Rock Cave Storage

[Robert Karnes]

Investment Info:

Other commercial investment investment in Rock Cave.

Purchase price: $160,000
Cash invested: $40,000
Sale price: $280,000

Self Storage.
50% occupied when purchased.
100% occupied when sold.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I wanted to try the self storage vertical. I had a friend who owned the facility. He was not interested in it as it was a very minor part of his portfolio.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Friend

How did you finance this deal?

Initially owner financing, after a year or so I refinanced with a local bank.

How did you add value to the deal?

I held the property for about 6 years. I initially cleared out non-paying tenants. Then rented up empty units. After 18 months I was 100% occupied and maintained 95%+ occupied for the next 4 years. Finally I raised prices.

What was the outcome?

I recently sold this facility to free equity for the purposes of building another facility in a nearby town.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I was just a great starter project. Small facility, in a rural community. I brought technology to the facility. Online rentals, security cameras, etc. I later bought 2 other facilities based on this experience and flipped them after renting them up and/or increasing rental rates to add value.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

no