All Forum Posts by: Vlad Kolbas

We own a couple of small facilities, 85 and 40 units, in a rural area about an hour away and had the same issue of customers wanting to pay in person. What we did is open an account with a local bank and directed our customers to make deposits directly into our account. We can see copies of deposit slips online with unit number and customer's name on them so we know who made those deposits. This has worked great for us.

We also use Easy Storage Solutions to manage those facilities which really helps.

If I were you I would rent out the office or convert to self-storage.

Thanks Hai. There are a couple of other facilities built recently with similar quality so that should be doable.

Thanks James. Just looking for some general guidelines to roughly get a value before we dig in deeper. I did talk with an appraiser a while ago and he gave me some good information. However I am still struggling to estimate how long to use for the lease up phase before it reaches stability. Also any other things I should consider specifically for a new self-storage facility.

Looking for some direction in how to value a brand new 120 unit  self-storage facility that is currently 30% occupied (over last 5 months). Feasibility study has been done and there is need for more storage in the area.

Are there any general guidelines when establishing a value in this scenario?

We own three other facilities that have been very successful but they were almost 100% occupied when we bought them so it was easy for us to put value on them.

Any help is appreciated!

Hi Benn, storage units have been a great investment for me and my business partner. We started in residential real estate and still own over 50 units but have ventured into self storage last year when we purchased an existing facility with 77 units in south east Nebraska to learn the business. Now we are developing and purchasing more facilities.

It's so much easier dealing with turn over than in residential, just sweep out the unit and re-rent. It's also easier to deal with delinquent tenants. While it's not a totally passive investment, neither is residential since there is always something somewhere that needs to be fixed. With self storage you mostly get calls if someone wants to move in or move out since there is really nothing that needs to be fixed regularly.

While you provided limited information, those numbers look attractive. You should investigate other self storage in the area to see their rates, occupancy levels, etc. and how they compare with this facility. Managing 17 units should be very simple, especially if you live fairly close.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions I can help you with!

Melissa, I use cozy.co to collect tenant payments and have been very happy with them. They provide a number of other features but they do not have a contract component yet.

I would suggest installing a commercial door closer and a storeroom function lock (always requires a key to enter but you can exit without a key). Hopefully that will ensure your door is always locked unless, of course, someone props it open on purpose.

I agree with Michael, we use WebSelfStorage and it's been working well for us. They assigned an Operations Analyst to our account and she helped us setup our online account over the phone and was always available for questions (either answered the phone right away when I called or returned the call within an hour). Very impressive customer service and their processing fees are low (for example $0.17 for eChecks).

Hi Bradley, as Michael said 20 minutes is really not far away. I own two self-storage facilities with 77 and 10 units each and they are 45 minutes away in another small town. We keep one unit of each size unlocked with the rental agreement in the unit. When someone calls I give them the unit number to check out. If they are interested they fill out the agreement, take a picture of it and text it to me (includes payment information). Then they drop off the completed agreement in a drop box. No need to drive over there and meet the new customer.

For software I use WebSelfStorage web app by U-Haul. It's only $45 per month and does everything for me (auto-pay, mailing letters, integrates with Quick Books, etc.). There are many other options for software, don't spend too much.

My business partner drives over there once per week just to check things out and pickup rental agreements and some rental payments (trying hard to get everyone on auto-pay but not there yet).

This is in a small town of around 7000 people and it works well for us.

We just got an estimate to build a 108' wide by 27' deep steel building with 8 units for around $47,000 ($16.11 per sq ft). This includes the building, doors and gutters. It will sit on a concrete pad ($12,000). Hope this helps.