Business Websites Can Lead to Self-Storage Opportunities!

When you are researching websites for networking opportunities, don’t forget about business websites. There are a lot of self-storage owners who consider themselves to be small businesses. These self-storage owners’ network on small business websites. This is a smaller niche group of sellers. However, there are often golden opportunities on these websites.

When you are looking on small business owner websites, be sure to make comments and chat with the people on the website. Technically, you are a small business owner too. You can learn from some of the things that they have done wrong. Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. A side benefit of talking with small business owners is that many of them own the building that they are in. Many small businesses are not successful after a few years. This leaves you with an opportunity to look at the property to see if there is a potential conversion.

You are looking for properties that have a minimum of 3 to 5 acres of land. You want something that will allow you to expand or add to the property. This doesn’t mean that the property has to fill up all of that land. In fact, you are looking for something that is a minimum of 50,000 square feet. Another thing to remember is that warehouse ceilings are tall enough to support a second floor. This means that if you are looking at 50,000 square feet of warehouse space, you are actually looking at 100,000 square feet to design self-storage into.

There won’t be as many properties here. However, there are not as many investors here either. This means that when you do find a great project, there won’t be as much competition. You also want to remember that you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket. That is why we don’t say just use an agent. What if the agent doesn’t find anything? That is why we don’t say just network with self-storage owners. What if there is a great property on the MLS? That is why we don’t say…. You need to have multiple strategies for finding properties. By having multiple sources of potential leads, you are more likely to find a motivated seller that wants to work with you.

One strategy will not work 100% of the time. However, if you have enough strategies, one of them will work 100% of the time. Make sure that you are exhausting all the various ways to network with potential sellers and leads. Be creative as you look for self-storage projects. The more people you talk to, the more likely you are to find someone that you can work with. As always, happy investing.