There are four basic metrics I think every self-storage owner should be tracking. I track more than these four, but these four, I think, set an owner up to win at owning self-storage. If you are not currently always tracking these to the point you know them off the...

Let’s talk about five mistakes see people making getting in the self-storage business today, especially people new to the business. Now I have made every one of them myself, so I will talk from experience. Let’s shorten your learning curve up. Here is a downloadable...

Even seasoned storage people sometimes get focused on the wrong metric when analyzing self-storage. If you're new to self-storage, it can be hard to understand all the financial metric slang and acronyms, and what one should really be focused on. Which one matters...

Last week we started a conversation about what I’m seeing in the economy, what may be coming next, and how that changes our self-storage strategy, based on research I dug into after hearing Michael Litt speak. As a CCIM in commercial real estate, our state chapter...

Some dots have connected in my mind recently that are reshaping how I evaluate self-storage trade areas moving forward. Surprisingly, this insight came from digging into the lives and current work of the people who shorted subprime financial instruments during the...

Let’s talk about the biggest issue I see today in leasing up new self-storage space is overspending for online marketing that doesn’t produce results. I see it happen far too often and have experienced it myself. Here are the steps, spaces, and things I put my...

Let’s talk about converting potential self-storage renters into customers. I had this conversation last Friday in our Inner Circle group and thought it may be good to discuss it in more depth in this episode. This is probably the most powerful tool our team has ever...

Let’s talk about the new tax implications for self-storage owners and take a look at the good, the bad, and the potentially ugly parts of the massive tax bill recently signed into law and championed by the current administration, at least from my perspective. I am...

We are going to have to talk about insurance and self-storage, which may touch on politics. Part of our job as owners and entrepreneurs is to look at what is going on now, extrapolate some data, and then make predictions about the future to some degree so we can make...

Let’s discuss what features, what tech bells and whistles to add to your new facility or one you may be purchasing. I approach this differently than I did a few years ago. Let me explain. New to self storage? Start here: Mark's free 3-part video series Courses: The...