rent them out to people who want a warm dry well lit pace to work on their vehicle instead of paying a mechanic shop. how much more would it be worth with a lift? how much would specialty tools such as a tire machine be worth to rent hourly?

thanks in advance

im from Alberta where it can get quite miserable to work outside in the winter and the sun is already set by 4:30 in the winters. i know for myself i would love to have the option to rent a shop bay for a few hours here and there

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Call your insurance co first. Gonna be a lot more then you think.

 

[ssdave]

There was a business in north Idaho where I lived that tried to do that. In the 90's, they tried for $20 per hour. They went out of business within a year, and rented the spaces out by the month to mechanics instead. Costs were high, and people wanted to rent it for 3 hours a night for a couple of weeks at a time, so they could do their stuff after work, and leave the vehicle there in the vacant (non-paying) bay through the day. If you charged them a full day rate, they wouldn't do it.

I think this has merit if you can manage it well, and get people to commit to blocks of time.

I'd think $20 to $30 per hour with a lift would be a good rate for those guys that work professionally but just need the space. Most shade tree types would think that was too much, is my guess. I very well may be wrong.

 

[NJHandyGuy]

The Insurance is astronomical there was a car club by my that looked into it it was like 56000 a month over 600k a year then there's the matter of tooling how do you reserve each block.what.happens when some guy screws his car up and it sits there

 

[NJHandyGuy]

Then therrs the parts equation

 

[JettaGetUpandGo]

A few different groups of Volkwswagen friends in the Milwaukee area did something like this. They rented spaces to work on their project cars year round and split it between a number of people. There was no lift and they used their own tools. Occasionally people would back out and they would find another friend to fill the spot.

The going rate 5 or so years ago when I was looking for a place to store my car for the winter was $75-100/month for just enough space to park my car or $200-250/month for enough space to work on the car and some space for tools. I'm not sure what they were paying monthly, but the various groups split the rent between 4-8 people depending on the size of the place.

 

[kbs2244]

I have seen it tried.
Only one lasted over a year.
Besides the insurance there is the problem of getting the car out once it is in.
In one case the owner need to go to court and get an eviction notice.
That was a 3 month process and no rent collected during the process.
That was in Lake County IL.
I don't have any idea what the law would be in Alberta, but I would check it out.
This is all too bad, it is a good idea.

 

[brewchief]

http://mymechanicsplace.com/ This is one that I have heard radio ads for.

 

[Boomer343]

Been tried many times. Sounds like such a great idea. Better idea if you want to throw money away would be to buy lottery tickets.... at least you have a chance at some payback.

 

[pmiranda]

I think the only way to do this where you won't get burned is to form an LLC or something like that to buy/build a commercial building zoned for automotive work and insure it. Then divvy up the cost among partners that buy into it. So basically only like-minded people with money to burn.
I've also seen people with alot of working cash that build "garage condos" that were sold by the unit for >$100k plus common maintenance fees.

 

[disston]

There was one in Washington, DC in the late 70's and early 80's. Seemed to be pretty busy sometimes. Forget now how much it cost but I liked it instead of working on the street for somethings. Cut into my profit a bunch maybe because I'm slow. Then there's the deal about getting parts. If you take something apart and need another part the repair will be sitting there while you run to the parts store.

They didn't have a compressor which would have been nice. I would have provided my own impact tools. They did lend regular hand tools which I didn't need but came in handy a few times when I was missing a wrench or a socket.

Better scaled to the do-it-yourselfer. Pros usually have a place to work. But kids today aren't learning this stuff and so I think the ship has left port.

 

[langss]

That has been tried here in Los Angeles many times. The longest lasted about two years. People tear the car up, run out of money, lack the ability, find out its not as easy as it was supposed to be, the list is endless. I saw a perfectly good car hauled out on the Wrecker because the owner tore the transmission out and lost interest at one that was near the high school I went to, and that was 1966. The idea has been around for a very long time..... DOH

 

[Freakish Mind]

Have a few of them here in Colorado.

http://diyautorepairshops.com/index.php

It looks like the going rate is $30 per hour

 

[67CarGuy]

I know of at least one on a military base near me... only open to active duty, though, as I recall. But the prices were reasonable ($20/hr, $100/day I think?) plus they have multiple lifts, specialty tools, etc. I stopped looking at the details once I realized it was for military only, though.

Glad it's available to them - they deserve it!

 

[dave*99]

I used one here in NJ around 1980. It had a tool crib. You could rent an Oxy-Acetylene torch too. Wow think about a novice let loose with one of those.....
Hey the filler neck on the gas tank was stuck so I.....boom!

The facility lasted a few years and died. I never saw another one pop up again. As others have said, there are car clubs here that combine storage space and work space on a shared basis.

 

[Corndoggeh]

The problem I see with these kind of shops is that the target audience would be a group of people that have most/large chunk of tools but no place to work on the vehicle at home whether its a town home or apartments. But the problem is that not many of those kinds of people exist.

 

[Lemans1]

Several of these in MD. I have used some in the past. Rent the bay hourly, like $25. They had house air, lifts, and tools you could borrow/rent if you didn't have the specialty tools. They also had a mechanic there for advice or paid help if you needed it.

 

[GTO]

I used one here in NJ around 1980. It had a tool crib. You could rent an Oxy-Acetylene torch too. Wow think about a novice let loose with one of those.....
Hey the filler neck on the gas tank was stuck so I.....boom!

The facility lasted a few years and died. I never saw another one pop up again. As others have said, there are car clubs here that combine storage space and work space on a shared basis.

Like NJHandy said,the ******* insurance here in NJ will kill you.You won't ever see any place like that in NJ again.
Sad

 

[mudhog]

I always thought it would be a great ideal. To make it successful I think a parts store with garages in the back is the way to go. How many times do you see somebody working on a vehicle in the parking lot of a parts store. My ideal would be a parts store with rentable shop space and a mechanic for advice or help if needed. Shop will have free air and specialty tools and a lift bay for extra$$. I would have a storage bay too for a cheaper rate for those projects that never end. They stop making payments drag it out. Set your rates like a RV camp. Rent it by the day for one amount or by the week or month at a reduced rate.

 

[Outlander]

I think the best & only way is to do it amongst an organised group, like a car club. Then everyone has some skin in the game.

 

[hh76]

By the hour would be tough, but a monthly rental would be nice.

A couple times in my life I was without a garage, and would have loved to have a place to work on things. Not sure what I'd be willing to pay, but probably not much more than 100, or $200/ month for a single bay, no lift or tools included.

I've read about garage co ops, where a group of like minded friends go in on a big garage, then split bills and share bigger tooling.

 

[TX63CONV]

The DIY shop in Colorado is similar to a place here in Dallas Ive looked at.
http://www.jackjunkies.com/index.html Not sure if this is still open
http://www.mybayauto.com/

If you are looking to make a business out of it then obviously insurance would be big cost. Factor in what all your costs are for equipment, rent, insurance, etc. Then try to estimate what your revenues would be and figure out what your return would be on your capital investment. Visiting with some of the owners of these local shops like the ones in Dallas and Colorado may give you insight into what you can expect your revenues would be. Obviously an attorney to set up your LLC and draw up a rental agreement--this is no different than renting anything else.

If it is just you and some buddies, then the unit next to mine at my storage place has a lift and the guy parts out vehicles. That may be a better solution. Finding somewhere that has 6 bays and getting 5 guys together with cars to split the 6th bay and costs on the lift.

 

[blacksporty]

Simple answer, PRICELESS!

 

[sberry]

Had friends tried it 30 yrs ago, was a slow loser.

 

[K13]

There has been one open in Edmonton for as long as I can remember has to be at least 20-30 years. They have a hoist, paint booth, tool rentals etc. I have no idea what they charge but they are called Desro Automotive. You might give then a call and see what their rates are would give you a rough idea on what is feasible.

My guess is the insurance isn't going to be near as bad as everyone is making it out to be. I won't be cheap but this isn't the U.S. where you sue someone over anything you can imagine.

Your problem may be more with clientele. How may people do you think you can draw in to Dapp to use a facility like this? Assuming that is where you want to do it.

 

[sberry]

My friends had the money to lose.