I am beginning to re-think how I calculate lease-up in self storage projects. When I first entered into self storage in the mid-1990s as a broker helping a REIT find self storage, they used to assume 5% of their square footage per month would lease-up (wouldn't that...

In this age of increased self storage per capita in many submarkets across the nation, boat and RV parking may be a way to enter or expand. I have been hesitant to embrace this method and have fallen back on it when necessary. We had a two-building conversion project...

I’ll admit it. I have never been a big fan of container self storage, or temporary storage. At best, I thought we could perhaps use it to plug up a few holes we may have in our facilities and maximize our income. When I first looked (a number of years ago I admit),...

I discussed in last weeks’ episode How To Analysis An Expansion self-storage opportunity. This week, let’s look at a conversion. When we say conversion, what I mean is we take an existing vacant building and convert it to self-storage. In my opinion, in today’s...

I discussed in last weeks’ episode How To Analyze An Expansion self-storage opportunity. This week, lets look at a conversion. When we say conversion, what I mean is we take an existing vacant building and convert it to self-storage. In my opinion, in today’s market,...

In today’s reality of an overbuilt market in many parts of the country, it is important that we have a good strategy as an entry point or an expansion point into the self-storage business. I have discussed conversions in detail over the past few months. If you are...

Let’s discuss how to financially analyze a potential self-storage conversion. In Episode 192 {Olivia, plz link to it} we discussed the benefits of doing a conversion in today’s current self-storage market conditions. I won’t go over them here, but for this episode, I...

Today, more than ever, I am convinced that conversion of an existing building into self-storage building is one of the best ways to get into the business. I am writing this at the end of 2018. Prices for existing self-storage are still very high. Anywhere from a 5.5%...

I don’t have a crystal ball to look into the future and see what is coming for the self storage industry. But I don’t think I need one either. We are moving into the “hyper supply” phase of the economic cycle in many markets. If you are not sure what that means, click...