Self Storage- What is the best City in the US to do Self Storage?

[Henry Clark]

We have 8 locations in 5 towns/cities.  We use a 40 mile radius in which to build or buy.  So I have never wondered what town/city was the best in the US to invest in, all this time.  Helping some folks out, I named a few.  Later thought I didn't really give them any affirmable information.  Being a former CPA, Controller and CFO, I sat down and developed an analysis.

As I was building a "great and wonderful" template, I stopped; I realized there are really only a couple of overarching factors.  Unit Price, Land Price, and on the expense side Property taxes. Will let you research Property Taxes. Generally speaking all other Capex costs and Expenses are the same no matter what market you are in.

At the very bottom of this template is a ratio of Annual Revenue versus Total Capex. These are actual cities I have researched before.

- Only one of them has large REITS in them.  Populations 60,000 to 1,000,000.  Large REITS will buy you out once they reach your town.

-Two of them, the market really doesn't use Sparefoot.  This means both, you would be number 1 in marketing using Sparefoot, and two, they don't need extra marketing because they are full.

- Three of these, zoned land is readily available.

- If we weren't done investing in new Locations, I would be building in Location 1 and 3.  4 is good also.

No I didn't really answer which town/city in the US is the best.  But I have only so much money and these 4 look great.  This is not an investment analysis, but a market analysis tool.  There are several more factors once you pick the city you want to invest in. Demand versus supply.   You have the format, now do your data analysis.

	Loc 1	Loc 2	Loc 3	Loc 4
Units	Price	Price	Price	Price
10x10	150	90	no sparefoot	130
10 x15	270	100		220
10 x 20	300	125		220
Units	Number	Number	Number	Number
10x10	20	20	20	20
10 x15	200	200	200	200
10 x 20	200	200	200	200
Revenue	1404000	561600	#VALUE!	1087200
Occupancy	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9
Act Revenue	1263600	505440	#VALUE!	978480
Building unit cost	4200	4200	4200	4200
Land 4 acres	4	4	4	4
$/acre	100000	200000	100000	200000
Fence	50000	50000	50000	50000
Auto gate	25000	25000	25000	25000
Electric	70000	70000	70000	70000
Security	60000	60000	60000	60000
buildings	1764000	1764000	1764000	1764000
Water????
Office????
Hydrant????
Storm pond??
Total	2369000	2769000	2369000	2769000
Ratio Rev/cost	53.3%	18.3%	#VALUE!	35.3%

Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early.