Managing Self Storage How Far is Too Far

[Tom Scott]

I'm taking a cursory look at a Boat and RV storage facility. So far all the numbers look fine and I'm wading through the due diligence process to get some hard data. The only thing I am concerned about is the distance from my home city. The facility is just under 3 hours from the house. Obviously this isn't a terrible drive but if I have to do it too often it's going to get to be a pain in the butt real fast. I'm willing to make a greater number of trips early on while getting the property swapped over but eventually I'd like to limit my visits to once a month or so. With that said, is it practical to manage a facility of this type from a distance? I am able to answer the phone and email documents during the day with no issues but the field visits would have to wait until the weekends. There is an office on site so I could staff it if I had to but obviously it would cost more to operate. I could try to get creative and rent the office out with the caveat that the office staff needs to handle some of the basic operations but I'm afraid it could be difficult to get the right tenant to accept that deal and do a good job with it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

Tom

[George Fitz]

You may want to also look in Kiosk that can rent units for you. Check out what Open Tech Alliance offers. As I understand it, they aren't cheap to start, but it may make sense for you in the long run. I have no personal experience but have spoken with other owners who've used them with good success. You could work a couple of days a week on-site and let the kiosk do the rest. If you have plenty of camera's then you could keep an eye on things remotely as well.