Anyone own one/more? I did a search and got nothing.

How expensive are the startup costs? Franchise or independent?

Just dipping my toe in the water...

Thanks in advance!

TC

I've been doing a little thinking on this myself. There's lots of info on the Google machine but I'd like to hear if anyone here has knowledge as well. The Google machine makes it seem like there's almost no downside.

I need to PM nasalradiator. He said something about investing in more storage units, implying he already owns some.

TC

The main thing that a few guys that I know in PA that have the outdoor types, is property tax killing them.

I like the business. Im a contractor so i was tempted to build some.

In the end, the problem is this. Between being a mechanical contractor and owning residential rentals, i deal with a lot of folks.

Folks take time. Every single human you interact with is a time suck. From the chubby 8 at dollar general to the meth head who is always late on rent to the silver tongued electrical salesman to the hot dime piece that works at the cafe.

The one that always lets her thong show a little and has perky tits with a firm ass. Mmmm. That one.

Anyway, lets say a fella wants to tie up some cash a make some shekels off of it. If you buy an apartment complex you have person to talk to for every 50k in capital you spent. If you buy a property for 2 million you have 40 folks to deal with.

If you spend 2 million on storage rentals you got a whole bushel basket full of folks to deal with.

A good place to start but since i started with apartments, i skipped the time where storage rentals made sense for me in my area.

Land is cheap here so i could throw up storage units for nothing in our spare time but i dont want to manage it.

I've owned a 12 unit storage complex for about a year now.

If I had to make the biggest recommendation it would be, stay away from small, lower cost "household storage" type of units.

We rent (12) 12x36 units for $199 a month with a primary focus on "toy" storage. Boats, RV's, etc.

When initially buying the property, we found two of the units were completely full of household goods.

Stuff like extra mattresses, old cloths, general garage sale junk.

We terminated leases for both units full of random junk. The reason for this was it's much easier to walk away from a random pile of junk with no value.

If I looked at it from the concept of default, do I really want to deal with the guy who doesn't pay his monthly $200 bill for random garbage, and go through the expense of auctioning his stuff of no value to recover maybe $500 from his abandoned property?

Or do I want to deal with the guy who abandoned his $35,000 boat and auction that off all in one shot?

To illustrate my point, when purchasing the units we increased rents by 25%, both units full of household junk elected not to renew and simply tried to walk away from their garbage leaving me holding the bag.

After some sternly worded legal notifications they both decided it was in their best interest to empty and move on without trouble.

All my leases state storage of "limited household goods occupying no more than 100 SQFT of the units".

try looking for "inside self storage forum".     It's hard to get in but once you explain yourself to the admin they should let you join.    Look up TRACHTE.    They build them and have a very nice series of youtube videos somewhere on the site.    A local place pointed them out to me.    One of the sales managers videos through the ups downs pitfalls and preferences of setting this stuff up.    There is like 6  videos and they are very insightful.        
   That's where I am about now.   I have the land for years and looking into it myself.      Around here all of them are the small ungated buildings not the huge complexes .    Check out those videos they will give you many ideas and answer a great many of your questions as they did for me.

My FIL just sold his complex. He sold it to a huge corporation and they paid a lot of money for it.
'
He and a partner owned some land they couldn't seem to sell after the real estate problems in the early 90s.
Being in the contracting business,  they decided to build a storage building and before it was finished they were full. So they built another one, and before it was finished they were full.   The buildings were nice and they kept the property clean. The facilities were well run with an apartment on site for manager. It wound up encompassing three seperate lots with IIRC about 12-14 strip buildings full of units built out of wood with steel roll up doors. They also rented Penske moving trucks.


Neither he nor his business partner ever worked a day at the facility after it was done. Obviously they took care of paperwork etc but never were involved in day to day operations. They hired my SIL to run it and she had zero storage experience when she started, but she has a brain and is well organized.

Without getting to far into details:
They both took about 100k a year each out of the business, after all of the bills were paid.
They owned the property, but took a 1.5 million dollar mortgage to fund building it. They sold it last January after owning it for 20 years and they were WELL into seven figures profit (each) after taxes and the the mortgage was paid off. Keep in mind that doesnt include the 200k a year they took while running it.

So yeah, if done correctly its very lucrative. If you run a dimly lit, dirt parking lot, unsecure facility you're probably going to get shitbags that don't pay. When they sold they still had customers that had been with them since the first building was built and they very rarely had more than a couple empty units the whole 20 years they ran it


I don't know if the law changes from state to state or if the poster above who mentioned auctioning a 35,000 boat off has actually ever done it, but.....

They had a guy last year who was behind on his rent in a climate controlled unit. This was the second time he had gotten behind a few grand so they decided to auction the unit. After going thru the proper procedures they cut the lock and there was a Bentley in there. Score! But not really. State law (here anyway) required them to auction the car after filing the proper paperwork and anything they got for the car  beyond what they were owed they were legally required to give it to the lien holder if there was one, and if not they had to give the money to the vehicle owner. It's not like they just got to keep it all. Yeah, every day junk that has no UCC filed or title you can sell it and keep the money. Its not the same for big ticket items unfortunately. Pretty rare people  actually leave nice stuff behind anyway. Its usually tools or furniture. And if they do leave something pricey it usually belongs to the bank, not them. And the bank wants their money lol!

I also know a few people who own very small facilities and they are always full, too. Its amazing what people will pay to hang on to junk. I have a buddy who bought a property at foreclosure for his auto repair business that had like 20 units in a separate building. The rent from the storage units pays his mortgage/ property taxes/ and all of the overhead in his auto shop, so he doesn't have to work a million hours a week to make ends meet.

http://www.trachte.com/seminars-videos/videos/


This is that list of video presentations I referred to .   It's a bit hard to find so I posted it for you.   Boy,  a couple of you guys with the big success stories must live in major cities.    Here in the north country it's purely small time with none of the big amenities like on site managers and big fences.    That's what draws me to it, the simplicity of it all and not having to have or be an on site manager .   If that was the case I wouldn't even bother since I am not one of those retired guys just sitting around waiting to die but rather one who is busier than ever just not doing it for someone else anymore.   If I wanted big bux I would have just stayed working as a well paid minion of Uncle Sam.   Then again the company is better working alone.  
   From what I hear around here a smallish setup , gravel drives ect gets in at around $70k and a pair of 100 x 40 ish buildings brings in about $2500/ month +-.and everybody seems to have nearly all larger 10 x 20 units.         My property is luckily right on a main secondary road and around 300 frontage by 210' deep so 2, possibly eventually 3 buildings would be about all I could do anyways.    Like i said small time only and I'm not much one for borrowing big money, never was.    I don't even like car payments as I figure keeping banks out of my pocket along with lots of wrenching on my older cars always was a major reason I am as well off as I am.