I know what to do, I am just not sure how I can do it! 3 PROCESS INFO

In our last blog we talked about just picking up the phone and calling self-storage property owners. We established that your first phone call is just to find out if they are interested in selling and when they are, what information you need to gather.

Now that you have that information, you can begin your due diligence on the property to determine what you feel that you can offer on the property. First you need to find out what the cap rate is for that area? Analyze the rents, can you raise them? You need to do some research to find out how competitive their rates are. Is there any room for upside potential or is the property at the top of its market? Is there any room on the property to expand? Can you add more units or offer RV or Boat storage? This is where all of your knowledge comes into play. Once you know this, you need to evaluate the net operating income and determine and offering price. Once you run your numbers, you can go in armed with all your knowledge. You will know what you can offer based on the numbers. When you get to the property, you may need to subtract something for deferred maintenance. You will not know until you see the property.

When you get to the property, now you are going to actually meet the owner. Now you are going to need to show them that you are professional. If you have experience in other forms of real estate, remember that people are people. You just have to change out some of the words as you talk to the seller. If they have established that they want to sell, then they want you to come look at the property. They want you to make an offer. Do not be afraid of them. This is a symbiotic relationship.

People want to sell to people they like. There are going to be instances where someone just wants to unload the property and it is a simple business deal, but for a lot of owners, you are going to find that this is another child. They have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this property. They don’t want to just hand it over to anyone. They want to make sure that you are going to treat her right. Build a relationship with them as you walk through the property. Chat. Remember how we talked about mingling at a party, now you are going to build a relationship of trust. If they like you then they are going to want to work with you and they will be more willing to overlook little things, like the fact that this is your first self-storage facility purchase.

Don’t let the fact that this might be your first self-storage purchase stop you from starting. Everyone has to start at some point in their career. However, if what we have discussed so far sounds overwhelming or still doesn’t sound like something that you would be comfortable with, then check out our next blog on Mentors. As always, Happy Investing.