We own a condo near downtown Seattle that we have used as a rental for the past 7 years. Street parking is kind of chaotic for overnight parking. We are trying to fill a tenant vacancy right now and one person was turned off by the parking available since she would be operating on a non-standard schedule.
I have long thought that owning a parking spot would be the ideal investment. This condo building has one for sale for $10k. Alternatively, we could lease one for $175/mo from someone that already owns one within the building. For reference, rent for this 1bd unit is roughly $1500/mo (there is about $350 in HOA dues covering all utilities, maintenance, etc).
So, two part question:
1. Would you opt for buying or leasing a parking stall if you thought it would be able to increase your rent by, say, $100/mo, and allow you to rent out the unit more quickly due to the perk?
2. If purchasing or leasing, would you try to declare this as a rental expense on Schedule E? I think if we leased it, one could make that argument. If we bought it, it might be harder to sell.
Thanks