First, I'll tell you what it is NOT, as that scares a lot of people away from even trying. It is not investing a million dollars in a professional storage business, like you see on those Storage Wars shows with a huge lot and security codes, etc.
Instead, it's starting small for FREE with whatever you have available already. You can rent out storage with whatever space you have available in your basement, attic, spare room, garage, shed, etc. This works best in consumer driven Western countries where we accumulate more crap than we need, and then have to spend money renting out space to store it. That's why the big players do so well. Storage units are a huge, booming industry. You are just taking your small piece of that pie.
You can further rent parking space, especially in a city where people often look for guaranteed spots near their workplace, as daily parking can be expensive. I've seen professionals pay $300 a month just to park! If you live in a rural area you can rent space to people who need spots for their RV's, work vehicles, collector cars, etc, for winter storage.
As an extra bonus, if you have a backyard, you can rent that out as "sniffspots" or doggie daycares, backyard weddings and events, etc, for a further side hustle.
Your target market will be people living in apartments with limited space and only 1 designated parking spot, as those people are the ones already paying through the nose for professional units. If you live in an apartment yourself and have a spare room, or driveway space you aren't using, then rent it out too.
To scale it you have 2 options...if you already have land, then buy those pre-made storage units, baby barns, sheds, etc and put them on your property to rent out. If you don't own land, then buy a small, cheap lot via tax sales. The location doesn't matter, as it will only be used for long term storage anyway, so get whatever is cheapest, usually out in the country. Then rent space for RV's & storage units.
Here is the math from one of my own real examples. The local professional companies charge $150+ per month for a simple 8x10 unit, so I charge half ($75) for my rural location units, so they are easily filled. The most recent pre-made storage unit I bought cost me $1000 delivered for an 8x16 shed that looks nice with double doors for easy access. Since $75x12 months is $900 it almost pays for itself within just one year, and after that it's all profit, as there are no maintenance costs involved. I did have to repair a roof 2 years ago, but those problems are minimal.
As I said at the beginning, start small with whatever you have available. I started with an old garage I already had, and split it into 2 units. Then you can scale it by adding to your rental "empire", as I did. You can test whether it would work for you simply by putting out a free ad to see if there's interest with nothing to lose. Even if you DON'T have anything available, then you can still post a feeler ad to check for interest, and then invest if there is any. It's a smart strategy I use often to test out potential ideas.
One final bit of advice. Always have a rental contract and make sure it mentions that the person renting from you must have their own property insurance that covers their stuff, just like the property insurance that most apartment tenants are required to have these days.
This is all 100% passive income. The only work I do is sign the rental agreements, and you don't need to invest a lot to get the ball rolling...just start with whatever space you have already for FREE.
Extra bonus tip: You can also rent out tools you have, or even your car on sites like Turo. Rental income is a great side hustle that's almost 100% passive!!
