By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Some say, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” Well, we may have to beg to differ on one item: RV storage in California. We don’t mean bigger as in square footage, but certainly bigger, as in price!
Case in point: Want to keep your Class A under cover? Ted Deits, founding father of Monstore Garages out of Palm Springs, is ready to set you and your RV up with his newest concept: Garage Condominiums. To quote the company line, “After shelling out big bucks for a big toy, these owners don’t balk at paying $90,000 to $175,000 for a secure place to keep it.”
Ted’s big “Monstores” come on a deeded patch of land – condo-style. Roll open your door, back in your rig, turn on the lights and stereo, and settle back in for a few hours. Dave Gandolfo, the project developer, crows, “Garage condominiums fill the gap between self storage closets, and full warehouses, with the added benefit of full ownership.” Your custom designed interior can come equipped with lofts, custom wall treatments, and posh bathrooms. Hey, why even take the RV out? “Let’s spend the weekend at the condo, dear!” Sorry! No overnighting allowed in these storage palaces, but put your feet up on the coffee table and have a martini.
Granted, these “keep ’em out of the weather” units are on their own (no doubt taxable) land, but if you’ve got the room in your own back yard, we know how you can put a roof over your RV’s head for a lot less. A 30×60 insulated steel building kit will set you back less than $30,000. Step down a level and you can have a 42 x 15 portable RV storage unit with sides made from “durable polyethylene fabric with heat welded seam construction,” for a bit over $3,000. Or go real inexpensive, and toss a form-fitting RV cover over the top of your rig for less than $500! Ooh-la-la!
But apparently there are folks who really “don’t balk at paying $90,000 to $175,000” for a Monstore. The outfit says it offered 15 of the big units for pre-construction sale on April 4, and by noon, on April 4, all of them sold. It also claims that “Every resold garage condominium netted the owners a profit above and beyond all costs.” Ted Deits is so impressed by the reception, he’s making plans to bring a Monstore to a place near you – provided you live in Reno, Nevada; Las Vegas, Nevada; Ventura, California; Oceanside, California; or Pismo Beach, California.
If you’re ready to buy, or just want to check out the real estate, visit the Monstore website for Palm Springs.
Photo montage, top to bottom: campingworld.com, American Outback Buildings on ebay.com, and ecanopy.com.Â
##RVT846
Owning your storage is not lavish. I’m just a regular person with a very regular income. I was paying $65/month to store my RV on a gravel lot. I hate leaving vehicles sitting outside and went through several RV covers trying to keep mine reasonably nice. I too bought a storage unit in California and frankly it wasn’t all that much courtesy of the recession. It has doubled in value. This article is way off base.
It’s an investment for most of those early buyers. Here in Denver their are many of these available, and I have owned 2, and made $$ on each one. Viewed that way it is free storage for your RV AND a nice tidy profit when you sell.
Totally agree!!
I am one of the original owners of a storage condo project in California. Probably the first one built in California.
While you point out $175,000 for a storage garage
You did not mention that buys you enough space to store 2 full size RV’s and severa cars. You should compare apples to apples.
To store one RV the cost is $97,500. (13 x 50). In California the same size unit rents for north of $500 per month in this area.
To purchase a garage costs $475 per month. $20k down.
My fiirst garage has doubled in value since I purchased 7 years ago. If I had rented for say $400 per month for 7 years, my cost would be over $33,000. As it stands today , if I sold my garage, I would put about $35,000 in my pocket above and beyond the original purchase cost.
So criticize all you want, but you should really think it through before making this concept seem as if it is an extravagant folly. It certainly is not.
Tony, we couldn’t agree more!
We purchased a unit from Ted Deits 7 years ago. It has gone up in value by 50%. We just bought it to store our 40 ft class A coach and never planned on such a return if we were to sell it.
Our coach is always clean and ready to go. We go and work on it whenever we want. We are only 45 miles from it and don’t have to store it in our yard. It is secure and not in some storage yard exposed to the elements. In California, Palm Springs in particular, storing anything outside will cause damage, be it the sun, excessive heat, wind, or sand!
We are more then happy we made the investment! We would do it all again and have sent many people to see any of the resales. Those are few and far between but much more then any of us paid for their units!
I wish Russ and Tina had taken the time to check with owners of some of the existing projects. They may have thought differently.
Palm Desert, CA
Tiffin Phaeton owner
I would think that would be a choice an owner of a Prevost Bus or Newell might make. After all they pay somewhere between $1.4 and $3.5 million dollars, so $75k to $175K to protect and store is but a drop in the bucket. And they can make a profit when they sell. Oh it must be nice to independantly wealthy…
Russ-
I enjoyed your retort regarding the RV storage condominium article.
I could sum it up this way – Why buy an RV when a tent will do just fine?
Its a matter of personal choice.
Thank you for your comment, Ted. Russ is unavailable to respond at the moment, but I’ll just mention that choosing between an RV and a tent is not always a matter of personal choice — sometimes it’s a matter of necessity. Just adding my two cents’ worth for all of our frugal RVing readers out there (me included). But you obviously have a great product for those RVers who can afford it — another very much appreciated portion of our audience. Have a great day! 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
On the same token, why should I live in a single-family residence when I can live in a tent?