Own or lease your slip?

Do you own or lease your boat slip? I may be able to afford a decent trawler in the future, but I'm a bit uneasy about where to keep it and how much it will cost to do so. I would just like to hear other folk's experiences and pluses/minuses of both owning and leasing?

ForceMultiplier said:

Do you own or lease your boat slip? I may be able to afford a decent trawler in the future, but I'm a bit uneasy about where to keep it and how much it will cost to do so. I would just like to hear other folk's experiences and pluses/minuses of both owning and leasing?

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Neither - we owned our own 1,000# mooring which is partially maintained by a local marina. About $500/yr for yearly haul and place and to make periodic updates.

Own ours at the bottom of the garden.

Prior kept in a marina 40 foot slip for around $520 per month, annual contract.

We tie ours up behind our house. We have had slips at marinas before. Other than getting a jerk as a slip neighbor nothing wrong with a marina.

i own mine . hoa is from 1100 to 1500 a year . you could rent the slip for around 225 a month 200 with a year lease i guess . that's not much more than the hoa and taxes . i probably should have rented as i want to move the boat around anyway .

In Portland, many people keep their boats in boathouses. You effectively rent the dock space your boathouse connects to, but you own the house (and sometimes the water rights it floats on).

Owning a slip is like owning another piece of property. You hope it increases in value.
Per crappy neighbors, it can happen when you buy a house.
In the case of crappy neighbors, untie, go for a trip...... maybe find a new slip then sell or rent your first slip.
The advantage of owning a slip, the price will remain the same or ideally increase.
You can still write off the mortgage interest and property taxes.

timb said:

i own mine . hoa is from 1100 to 1500 a year . you could rent the slip for around 225 a month 200 with a year lease i guess . that's not much more than the hoa and taxes . i probably should have rented as i want to move the boat around anyway .

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I see you're in Oriental. My family (mom's side) is from there....and still there.

We are one of the closest and nicest marinas to you here:

http://www.cypresslandingmarina.com

Well protected floating docks with a class 3 hurricane rating Near Washington NC.
All slips are owned with a yearly assessment for marina maintenance and capital reserves (a million 6 in the bank, so well managed). a 38-42' slip will cost you about 10-14K to buy plus about 1K in yearly assessments that includes electric, taxes and water. Owned and run by the owners with a volunteer maintenance staff that keeps it all pristine. Slips for sale are available for out of community owners...No rentals or subleases....Everyone here has a vested interest in keeping it nice..generally 30 slips on the market at any given time

By comparison, I paid about $2500 yr at the Washington waterfront for slip rental before I moved here. Other (less desirable) marinas in the area are about the same...

I own my Dockominium east of Toronto. Condo fee is $115 per month including electric and water. Property taxes are $350 per year and I own the bottom under my slip. Slip is 47 x 16 with 33 foot finger and a 50/125/250 power tower. They sell for about 35K right now and do not stay on the market very long.

We own ours, it's covered and in a prime area. DNR lease, electricity and condo fees run about 200 a month.... Probably wouldn't own a boat if we didn't own our slip.

We rent our slip for $220AUD/month ($154 USD) including power, water, secure parking etc.
Our rent has increased a total of 10% over 5 years.

To buy the slip would be $60-70,000. Just interest, property taxes and maintenance fees are almost double the cost of renting. Marina slip prices are flat or slightly dropping in Adelaide over the past 5 years.

It makes no sense to buy here, but every city would vary. I'd consider a house with a slip, but in Adelaide they are rare.

Would like to own my own slip where I stay in Fort Myers during the winter. $80k plus property tax, quarterly HOA assessment and maybe insurance makes it hard to justify. $900 a month for the 5 months I'm there during the winter, makes leasing a better option.

Ted

Not a lot of docks here for sale over 40'... and those that are go for 60K+.

I'm in a one of the major marinas on the lake and rent a 60' covered slip for $570/month

Includes water, wifi, trash, and cable. 30'+ slips have separate electric meters which are billed to the boat owner. Pump outs at the gas dock are free, or they'll come to your slip for $75 bucks. I like free... (usually a $20 tip to the two lads handling the pump out).

We looked at both options and decided to rent. It's a great marina with terrific people but we intend to cruise full time after retirement so renting was far cheaper in the long run.

We started out leasing at our condo marina (from an individual owner), then wound up buying when our landlord offered a price we couldn't walk away from.

Pluses - no annual lease negotiations, a say in all board matters, and lower overall costs (though you do have principal tied up in the slip which could otherwise be invested).

Negatives - difficult to move to another slip, sometimes slow to sell, can't get financing, could get hit with a special assessment.

As to the moving slips issue, we are thinking about a larger boat and it won't fit in our slip, leaving us with the decision to either rent out our current slip and rent a larger one from another owner, or sell our current slip and then buy or rent a larger one.

As to being slow to sell, I truly believe the market dictates prices and the ones that sit on the market at our marina are just not priced realistically for the market.

Lastly as to negatives, they replaced all the floating docks several years ago, well before we purchased, and I know for a fact that for two years our entire rent went to cover the then slip owner's assessment for the upgrades. Fortunately for us, the docks are now all new and the new board is doing a great job with the finances.

Lastly, as to costs, we actually purchased a second slip last year at a great price that we now rent out. The income from that slip covers probably 2/3rds of our costs (assessments and taxes) for both of our slip.

I think that buying verses renting a slip is much the same decision process as for a house -- it really comes down to how long do you plan to stay in the slip. If you plan to change boats or move locations in the next few years it probably makes more sense to rent. Same if you think you can do better by investing the money and using the investment returns to offset your lease costs. Otherwise, it may be cheaper in the long run to buy.

AusCan said:

We rent our slip for $220AUD/month ($154 USD) including power, water, secure parking etc.
Our rent has increased a total of 10% over 5 years.

To buy the slip would be $60-70,000. Just interest, property taxes and maintenance fees are almost double the cost of renting. Marina slip prices are flat or slightly dropping in Adelaide over the past 5 years.

It makes no sense to buy here, but every city would vary. I'd consider a house with a slip, but in Adelaide they are rare.

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$220/month is incredibly cheap....is that a typo ?? I'm paying $1280/ month tor an 18m slip including water and power and that's the cheapest I've paid for years around Sydney; it's cheaper than Mooloolaba too.

My slip is "owned" by my YC, but its an equity club and the slip is permanently assigned to me. So, in a sense I own it.

Starting my reply over again...

Up until 2013 we always rented a slip at a marina or our Yacht Club. Then in 2013 we were renting a condo slip from an owner. Another slip in the marina was for sale but was more money than we wanted to spend. Times were tough still in the real estate market and slips are even more sensitive to market downturns.

The bank foreclosed on the slip for sale and we gathered up what ready cash we had and made a very, very low offer, 25% below asking and about 20% below what it had sold for 5 years prior (right before the recession). The bank didn’t know what to do with a condo slip so they accepted the offer (surprised me!).

So we own a 50’ slip. When we bought it, the rental rate was $9/ft for the slip, or $450/mo + electricity. Current rental rates are $11/ft or $550/mo. We pay $127/mo in HOA fees and about $125/mo in property taxes. So while on the surface it might appear that we save $300/mo by owning, that doesn’t count the opportunity cost of the value of the slip which is about $150,000 now. So my savings are only returning about 2.5% of the value of my investment every year. Not a great return.

Granted, the value of the slip has increased since we bought it, but that could drop again at the next recession.

The advantage is that I can’t be kicked out my slip and I have a lot of control/input into how our little marina is managed. I also have a decent slip in a wonderful location. In general, all the owners and tenants are great neighbors. If I decide to sell the boat, I still have the revenue stream (small as it is) from the slip or I can simply sell it. Slips my size are in demand so there is always someone looking to rent the slip.

The disadvantage is that I have money tied up in a floating piece of real estate. There are always risks with this. Part of the marina is on leased DNR water. We have a creek and wetland next to us that is a constant source of silting up which needs to be managed along with the numerous city, county, state, and federal agencies which have an interest in such things.

All in all, I’m happy to be an owner and I’m hoping that if the economy does well over the next 20 years, it will prove to be a reasonable investment.

I bought a 75ft slip for about $84500 about 15 years ago. Market value now is about $220K. I still own it.
The 55ft I have now, 20years about sold for about 55K. I forgot how much I paid for it which generally mean, I think I paid too much. It is very close to the exit gate.... (gated community) and at my age, 'close' is necessary.
The condo association has 'first refusal' on any sale.

Heron said:

We are one of the closest and nicest marinas to you here:

http://www.cypresslandingmarina.com

Well protected floating docks with a class 3 hurricane rating Near Washington NC.
All slips are owned with a yearly assessment for marina maintenance and capital reserves (a million 6 in the bank, so well managed). a 38-42' slip will cost you about 10-14K to buy plus about 1K in yearly assessments that includes electric, taxes and water. Owned and run by the owners with a volunteer maintenance staff that keeps it all pristine. Slips for sale are available for out of community owners...No rentals or subleases....Everyone here has a vested interest in keeping it nice..generally 30 slips on the market at any given time

By comparison, I paid about $2500 yr at the Washington waterfront for slip rental before I moved here. Other (less desirable) marinas in the area are about the same...

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I know that area well, as my wife's family is from Washington & Bath (Whichards). However, Washington is just way too far from clear blue ocean water for me. I DO want to go look at your boat one day, though - it's beautiful!

It seems like location is part of the equation of whether to rent or purchase. Along with one's expected lifespan, I guess.

Comodave said:

We tie ours up behind our house. We have had slips at marinas before. Other than getting a jerk as a slip neighbor nothing wrong with a marina.

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I assume you live on the river.
If so are there issues at certain times of the year because of the flow of the river?

Did your home come with the mooring or did you install after you bought the home?

I think this is the direction I would like to take for yacht ownership. Buy a home on the water. While I am pretty familiar with Michigan (I was born there and visit family annually) it is likely a Southern State I will move to as there is a reason I am from Michigan. I remember that water goes solid some times.

I lease in Boston. No purchasing options.
Summer 30' slip; ~$130/ft. Est total ~$4000
Winter Storage ~$60/ft ~$1800
Resulting in an annual fee of ~$5800. (ignoring annual 2-3% increases)
I can move to a better slip, no worries about maintenance, EPA, DNR,
In theory I could pay that $5800 from interest or dividends from $100,000 invested. At the end of 10 years I would pay out $58,000 but still have my $100,000 principal.

If I purchased my slip for $100,000, with annual fees of $1500 (ignoring potential maintenance assessments) I would pay out $15,000 during the same period and MAY have a slip still worth $100,000. (Again, ignoring inc opportunity lost) If the slip dropped in value to $60,000 it would be a wash.

If you run the numbers with local rates and ignore most variables you can ballpark the solution. Purchasing looks more attractive. Don't forget the intangibles. For me, having a gas dock and pump out at the marina is a great convenience. Well maintained rest room facilities are a real plus. Being located within 10 min of home is mandatory for me. Too far away and it becomes a chore to get ready for a long trip.

ForceMultiplier said:

I see you're in Oriental. My family (mom's side) is from there....and still there.

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oriental is a good compromise of price and location . even with our slow boat we can be in Beaufort/ Morehead city or Newbern by lunch (ish) and Washington (nc) Bellhaven Hatteras Swansboro in a day any closer to the ocean and the price doubles .

I just love that once we get past Newbern or Greenville(in the car) the traffic is gone .


personally I would recommend renting once you are in the area you may be able to decide better exactly where you want to be ..

timb said:

oriental is a good compromise of price and location . even with our slow boat we can be in Beaufort/ Morehead city or Newbern by lunch (ish) and Washington (nc) Bellhaven Hatteras Swansboro in a day any closer to the ocean and the price doubles .

I just love that once we get past Newbern or Greenville(in the car) the traffic is gone .


personally I would recommend renting once you are in the area you may be able to decide better exactly where you want to be ..

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Just curious - how long does it take for you to get to Ocracoke?

I rent a slip on a seasonal basis ($4,000 for the summer for a 32' boat). We have new dock neighbors this year, but I wonder how social they will be. Haven't met them yet, but there boat is named Miss Anthrope.

we bypassed Ocracoke and went to Hatteras it took 9 to 10 hours at around 6.5 knots it should be less than 7 to Ocracoke .(I think) we were going there but they would only take 3 day reservations and Hatteras was on the list also and less than half the cost . we will try Ocracoke on a non holiday weekend.

we have only had our boat a year and a half . and our slip for two . we bought the slip before we got the boat.


when I pay off the house we plan to move it around a little. for a month or two a summer.

Aquabelle said:

$220/month is incredibly cheap....is that a typo ?? I'm paying $1280/ month tor an 18m slip including water and power and that's the cheapest I've paid for years around Sydney; it's cheaper than Mooloolaba too.

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Actually I'm paying $55/week, so it works out to a bit more ($238.33/month) for a 10 m slip. I was upset when it went up from $50/wk, but it's peanuts compared to Sydney prices.

There are 15m berths for sale in Wirrina Cove (just south of Adelaide) for $15,500 but it would still work out to more than what I'm paying in Glenelg.

For the most part it's strictly a financial calculation. In some areas purchases are so highly priced you can never financially justify. In other areas, they're truly a bargain. However, a few other considerations.

-How well do slips there sell. Owning a slip is problematic when you get a larger boat that won't fit. Yes, you and everyone else have your final boat and I'm sure you'll call the next one final too.

-Risk that the slip you lease will be converted to ownership at some point and sold out from under you.

-One of the benefits of boats is the ease with which they can be relocated. You may decide to move. Can't take an owned slip with you.

We own and it may make no financial sense. However, the slips we own are very limited in rental situations. What we'd compare to would be other slips we find less desirable. So, we own simply to have the exact slips we have. We're comfortable owning because we don't plan on ever moving. Yes, we do live on the water, but we only use our docks when home and for short term use. The rest of the time, the boats are stored neatly away.

May wish to check rules for renters vs HOA rules for owners. There may be differences that sway your opinion for a specific marina.
For example, my current marina has limits on rental live aboard ( as defined by days/mo) which do not apply to owners. Also, see how electric is billed.