What's the best way to rent out my parking garage spot?

No responses?! Wow, I'm pretty surprised.

I'd stick up some flyers on poles in the vicinity of the garage.


I bet you'll have tons of people interested. All the garages with spots available to non-residents around here that I know of have waiting lists to get a spot.

dracomom wrote: Hi, the spot is in the Park Slope Garage Condominium, located on Union Street between 6th & 7th Ave (next to Tea Lounge). The garage has 24hr attendants, and I am renting it out for $350 per month. I only started to list out this week on craigslist, but will probably try to post flyers out if I still don't get any response. I tried the Parenting Board, but I am not a member and my membership request was rejected because I don't have any children...

$350? That's not a rip off, but it's also no great deal.

give it some time, nothing rents out that fast!! unless its a bit warmer out. during warmer months things tend to get rented out much faster.

In this thread, someone says "The going rate seems to be about $285/month" and another says their monthly costs are "$310 with taxes":

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3027&view=previous&sid=6b5e31dce6090f729ac5894138f2c331

Subject: I can post on Park Slope Parents for you

I'm on Park Slope Parents and would be glad to post an item for you. Just draft something directing people to your email address and send it to me privately.

That said, I agree your price is a bit high.

LongTimeSloper wrote: Just curious-how much did the spot cost when originally purchased?

I just accidentally dumped the link, but the NY Times shows the initial prices were between $27,500-$40,000 in the late eighties.

As far as not paying more for parking than your car lease, well, WTF? So if you save up your money and buy your car outright then you shouldn't pay for parking at all? That is like comparing apples and orangutans. You can't add six to blue. And all that.

It costs money to park in NYC. That seems like a pretty desirable and good spot, I'm guessing the $350 is reasonable. If someone wants to pay less, they can either wait and hope to happen upon a deal or park somewhere less desirable. It's the way of the jungle.

To the OP, good luck renting your spot. You ask a good question about where to advertise it. I wish I could help. I suspect that given time you will probably be able to rent it for that price. It is like any other rental property, if you don't want to wait, then drop the price and rent it now.

I think $350 is quite reasonable for indoor, secure parking in the neighborhood.

We used to park at the garage across the street from the Tea Lounge until they completely scratched up both sides of our car. They denied any wrong doing. They and their insurance company claimed, "That's how the car came into the garage." Since then we've heard several stories of similar incidents.

We now park up the street in the garage on Union between 8th Ave and the Park. The garage was $275/month when we started parking there several years ago and has slowly increased to the current cost of $400/month.

dracomom wrote: Thanks for those postings that support my price on the garage. Frankly I thought I am putting it up for rent for a pretty reasonable price, and find myself in an unexpected position when people seem to suggest I am jacking up the price. Yes, location will cost more, and yes, 24hr attendants will cost more. And those of you who don't believe me, walk down Union St and check out the published monthly rates for the garage, then you can see that for yourselves...

The problem is, you can't argue people into paying your price. Either they think it's worth their money or they don't. I think Armchair is right; your potential renters probably want a greater discount for leasing from you as opposed to renting directly from a garage.

They may be right or wrong; they may be victims of their dumb psychology; but it is what it is. If it's not an issue of exposure, then it's probably an issue of price, and I don't think exposure is your problem if you're posting on Craigslist.

People make the mistake of thinking pricing is a matter of ethics. You have a right to charge what you can get, regardless of the cost to you (there is no "jacking up"). Likewise, renters have a right to pay what they're willing to pay or to choose to do without (there is no price you "deserve").

Anyway, it seems your best strategies are either to try lowering the price or to wait and be patient. (If it's a competitive price, you'll get it eventually, you just will need to forego the potential rent until you do.) Good luck. [/i]

raw wrote: I'd rent directly from the garage unless the person who was renting the spot from the garage offered me a huge discount (i.e. garage charges $350 and person who is renting me their spot in the garage charges $200).

I would probably be looking for a discount or something in better terms than I would get from the garage to feel comfortable also, but a 40%+ discount is far in excess of what I would expect.

Better terms would probably fall into the categories of lease specifications, and of course what I feel is the biggie that you are offering, NO WAITING LIST, ready right now. 24hr access. Ya know. The salesmanship stuff.