Raising Self-Storage Unit Rental Rates is a Dance

When you are in the self-storage industry, you know that markets can become stagnant because some people never raise their rates. You don’t want to be one of these facilities. You want to make sure that you are regularly raising the rates within your facility so that you are staying up with the competition and you are keeping your bottom line increasing.

Whether you decide to raise your rates every 6 months, 9 months, or every year, you should be regularly raising your rates. Your renters don’t get to move in and keep the same rate forever. You need to decide what your schedule is going to be before you open your doors. This way you can have your systems in place for your very first contract.

Remember that you are not talking about huge rate increases. You want them to be so small that your renters don’t even notice. You don’t want a mass exodus. You want the amount to be so small that it isn’t worth it to them to move their belongings into someone else’s facility. If you raise the rate by a few dollars every 9 months, your bottom line improves without risking people moving out.

When you raise rates, you can either do it at a specific point in their rental time period or you can simply raise rents based on the section of the facility, but you should never raise the rates on your entire facility at the exact same time.

Because of the complexity of managing unit rents, you need to find a good self-storage rate management tool to help your manager track who needs their rent increased and when. If you have software reminding them that someone is coming up on their 7 month date and that it is time to send out the rate increase notice, they aren’t constantly having to track each unit. If you only have 10 units, this may not be a problem, but once you own thousands of units, it will be harder to track without software.

Don’t be afraid to raise rates. This is a great way to increase your bottom line and keep your self-storage facility profitable. As always, happy investing.