Anyone w Experience buying Marinas?

Are will still talking about buying a marina?? Or a shirt store?

Yes....going to form virtual marinas. Amazon to offer slips.

We were actually responding to a post. Still choosing not to own a marina.

Dockwa??

No, I mean where they'll magically teleport your boat and dock it through virtual reality. Return it to you when you're ready to use it. Cloud storage of boats.

Nice!! And maybe get a pair of those virtual goggles and have your spouse throw water on your face?

Like everything It all depends on location...While marinas on the Chesie may have higher vacancy rates, it is far from being the case here in south florida where wait list for wet slips are common. Rates are going up and up and up with $40 to $50 a foot per month being the going rate on annual contracts

Considering the number of outboard powered boats being sold I would think dry racks must be very popular and a great business

Better than an virtual impeller change with the sea cock open splash in the face...

As for Marina ownership, I think one has to be hands off with good operations or hands on and make it a way of life. Both of those take difference but considerable effort. Can one half ass a marina operation and make a few dollars, probably. At least it seems that is the case with many marinas I have visited.
Sounds to me like dannevilletim will do his diligence.

Agreee on the due diligence. My own experience is that when owners "half ass" any business, it creates too many unnecessary issues. Simplistic thought - a young man want to start his maritime career as a first mate on the local charters , but doesn't want to get out of before 8 am....

The reason I believe that the marina business is "just another business" is for all the reason why any business fails or succeeds.

On another thread we are discussing painting valve covers. Think about that business - let's say cars, to move away from boats for a minute. Plenty of environmental compliance/oversight risk; better have excellent liability insurance for health claims; if your spraying high end cars and storing them outside or even inside, you'd better pay attention to security and property loss insurance - suppose you have a fire in a garage of Audis. Just to name a few, and you will be there from 6am until 8pm.

Yup. In about 3 years I'll start what (I hope) will be 15-20 of my last hurrah and surfing the declining business at reasonable prices is part of the plan..... Hopefully it will last as long as I do.

Why do you say declining? Is that a feeling or a statistic?

An observation. (As confirmed by someone else above)

I can see why you want to buy a marina, those rates are nuts!! I would want to keep my boat/ yacht somewhere else, no matter how deep my pockets were, which mine are not. It's hard to justify, even if it's south Florida.

If you want to save money, don't buy a boat.

Yes and no. I bought a my current boat at a good deal, to live on and use, in Center City Phila., which was way cheaper than living on land with the high rents and such.
I saved lots of money, no utility bills, water and electric were in the dockage fee, free parking in Center city, no property or school tax, etc. $6k for the entire year dockage...with 24 hr security, fencing , etc..45 foot slip.
Now I'm on land , living in a two bed room Condo, my son and I at $26k per year …. Still have the boat, It's under cover 50ft slip in the water for $2k Nov.1 to April 30... includes electric.
Yes , Florida rates are nuts! BUT, it is very nice in Florida..

When you are about to buy something, always ask "why do you sell?"
you're going to be fed a lot of BigSomething; but a wise ear will get a lot of real information out of it, nonetheless.

So to me this entire thread is anecdotal and based on the local observations of the writer. So I'll add mine. Huntington LI 320 slip marina. Predominantly power boats. The regional Azimut prep facility is there. The marina is essentially filled. I would say many of the smaller boats, center consoles pocket cruisers are owned by singles, couples or young families. The larger boards have gray haired owners with visiting older children or grandchildren. (the pool is filled with them) It's split about 50/50, maybe a little heavier to the younger set. The Azimuts sell at a very rapid pace. During the winter the yard is filled with a waiting list, and about 50-60 of us are in the water. From observing the other marinas and yacht clubs in Huntington harbor, I would say they are essentially filled with the same composition of owners. This is my personal observation, so please do yell at me...

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but here are my 2 cents to this. You can definitely make money and it could be a good investment. However, you are taking a bigger risk investing in one. Especially in this economy. If you are looking to invest your money into property please please do yourself a favor and invest in multi family units!!! 16 units or more preferably 30 or more. You get cash flow every month you can increase rents. It's perfect to protect yourself when inflation happens or when the economy goes South. Apartments are MUCH safer then a marina. It's a long term investment and overtime the value of a property will go up in value. You can keep that property forever if you had to and you and your family and kids will always have something that will provide passive income for years.

Let's not forget that America is becoming a nation of renters where is most of the country it actually males more sense to rent then to own. If you are going to invest anywhere and you hope for some type of return look at apartments or storage. Not the stock market, not a office or anything else.

Those are my two cents.

So.... somewhere around 1626 my fellow Dutchies sold Manhattan to the Brits for $24. If you had taken that $24 and put it in the NYS the day it opened, what would be worth more today? All of Manhattan's real estate or your brokerage account?

Point is, you are generalizing. I've seen people screw up real estate investments and I've seen people do well buying a share of corporate America. (I'm one of them, but exactly how is beyond the scope of this forum) It all depends on how you do it, and there are ways to do either that are not considered gambling by any stretch. (And I'm not selling anything here)

That said, I agree that I would not buy a Marina as an investment. If in retirement I wanted to putter around in one place and never go anywhere and have that lifestyle sustain itself. I could open a B&B or buy a campground or a marina. It would be a free hobby. If I wanted to invest with an eye on ROI I would, indeed buy residential real estate, with all it's headaches, as it is a very good hedge against inflation, or buy a share of the world economy as I have done.

Owning one marina means either operate yourself and make a decent income or hire someone to operate it and make nothing.

Two marinas mean hire persons to run and make nothing.

Three marinas close together affords perhaps hiring someone to supervise and make a little money.

Ten marinas means creating structure to properly manage the marinas and making money as long as no recession or fuel shortage hits. When one does hit, it means it hits ten times as hard and if you have fixed land rentals, you go bankrupt unless the landowners agree to renegotiate. This is what happened to Marinas International. Ultimately the business continued under Safe Harbor.

Twenty marinas should afford the ability to manage effectively and to survive hard times and challenges and to have various complimentary structures in place.