All Forum Posts by: Christopher Porter

@Logan Hartle Thanks for that recommendation. Definitely a much cheaper way to dive into this topic. Really appreciate the input! I bought a couple of his courses and I'm looking forward to starting them this week.

@Logan Hartle I just took a look at his courses and they look like solid options. I don’t necessarily need the certification, more so looking for the education. That said, how in-depth does he go with the content? Do his courses provide enough info for me to develop my own institutional quality financial models after doing some of his more advanced courses?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Chris

Good morning everyone,

Does anyone have experience with the REFAI certification course offered by REFM or the Accelerator program offered by Adventures in CRE? Trying to gauge which one to pursue, if any. Any input is much appreciated. Feel free to DM as well if easier. Thanks!

Chris

Hey @Paul Moore, I'm still just trying to educate myself. Nothing paid yet like Scott's programs. Just reading and gleaning what I can from books and forums.

Funny story I think you'll appreciate actually...

Your ebooks about SS and MHP were two of the first sources of info I read when first trying to figure out what direction to go in with Commercial RE. So, I suppose a thank you is in order for piquing my interest in these two asset types.

On another note, I've perused your website a little and, if I'm not mistaken, it seems like your role in real estate has taken on more of a finance role as opposed to being more directly involved in the day-to-day operations. I'd be really interested in hearing more of your story and how you made that transition (assuming I'm not totally off on that impression, of course). Have a good one! Hope to hear from you.

@Henry Clark

Thanks for those resources. I perused a bunch of the articles you've written and there's a lot of good info in there! I will definitely be turning to them as I go through this process. I do have one question that I wouldn't be able to answer without input from someone who is actively involved in self-storage, so if you don't mind, I'll turn this thread that direction.

Knowing that I'll be moving away from Pensacola in a year, that this is my first time investing in self-storage, and that my strategy will be finding mom and pop operators who've mismanaged their facility and aren't maximizing revenue, do you think one year is enough time to buy, stabilize the facility, and establish systems/processes such that I don't have to be involved in day-to-day operations? Just trying to prevent a painful situation where I'm still in the process of stabilizing the property in Pensacola yet find myself living up in Virginia (Virginia is just a random location, not where I'm actually going).

@Jim Kittridge

Yeah, it seems like self-storage is one of those niches that requires boots on the ground style research. Thanks for the input. If you have an opinion on the question above that I've directed at Henry, any input would be greatly appreciated.

On another note, I was looking around at your company website. Seems like you have a pretty nice operation going on. I'm assuming you're actively involved with the flipping, then use your active income to build a more passive portfolio?

@Jim Kittridge

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the response. The oversupply was a big hesitation for me when I first started looking into it, but it seems that self-storage is hyper-localized, so (if I'm understanding correctly) a national oversupply wouldn't necessarily affect an MSA or city in the same way as, say, it does with the housing market. Based on your experience, do you agree with that assumption?

Also, you mentioned rates/occupancy in my market. I've found a few data aggregators that claim to provide that sort of data but haven't paid for their services yet. Do you have any tips for compiling rate/occupancy data for a particular market?

Thank,

Chris

@Henry Clark

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the amount of input. I'm going to preface all my responses by saying I've only been learning about self-storage for about a month, and I say that to say that I'm still sorting out what I think the best strategy will be for me, but also that the strategy I initially decide on could easily change as I continue to learn about self-storage.

That said, I'm currently interested in using a private equity model to acquire a long term portfolio of self-storage assets. So, I suppose I could say I would be an investor and operator (but outsource/automate as much of the day-to-day operations as possible).

I'm currently a Pilot in the Navy stationed in Pensacola, FL, but I will have to move in a little over a year, so that introduces another obstacle that I will have to overcome especially considering that this is my first foray into self-storage.

As far as product offering goes, I'm interested in mom-and-pop facilities with value-add opportunities. I know that's a vague answer considering all the ways to add value with self-storage, but that's about as defined as my criteria are at this point. I'll have to really narrow that down in the coming months.

My only investment in self-storage education so far has been time, nothing financial other than a couple books. That's kind of why I wanted to hear from investors who are in the self-storage space, to confirm that self-storage is worth pursuing with my time and money before I find myself 6 months into learning about self-storage only to find out that REIT's and regional operators have already squeezed out all the value-add opportunities and I just wasted time trying to find good deals.

You said in one of the last sentences of your response that the next 10 years will be a great time to invest, and based on what I've been seeing, I've come to a similar conclusion. I guess my reason for originally posting this thread was to find that confirmation from people much more experienced than me. Thanks again for your input!

Sorry for the double post. Don't think I got the tag right the first time.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the amount of input. I'm going to preface all my responses by saying I've only been learning about self-storage for about a month, and I say that to say that I'm still sorting out what I think the best strategy will be for me, but also that the strategy I initially decide on could easily change as I continue to learn about self-storage. 

That said, I'm currently interested in using a private equity model to acquire a long term portfolio of self-storage assets. So, I suppose I could say I would be an investor and operator (but outsource/automate as much of the day-to-day operations as possible). 

I'm currently a Pilot in the Navy stationed in Pensacola, FL, but I will have to move in a little over a year, so that introduces another obstacle that I will have to overcome especially considering that this is my first foray into self-storage. 

As far as product offering goes, I'm interested in mom-and-pop facilities with value-add opportunities. I know that's a vague answer considering all the ways to add value with self-storage, but that's about as defined as my criteria are at this point. I'll have to really narrow that down in the coming months.

My only investment in self-storage education so far has been time, nothing financial other than a couple books. That's kind of why I wanted to hear from investors who are in the self-storage space, to confirm that self-storage is worth pursuing with my time and money before I find myself 6 months into learning about self-storage only to find out that REIT's and regional operators have already squeezed out all the value-add opportunities and I just wasted time trying to find good deals.

You said in one of the last sentences of your response that the next 10 years will be a great time to invest, and based on what I've been seeing, I've come to a similar conclusion. I guess my reason for originally posting this thread was to find that confirmation from people much more experienced than me. Thanks again for your input!

For all the self-storage investors out there,

I'm new to self-storage, so forgive me if this is a simplistic set of questions, but...

It seems that most of the research/data that I'm coming across regarding a self-storage investment outlook is focused on the next 1-2 years, and it seems to indicate a mostly positive investment climate. I could be totally wrong about that as I'm very new to this. That said, I'm looking for opinions on what many of you think the self-storage investment climate will look like over a longer time horizon i.e. 5-10 years. Do you think it will continue to grow and be a strong investment over the course of that timeline?

And if you think it will continue to be a strong sector to invest in, what are some of the demand indicators you look at to help you come to that conclusion?

Thanks for the input. From the perspective of someone who hasn't yet invested in self-storage but is looking to start, it's nice to hear from those with experience instead of simply relying on data/analytics.

Chris