Self Storage- Remote Management

[Henry Clark]

Just got back from Belize for a week.  Two months ago, was in Sicily/Italy.  During these trips we still managed our 7 Self Storage locations remotely from those trips.  The following is a summary of key elements to achieving that successfully.

1.  Self Service rental transactions.  See our YouTube instructions on our website.  We have intentionally chosen not to go with Kiosks.

2.  Centralized phone system for instructions.

3.  Move to autopay, debit/Credit card or ECH.

4.  Security camera systems and gate control.  If someone is locked in, we can remotely open the gate.  We have a posted lock down time at the entrance and all new renters are informed.

5.  Security motion sensors- cameras are only useful after the fact.  We have a combination of camera motion sensors, road sensors and linear motion sensors (cover up to a 300-foot span).  We have them sending a signal to my phone or to a call center who calls me, during set hours after close.  This way we can wake up and look on the camera and call Law Enforcement as needed.

6.  Facility support.  Still have someone go through daily while you are away for any onsite support.  Review units for any changes, trash pickup, etc.

7.  Facility maintenance- it is winter where we are at, thus Snow removal and Ice or salt melt.  We received 6 inches of snow while we were gone.  This was removed timely the next day. Then we applied Salt on the driveway.  We prep ahead and put bags of salt at the corners of buildings.

The below Facility management report is for one of our locations.  It is in the rent-up phase, which takes more work than our other 6 locations that are at 95% occupancy.

A.  147 units out of 229 are rented.

B.  119 of the 147 units are on Autopay.  105 credit cards DR or CR.  14 Bank ECH.  The other 28 units not on Autopay are either late payment and we have turned off or they have let us know they will be moving out and we have turned off autopay.  For this location we only end up with about 2 auction units every 3 months.  We lock up quick and force payment and back on to Autopay, quickly; or we increase their rates and tell them they have to leave unless on Autopay.  You prefer Credit cards since there is instance notification of insufficient funds, whereas Bank ECH can take up to 5 days to be notified.

C.  Insurance payments.  40 units or 27% are on insurance plans.  It is key that our insurance provider is supported by our Self Storage management software and not a second system.

Sidenote, line 34 below, lost income from units not rented.  We are well past Cashflow breakeven.  Plus, we are paying principal building equity.  Tons of upside, 1 contract at a time.

Improvements needed:

D.  Increase occupancy.  You have less support once your location is fully rented out.

E.  Keep "Culling" your tenants.  Anyone that keeps having payment issues we keep raising their rents and moving them out.

F.  Returning Customer vortex.  As your location "Matures" say around 3 years and 95% accuracy; you start getting return customers and recommended customers.  Plus, you have steadily "Culled" out your bad customers.  Thus, remote control gets easier.

1	Total vacant rooms	82
2	Total occupied rooms	147
3	Customers	147
4	Total rooms at facility	229
5
6	Total unique customers	134
7
8	Total customers w/ email addresses on file	113
9	Percentage of total customers w/ email addresses on file	84.33%
10
11	Total facility rentable square feet	36,700 SqFt
12	Total occupied square feet	23,100 SqFt
13	Percentage of rooms occupied	64.19%
14	Percentage of square feet occupied	62.94%
15
16	Number of rooms on auto payment	119
17	Percentage of rooms on auto payment	80.95%
18	Credit Cards	105
19	eChecks	14
20
21	Cash	2.44 %
22	Check	10.12 %
23	Credit/Debit Card	87.45 %
24	Corporate	0.00%
25	Money Order	0.00%
26
27	Number of rooms covered by SafeStor	40
28	Percentage of rooms covered by SafeStor	27.21%
29	Number of rooms with 100% burglary coverage	40
30
31	Potential rent per square foot	$0.66
32	Potential monthly rent	$24,165.01
33	Monthly income at current occupancy rate	$14,625.01
34	Monthly income lost from unrented rooms	$9,540.00