Combining commercial/self-storage with a multi-family approach

[Tyler Faison]

I've been listening to the podcasts (started from the beginning a few months ago and am on #79) and, at the behest of the guys, have finally gotten started with the forums. So I wanted to start off by introducing myself. I'm a sound mixer for television and film based in Dallas, TX and also have a retail shop that caters to the same industry. That's my day job, which I'm good at and mostly enjoy doing. Every day is unique with its own challenges and opportunities, but I can't help but see the window slowly closing on being physically able to keep it up until a traditional retirement age. I work in a self-employed industry where everyone is freelance and is constantly "unemployed" which is, perhaps ironically, the most secure job I could ever imagine. Being freelance also allows me to experiment with other ventures as well. I've designed and created a few apps, a physical product and in 2016 launched a plan to start building up some type of real estate portfolio, along with my partner-in-sound who is 50/50 with me on everything we do for our location sound business. We decided that we were best served to create our own tenants in the commercial sector rather than going for single family homes or small multi-family units. The basic idea is to operate what essentially is an office complex with a self-storage mentality. Admittedly, it's a bit different and not for everyone, but it's in our wheelhouse of expertise and it's worked well so far. We leased our initial building as a proof of concept and then bought a second property on our own as our first big kid step towards acquiring commercial property. We've learned a lot so far and are happy to be part of Bigger Pockets to continue our education. I'm most interested in learning more about various types of financing strategies but have been thrilled to find out so much more from landlording to absentee ownership in the residential market that I believe has a lot to offer to me. Thanks for everything so far and thanks in advance to all the great people here that are so willing to provide their insight on everything.