LENDERS FOR ELF STORAGE

[Allen Hudson]

Has anyone had any luck with obtaining bank financing on a storage facility in which there are no financials? The seller can provide rent rolls, but not traditional financials. Tax returns are useless as well because the seller lumps multiple investments into an LLC for tax purposes. The facility has historically ran at a high occupancy (around 90%) with 111 units. Thanks in advance.

[Neil Henderson]

Similar to what @Mark Byrge said, might be an opportunity to try and negotiate seller financing or a lease option to give you time to sort out the financials. 

"I can't take these to a bank to get traditional financing? They'll want to value the property based on the income and the underwriters will want to see expenses and income statements, probably from a tax return."

It amazes me the number of mom and pop self storage owners who will step over dollars to pick up pennies when it comes to reporting income to the IRS. "Congratulations, you cheated the IRS out of $100,000 in taxes over the last 25 years of ownership and yourself out of $1,000,000 in valuation when it came time to sell."