Should we add an automatic gate to the facility?

Question

Earlier this month my partners and I purchased our first self storage facility and we are in the process of turning it around now! We had a question related to entry system (gate ect…) and I figured this forum could provide some experienced insight.

The backstory.

The facility is a 28 unit 6000sqft building in a secondary market that has very healthy demand. The reason I say this is because I know the facilities around us are at full occupancy for the same size unit that makeup our facility. There are 4 facility’s within 3 mile range and they are all much bigger

50,000 sqft+. The product they offer vs ours will be very comparable however they have automatic gate for the entry of their customers and we currently do not.

Question.

Our facility currently just has a chain link swing gate locked with a chain and padlock. We feel the current set up is not the most attractive, efficient and secure to either the owner or future customers. We also feel that an automatic gate of some sorts will not make financial sense for the size of the property. What others ways do you think we can problem solve this? We would love to have transparency to our facility on who is entering and exiting and also give the customer a better experience on how they enter the property which would would allow us to achieve higher rates .

Any input is greatly appreciated! Best of luck to everyone out there in the storage game.

Bill Snyder · Answer

An automatic gate is one of the first things that will add safety and security to a facility, both real and perceived.-It provides a barrier to entry against casual trespass-It gives a sense of security to the customer-It allows the owner to deny entry to owing accounts -It can be keypad operated for only valid tenants or time operated for access hours; either way it minimizes the need for staff involvement-It allows "tracking" of tenant access to identify trouble patterns.When I first started this current development, I had an automatic gate before I had any actual tenants. 😉

Account Closed · Answer

@Drew C Grossman My initial thought is to put the automatic gate on. It will provide a "feature" I believe your renters will appreciate. Being that your competition has the gate, it seems that is the standard to operate at. Additionally, throw in a couple of plants around the new gate and it could really dress up the front. On a side note and I think this is very important, if you have an electronic gate, you are able to provide the code to your local Law Enforcement agency. If you have an active burglary, fire, medical issue, etc, they can enter the code and immediately get into the facility to provide assistance.

Ronald Rohde · Answer

Are you making other upgrades in line with the market? The thing on these one off upgrades, is that it won't produce an NOI bump unless the rest of the facility matches market. You'll have to run the capex against rate of return, but be sure to analyze holistically, not just a one-off improvement.

Account Closed · Answer

A problem with electronic gates is it they are often very simple to open by disconnecting the chain of some other mechanism. It is often fairly simple to access the 24-volt wire at the keypad or some location, cross the wire and open the gate. I think every electronic gate still needs a good padlock of some type.The next problem with electronic gates is they require a massive amount of maintenance since there are many delicate sensors, moving parts and bad drivers often destroy the gates and don't report that they crashed into it before it completely opened or closed.I think in your case you should see how business goes without the gate and if you keep all your units rented then you don't need an electronic gate. For 28 storage units, I am wondering how you can afford to provide 24-hour protection and access to units for your tenants since I imagine tenants like to have access no less than Monday through Saturday between 8 am and 5 pm and that has to be a lot of labor costs, payroll taxes, etc.

Henry Clark · Answer

@Drew C GrossmanRun your numbers. Our automated gates run about $25,000. We have 4 locations in small towns with no gates. Numbers don’t work. Have far better than competitor camera systemDepending on your access points recommend you go with camera system. Then a buried road sensor or a motion sensor that sends text messages. You can say all of the time Or just between certain hours We have one with a road sensor we set to only signal from 10pm to 8 amWe can look on our phone or computer to see who is there or look back at history.