The new form of commercial property has been fuelled by demographic changes, which have squeezed storage in some high-density areas, while ensuring space to spare in the growing number of single person households.

And it could become a bigger business if the State Government acts on a discussion paper by the Planning Department that calls for free parking at shopping centres to be phased out. The paper calls for a cap on parking at retail and business centres across metropolitan Perth to promote public transport.

The Department of Transport warned that it was already monitoring the fledgling trend to rent out parking spots to ensure it did not breach regulations.

It said the practice was illegal in the central city area unless the site’s planning approval allowed it, it had been specifically approved by the Transport Minister, or the building received planning approval before July 1999. Breaches attracted hefty penalties of $5000.

Legal rentals were typically in apartment complexes, usually on the outskirts of the city or in the suburbs.

Renting Out Parking Space

Filmmaker Alice Ross said she decided to rent out her undercover parking spot at her Northbridge investment unit when her tenants told her they would not need it.

Rather than waste the space, she is offering it for $50 a week through Gumtree, a free local advertising website.

“It’s so easy because you don’t have to do anything except give the new tenants the key,” Ms Ross said.

Renting Out Storage Space

Residents are also turning spare rooms, garages and sheds into commercial units by renting them out as storage space, usually for $200 a month.

Andy Henderson, technical director of the Space Out website, said increasing density had put a premium on space, turning it into a handy profit-earner.

He said empty-nesters were embracing the trend, clearing out spare rooms to rent for storage.

Websites that advertise storage space offered options, including sea containers, indoor rooms, or outdoor sheds.

There was a premium on indoor facilities and rooms that could be locked and rooms that the renter could get access to independently.

“It’s literally a way to make money out of thin air,” Mr Henderson said. “It’s money for nothing.” OUT OF THIN AIR $200 The amount (a week) some empty-nesters are said to be earning by renting out spare rooms for storage.

As featured on The West

• specific items (e.g. power drill, ladder or lawn mower)
• unused space (e.g. empty shed, garage or bedroom, that could be rented out for storage)
• a spare apartment or bedroom , which could be rented out for short term accommodation

Rent Out Spare Space

If you have spare, unused or wasted space in your home or business, you could turn it into cash, by renting it out for storage, parking or even business or commercial use – literally making money out of this Air.   SpaceOut allows people to advertise their spaces for rent  anywhere in Australia, and make it easy for people looking for space to find and contact you to arrange rental.   You can Create your Space for Rent Lisitng right now.

Rent Out Things

Services like Rentoid and OpenShed allow you to rent out specific items, such as mowers, ladders,surfboards – and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It’s a great way to make some money on things that you own but don’t use very much.  One thing to keep in mind though (as Karl said) what happens if they rent it and break it.  Make sure that you either take a deposit or have an agreement in place in case this happens.

Rent Out Accommodation

If you have a spare bedroom and don’t mind sharing your home with strangers (which could be interesting) you can use online services like AirBnB – a community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world

Photos

Over the last few months, one of the most common requests we have received from our members, is to provide a photo feature – to allow them to include photos of the spaces they are offering for rent.

From today, new (and existing) subscription based Space for Rent listings will have the capability to include up to three photos.  When you create a New Listing, you will will be prompted to add photos as a part of the setup process.   Members with existing subscription listings can add or edit photos via the (Edit Photos) icon on the members home page.

Members with expired Space for rent listings, can either renew them, or create a new one, and will be given an opportunity to subscribe and add photos to these listings as well

A Picture tells a thousand words

Photos offer a great way to promote your listing and highlight its features and benefits.  You could also (if you wish) personalise your listing by including a photo of yourself, for many potential renters, this provides credibility an adds another level of trust.  Commercial operators can also include theor logo or a photo of theor premises (although we do have some extra features planned for commercial operators).

Currently you can include up to three photos for each Space for rent Listing, but we will be keeping an eye on how photos are being used, and may provide other options in the future.  So if you’ve got an opinion on the use of photos on SpaceOut, or any suggestions on how it could be improved, please let us know, we would love to hear it.

Report This Listing

We have also provided another feature which allows anyone to Report inapropriate Ads.  This could be a listing that is a blatant advertisement for a third party product or service, some content that is misleading or irrelevant, or an image which is not apropriate.  To Report a Listing, simply click on the  button which can be found on the bottom right of all listing details.  You can provide a brief description of the problem and (if you like) include your contact details.  we will investigate, and take apropriat action, and if you’ve left your details we will let you know the outcome.

We have a heap of other features and functionality planned over the coming months, so keep am eye on SpaceOut, and please let us know of any other features you would like us to offer, or any problems that you may experience woith the new photo or Reporting functionality.

This Christmas, instead of traditional “Consumption”, why not have a think about sharing (and maybe even save money or make some extra cash in the process).

Australians, with their ingrained sense of mateship  have always been pretty good at sharing, but the internet is now making it much easier to share. Advances in technology mean trading, sharing, swapping and recycling is on the increase online and it is primarily the Gen Y’s and Millenniums driving this. Baby boomers are also increasingly seeing the environmental and financial benefits of sharing things as retirement looms.

It is estimated every year Aussies buy $10 billion worth or items they will never use. Those items waste money, take up space and destroy the environment.

‘Hyper-consumption’ is what has been driving world economies but the bubble is bursting. People are starting to review their values, and are ‘smarting up’ to the  unsustainable parts of modern life – enter ‘Collaborative Consumption’.

Collaborative Consumption is a term that we will be hearing a lot more about. There are a growing number of online services that allow Collaborative Consumption to thrive and for some amazing examples of how we can save money, space, the environment, and even make some cash on the side, take a look at :

• Freecycle – a worldwide  movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns.
• 99 Dressses – an infinite wardrobe of fashion
• Zopa – Where people meet to lend or borrow money
• Etsy – Buy and Sell handmade Products
• SpaceOut – Rent Out your Unused Space

A new book entitled “What is mine is yours” (Rachel Botsman – Author)  describes the rapid explosion in traditional sharing (see http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com). The book describes the  rapid explosion in swapping, sharing, bartering, trading and renting being reinvented through the latest technologies and peer-to-peer marketplaces in ways and on a scale never possible before.

But collaborative consumption is not limited to “stuff” there are plenty of other things that can be shared.

With  53,000 self storage units in the USA alone (more than McDonalds and Starbucks combined), and over 1,000 in Australia, the need  for storage space is an increasing. The concept of sharing space by renting out private spare or unused space is a relatively new concept.  Property owners are becoming aware that by renting out an unused garage or driveway for parking, or a spare garden shed or bedroom for storage, they can generate extra income.

Online services like SpaceOut (www.spaceout.com.au) (which caters for a variety of different types of space rentals, including parking, storage, office space and even rural spaces for rent,  make it easy for owners with spare or unused space, to advertise, and put them in touch with people in their own area wanting to rent a space.

Whilst modern societies attitude to “Consumerism” seems unlikely to change in a hurry, it is refreshing to see that alternatives such as Collaborative Consumption are increasingly being considered as serious options.

Qld Justice Department figures for August indicate that lenders lodged nearly 200 claims to repossess  homes & businesses as record numbers of owners default on mortgage payments.  The figure of 193 repossession claims, is the highest monthly total since the early 1990s when records began.

And this figure is considered to be just a portion of the repossessions actually taking place as many cases don’t appear before court, with many property owners negotiating with banks to put their property up for sale to repay the debt.

With the recent increase in the official cash rate (the RBA increased if from 4.5 to 4.75% on Tuesday), and banks jumping to increase their rates (CBA shocked mortgage holders by increasing their rate by 0.45%), and with rates expected to increase in the coming months, the repossession rate is likely to get a whole lot worse.

Mortgage Holders struggling to meet repayments should organise hardship arrangements with their lender and consider contacting a financial advisor or counsellor for help.

Another option to keep the banks at bay, supplement your income, and help you to meet your mortgage repayments might be to consider renting out spare or unused space in your home or business.  If you have a spare bedroom, garage or shed, you may be able to rent it out and earn a couple of hundred extra dollars a month.

However some of the most interesting changes over the 2008 report highlight the dramatic increase in opportunities for Self Storage Operators to use the web to market and promote their business online – to increase enquiries and actually make online sales.

What do your customers want Online?

The SSAA asked both Potential and Existing storers to indicate what features they would like to see on a self storage facility’s website. Some of the most requested functionality include…

• List of units available & prices (86% for potential customers vs. 75% for existing customers)
• Ability to pay their account online (64% for potential customers vs. 54% for existing customers)
• Ability to see their account status online (62% for potential customers vs. 53% for existing customers)
• Ability to book a unit & pay a deposit online (59% for potential customers vs. 43% for existing customers)

Nb. These figures represent the percentage of respondents indicating a feature was desirable.

With the steady increase in eCommerce over the last 5-10 years, web users are not only becoming more confident with using the web for online sales and enquiries – they are actually expecting theses services to be available. There is a very real risk that facilities not offering these types of services will be missing out on sales and losing market share to those that do.

Relatively few Self Storage websites are currently offering details of current listing availability and prices, and the main reason for this seems to be the effort associated with keeping this type of data up to date. An obvious (and simple) solution is to hook your website into the software that you use to manage your facility, then you don’t have to do anything extra to keep your unit availability information on your website current.

StorMan’s range of self storage software already has modules that integrate with your website, automatically update you space availability, allow customers to view their account status, pay a storage invoice, or book (reserve) a space and pay a deposit – all from your own website.

Promoting your website

Having a website that offers the types of online services that storers are looking for is an excellent start – but unless they are able to find your website in the first place, it is of limited real value.

In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) describes a process for getting your website found online. Activities designed to Improve your rankings in the search results, Increase traffic to your site, and maximise your online sales and enquiries, are every bit as important as having a website in the first place.

The two most important elements that are required for good rankings are:

• Good Quality, Unique, Keyword Rich Content - The content on your website should describe the services you offer, using the “language” that your customers are likely to search for, and be informative as well as useful to your customers (and potential customers).
• Links to your site – Third party sites that link to you (especially if they are in the Storage niche) are critical to achieve good rankings. You should strive to get links from Industry sites (such as Self Storage Associations, like the SSAA), Business Directories, Industry related Listing services (such as SpaceOut), and possibly even your competitors.

There is a HUGE amount of information about SEO online, so you can find out a lot more about it through a Google search. However, the most effective SEO techniques and strategies are constantly changing, and there is a great deal of old, out of date and inaccurate information available online.

To ensure you are really optimising your site (and not actually harming it), we recommend that you talk to a professional SEO to at least assist you with development of an Search Engine Optimisation strategy.

Local Search

The nature of the self storage industry pretty much guarantees that people looking for storage space, will mostly be looking in a specific area. So when they are searching online they will most likely include a locality in their search query (e.g.  “Self Storage Bathurst”, or “Self Storage Prices Sydney”, or very often even specific queries like “Space for Rent Footscray”).

Again, listing with online services like SpaceOut (which has a very strong “local” focus) is a good way to improve your visibility for local search queries. Also, forming alliances, and cross-linking with other storage facility websites in other localities (who are not your direct competitors) can also be a very effective mechanism to help raise your own local search profile.

Offering the types of online services that your existing and potential customers are asking for (and may soon be demanding) and ensuring that you are doing whatever you can to maximise the exposure of your website, are critical steps to make sure that your business not only survives, but thrives in the increasingly competitive future online.

SpaceOut was featured in one of the cover articles from the September 2010 edition of Money Magazine  – An Extra $200 a month renting out spare space.

The Money Magazine “Smart Money” article outlines some of the many benefits of renting out your spare  space and Quotes our Technical Director (Andy Henderson) :

“Almost everyone has unused space around their home,apartment, or business – whether that’s your garage, your parking spot, your shed, a spare room or even your fridge – you’ll find there is someone out there willing to pay you to use it.”

Private rentals are increasingly becoming recognised as real alternatives to traditional self-storage facilities – and are often much more convenient, and significantly cheaper as well.  Using online services such as www. SpaceOut.com.au, ordinary Australians can lease out their excess or unused space privately and make a little extra cash on the side.

“Many of us have got a spare bedroom or shed. More often than not it’s half-filled with our own junk,  Why not do a reshuffle and rent it out?”

Private storage suits all types of people – particularly retirees and “empty nesters”,  who wouldn’t dream of  getting in a tenant (and sharing their house and lives with someone), but are very happy to store someones furniture in the spare room for a few months or more while the person is off travelling.

“Typically you are looking at between $100 and $200 a month for doing little more than putting stuff in a room and shutting the door”

If you’d like to read more about how you can make money from space, and turn your unused bedroom, shed or garage into an extra regular income, get out today and get your own copy of Money Magazine – September 2010.

Google now offers a product call Search Stories – which allows anyone to create their own Search Stories video based around keywords and searches of their own choosing.

Here is one that we’ve prepared for SpaceOut, with the aim of highlighting that SpaceOut offers a variety of space rental services (including Storage, Parking, Office and Rural space) in areas  throughout Australia. I hope you like it :

Data released yesterday by Commsec shows that over the last 20 years, the average size of a home in Australia has increased by more than 30%.

The houses are emptier too, with the number of people in each home gradually declining over the last 100 years because of a trend towards smaller families.  This trend has only just started to change, with the number of people to a dwelling rising slightly last year – the first time it has done so in over a century.

However, with the increase in house sizes, there appears to be a corresponding increase  in rental costs.  A report from BIS Shrapnel has  also forecast that rents are expected to spiral – with increased rents of 5% a year in most capital cities over the next few years.

So, if you (like many Aussies apparently) are living in a large home  and have more space than you know what to do with, now is a prime opportunity to cash in on it.  You can convert that empty,  unused, or spare  space into a regular extra income – simply advertise your space for rent, make some extra cash, and provide an opportunity for someone else in your community to save money on storage costs.

For this exercise, there is only one page you need to look at, and that is the individual space detail page found by logging in to your member account and selecting the listing.  Ensure tjat the address details are correct and then review each other field and choose  (or enter) the most appropriate values  for each.

Is your space a garage, a room or a parking space etc? What is the access? Determine how much you are charging for your space – if you ask too much you are unlikely to get many responses. Take a look at local storage rates, you can see the results of our Australian nation wide storage price survey or even call self storage operators in your neighbourhood and ask for a quote for the size of space you have as a guide.  We typically recommend 50-70% of the ‘professional’ rate.

Next include accurate measurements for your space so SpaceSeekers can match their needs.

The Space Profile is the most important field on the page. You need to give potential SpaceRenters a mental picture of the space. Here is an example of a poor space profile which will leave more questions than answers, followed by a simple, informative one:

“Got a spare room for rent.”

versus:

“Spare rumpus room within our house for storage. Secure, dry and accessible from driveway by ramp. Area is tiled, lockable and has a big double door entrance.”

Obviously the second example gives a clearer picture of the storage area even though it is pretty short, and you’d probably more inclined to go with this right? And so would a potential SpaceRenter.

The Owner Profile field is really to give a simple picture of you – it doesn’t need to be a life story obviously, but something that gives potential renters an idea of what your situation is. For example:  “Mum, dad, two children, cat and 2 dogs. Not many visitors and home a lot.”

And that’s as simple as it needs to be. 5-10 minutes of thought on this page can make all the difference in the Private storage world. Put yourself in the shoes of a SpaceSeeker and think about what you’d like to see.

Happy renting!!