Short answer: A facility’s value is driven by its net operating income (NOI). Checking actual NOI against a monthly budget lets an owner see early in the year whether they are off track, and by how much, while there is still time to adjust pricing, collections or expenses.
How Mark does it #
Mark starts with the pro forma he built when evaluating the deal, refined during due diligence (it is also what his partners and investors agreed to). He breaks it into a monthly budget, year by year. At the end of each month he compares actual NOI with budget NOI.
He tracks NOI rather than income or expenses separately because expenses such as insurance and property taxes can change quickly and are easy to miss against a pro forma written a few years earlier. Knowing the NOI target lets him move the “dials and levers” on either side, revenue or expenses, to reach it.
If you don’t have a yearly budget for your facility, Mark’s advice is to start one.
Related answers #
- What metrics should a self-storage owner track every month?
- How can self-storage owners control operating expenses?
- What is the difference between physical and economic occupancy in self-storage?
Source: Mark’s posts The Four Metrics Every Self-Storage Operator Should Track Monthly and Expense Discipline: The Quiet Way to Grow Self-Storage Value in 2026
