Dave...You are a lucky dog!!! LOL...I am happy for you!! See..we said that you would be filling that wagon!! LOL... Can't wait to see pics...your are driving right? Did you rent a mini van? LOL..only kidding!!! My mom and I did rent a van when we fly down a few years ago...I had to rent a van to bring back all of the palms..."Thelma and Louise" all over again!!! LOL...I loved it!! Have geart trip and I can't wait to see the "loot" that you bring back!!! Be safe.. Lauura in VB

No bank will give you a loan to invest in a property that you do not own. You would have no collateral in the building to offer them. You could use an existing property that you own outright as collateral, they might accept that, maybe, but why would you invest your money into something that you could lose? If you were renovating to start a business, that would be different. Retail leases are written differently and a bank may lend you money as a business loan, to rehab a place if you have a good track record of starting and maintaining a profitable business. I've seen a lot of restaurants open this way. Even if you had a signed 99 year lease @ $1/year you still could possibley lose your lease, and hence all the time and money you put into it. I've seen it happen. You also have to consider liability and insurance if you are renovating a place you do not own. What if one of your rehab projects causes structural damage to the building? Or there is a burst water pipe? Or if there is a fire because you left hot wires exposed during demo. Old building often have had many, many alterations to them and there are no blueprints indicating where things are behind the walls. Are you going to be doing all the work yourself or is some of it going to be contracted? What if a worker should get injured on the job? Who would be responsible, you who contracted for the work, or the owner of the building? What if you hurt yourself by falling through a floor or something? Are you going to hold the owners responsible for a rotted wood floor or are you covered for any mishaps that happen? There is a LOT to consider before jumping into this.

Funny, Debbie. You reminded me of something I've totally forgot about. We used to have a local place called the Ice Palace that was literally built to look like a small castle with turrets and fake ramparts. When I was a kid I thought it was so cool. I see photos now and it was actually a bit tacky. Oh, well, lol. It started as an ice delivery service in the days of the old ice-boxes and rented out space, like you say, for people to store items long-term. People who lived too far from such a service or who couldn't afford the rent typically canned their meats and fish. It's hey-day was prior to electric fridges and affordable home freezers. I don't think it had anything to do with it being considered cooler to rent a space like this but there was a time when people didn't have the ability to freeze long-term at home. In the days of ice box refrigerators, people didn't have freezers. Later, as electric refrigerators became common, home freezers were still a more expensive purchase and not as easily affordable as they are today. Interesting links: Cost of appliances in the 1950's and Average incomes in the 1950's. Average monthly income was about $520/month and a typical freezer was $409.50. About $100 more than a fridge. I think it's easy to see why most people wouldn't have had a home freezer back then. If freezers were still almost a full month's wages today, I'm sure few of us would have them now. And there would probably still be an Ice Palace in my town. :)

We have always owned, managed and leased ourselves - both residential and commercial properties (shopping centers, office buildings, land lease). All but one center we built from the ground up. Currently working towards full-time retirement (2019), but will keep the land lease. We had the rental houses about 10 years. I would not say "a lot of money." Sold most of them to one person, and the others to several others. We've been in commercial RE over 30 years (some lapping over), so really over 40 years. Time flies.... My advice: A good lease. Credit checks. Never did background checks, but the world is different now. References, and call them. Not just personal (friends, no relatives) but professional (employers, boss). Trust your gut, if you have a good one. The only tenants we regretted were the ones DH had second thoughts on, but rented anyway. We'd rather sit empty than rent to a bad tenant. Do anything and everything you can yourselves. Shop around for insurance coverage. Have an good Umbrella policy (too many in this world are sue happy). Don't become friends with tenants. They'll expect too much/favors. Be consistent. If late, charge late fee. Once you forgive, they'll want forgiveness the next time... and the next time. We've always told tenants if they were having trouble paying the rent on time or at all to call us. Better to be upfront than hear nothing. I'm sure there is more, but too many distractions at the moment. First months, last months and deposit seems to be the norm for higher income residential properties. If someone can come up with that much for lease signing, they shouldn't have immediate money problems. When DD1 rented houses in San Francisco/North Bay, landscape maintenance was included in the monthly rent. At least you know the yard will be maintained.