I've always thought living or staying on a houseboat would be cool.

There is a house boat for sell in a marina on a large lake that is moored. Fully furnished. Electrical, water, sewer is supplied.

I'm thinking a rental ( airbnb). Could have it paid off in a year. Plus stay on it between rentals to do upgrades and relax.

What do you think?

Sarge

Boats are rarely good investments

That's true, but some people make good money renting house boats on popular lakes, rivers and bays. Insurance costs are high. Drunken renters can do a lot of serious damage. Cleanup and maintenance can be a hassle.

Some friends of my parents have house boats on the Ohio River.

Keith

Hire a boat surveyor before purchase.

Sounds like fun, a friend of mine has a house boat on the Yukon River. He doesn't use it in the summer but heads out in the fall and finds a place to park it to overwinter. Pretty neat to move around and explore different areas instead of just being in one spot.

Waiting for Scuba to chime in.

If you want to buy a boat.


Envision taking that money, and burning it. If you are ok with that! Buy the boat and enjoy.

It’s possible to make money with a boat. But expensive

I'd love a houseboat when the spring walleye bite is on.

Some people use house boats for venues to have weddings and receptions.

Barns around me are used that way almost weekly. There are 2 within a mile of my farm.

Keith

I will say. My family and I are going to rent one on a lake soon.

So, there is a market for them.

Depends on who you rent to, my wife doe's in between cleanings for a few airbnb's. weekend rates for these places are 2,000.00 weekend & 6,000.00 weekly. some people treat places like home & some don't.

I looked it up. The average cost for a new houseboat is $145,000.00. The average price for a used house boat is $50,000.00. In South Carolina the demand for houseboat rentals is probably 7 months a year, maybe a little longer. If you don't have to finance the boat, pay for a lot of materials or repairs, can get cheap insurance and rent the boat most of the time for the season, it should be profitable in a few years.

Keith

This is a big one. Be nice to find a way to vet renters too. Curious what moorage rates are. And would you have to haul it out in the winter? Plenty of expenses to consider

Prohibitively high insurance costs killed two potential businesses my business partner and I were in the research and development stage of. We had a fairly high end security company for 17 1/2 years. We employed a lot of police officers, part time and a lot of guys just out of the military, some of who had been in Airforce Special Operations and a few Marine Raiders. We also had the Montgomery County then equivalent of the MMA champion. biden would have called them and us, bad dudes. We looked into doing bounty hunting in Ohio. We thought we had the perfect team of guys for it. We found out that bounty hunting was highly restricted in Ohio and that you had to work with a licensed bail bondsman. We found out the insurance costs would eat all our likely revenue, until we were doing a relatively huge amount of business.

We later looked into buying a large indoor shooting range that had been closed down. We hoped to use it as an office, to train our people and to charge the general public to use it. The insurance costs would have been insanely high. The costs of updating the ventilation system, to be compliant, were insanely high too.

Keith

All true but if run as a true rental business how much depreciation comes in to play and offsets some of that, if any?
Another thought, what means are available for getting renters out of trouble? You know if they can take it from the mooring sooner or later someone will hang it up/run it aground or run out of fuel.
How about mooring damage, can you get a deposit for coverage? Most people have a hard time docking a rowboat. Will you be there each time the boat comes in to inspect it?
I have known people to rent those and the number one complaint has been the smell of the vessel, from whatever. That would be a concern?
I’m not throwing cold water, I like any enterprising idea. This is one has a lot of human variables but I think they can be handled.
Keep tight books. Go hard on your numbers ahead of time.
I would be driving hard for a deal on the buying end.

Osky

Hey guys. Appreciate your help. Insurance is a must. It is permanent dock. Engine not working. Docked at a resort type marina. Slip rent. Been moored there for about 10 years. Roof redone, hull sanded and repainted, interior redone. Modern appliances.
There are folks that just want a different experience then staying in a motel room. I'm thinking they can bring their own boat to fish , etc, and also stay on the water.
Still tossing around the idea. Wife likes the boat. But, convincing her to buy and rent out like an airbnb thats another story.
Sarge

Uh oh, ten years of sitting in universal solvent has to have corroded something. Maybe the repairs got everything fixed, maybe not. Did they haul it out for the overhaul?

Do you live on the water or within sight of the boat? One thing I know of boats, water and folks who like to visit the combination is that they come looking to have a good time and many have too good of a time in and around that universal solvent and it's a surprisingly fast acting solvent when mixed with alcohol.

My cautious nature says hard pass but then again I wouldn't rent on dry ground either. There's a reason insurance rates are high.

But that's just me.

I like the older Summerset. Boats.

They have a heavy gauge aluminum hull.

I got mine cheap because of the water levels in lake Powell.
Dock on lake Pleasant is 890$ for 42 ft and includes power water cable internet parking and showers.
Insurance is reasonable. It is insured under a corporate housing policy.

Mine was cheap at 24000 and we have only had it for 1/2 season.

If you get it cheap enough go for it. Someone mentioned sumerset houseboats. It was built 4 miles from my house. Do it lke a VRBO or ARB&B . If the lake is popular it will rent.

A neighbor bought a pontoon style and has had some serious problems with the pontoons, it should have new ones, they look great from the outside but have had corrosion on the inside that keeps opening up.

Local guy did this in a podunk marina down the road about 5 miles south of me. He started with one, now has 4. They’re solid booked every weekend all summer long! The houseboats don’t move, they stay tied at the docks. The guests can paddleboard, kayak, etc around nearby creeks, or bring their own boat for pleasure. And he sells them drinks, snacks, at the marina store.

Good move in my opinion. “ Build it and they will come”