All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

@Daniel Eley

On the valuation note above. I have to apologize.  I'm a retired CPA, Controller and CFO who doesn't get his math right all of the time.  For example:  I won't invest in a project unless $1 plus $1 = $3.  Ha Ha.

Funny Math:

Self Storage is red hot now.  1 plus 1 = $3. 

Also the value of all 14 acres, just the ground increased once you put a business on it.  Plus you chopped it up to subdivide.  Our latest 8 acre site we paid $25,000 per acre and appraised for a little above that.  Now appraised $100,000 per acre two years later just because we developed part of it.

A 10x10 unit should rent for about the same as a 10x15; "IF" it has a concrete road in front of it.

RV storage rental of 10 x 40 at $300= $.75/sqft; is worth less than a 10 x 20 at $130= $.65/sqft.  I will let you ponder that one.

Keep doing the math and research on deals.  Vet this one out. Answer all of the questions on this property I mentioned.  Pick 10 other properties and keep doing the math.  Go to the classes or seminars.

@Nicholas Ludwiczak

If your going to get into Self Storage, this is a great deal.

The market sounds small for these two locations, thus there must be a lot of people living in the countryside.

Here is the approach I would take for a small market Self storage setup.  Subject to zoning.

Use Cargo Containers.  The risk of a small market is over building. 

-  Containers can be added in small increments.  

-  They can be sold or moved if the market is not there.

- They can be installed during the winter.

- No property taxes.

- Recommendation.  Look at all small towns or road intersections.  See if you can buy 1/2 to 1 acre size lots along the road.  Lay two rows of rock about 4 inches off the ground and set the containers on top of them.  Make sure the rock and the containers are level or the doors won't work right.  Look for my post on Cargo Containers.

-  Identify a looping road route and build along that route.  Take a sandwich, apple, drink, and weed spray and do your loop once a week.  See my self Service youtube on our website on setting up self service.

Managing- we use Webselfstorage.  Have not compared, not saying its the best.  $44.95 per month web based.  Set everyone, even your house renters up on the system.  Try or make them go to autopay.  If they don't go to autopay, raise there rents $10.  We have 800 customers and about 650 are on autopay.  We don't send out invoices.  Would not do manually or be in the business otherwise.

Great investment.

@Daniel Eley

Forgot. 

During construction and rent up require an Interest only loan.  No principal.  Request either rent up to 65% occupancy or 18 months before switching to principal and interest.

Life insurance- Do a 5 year term $4,000,000 policy on yourself.  During the development stage is the time your family is most at risk.  A partially completed business is not worth much.  Cancel when you are past the last phase.  Won't cost that much.

@Daniel Eley

@Daniel Eley@Daniel Eley

Use these templates to digest the deal.

@Daniel Eley

Everything everybody has said is true, "but not for you".

Lets eat this Elephant, one bite at a time.  And it is an Elephant.

YOU:

A.  Why are you different?  Business experience.  Jumped off the cliff into business.  Have two locations and you own them.  Financially you should be in a good position.  Critical thinking skill set.  You already have succeeded or failed/learned from 75% of all "business" issues.  Your not starting at zero as an investor or business person.  You just need to learn Self Storage.

Every person should want to be a Doctor, Dentist, Lawyer, Engineer or Indian Chief.  Not really.  Because if they stop working, no income comes in.  If they want to get more income, they have to hire people and start a business.  They have to feed the "Animal".  You want Passive Income.

B.  I don't know you.  My cousin has two Dental practices in Houston.  Very wealthy and well to do.  He has a problem though, he has to keep feeding the Animal.  Wants to retire or back off when he is 60.  Luckily his son has joined his practice and is learning.  He will reduce his hours and at some point sell or give up his practice to his son.

C. "Don't Answer."   What is your game plan?  At what age?  Have you and your spouse asked, When is enough, enough?  How do we get to enjoy our wealth?  Etc. Etc.  Now is the time to answer those questions and put a game plan and action in place.

D.  "Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early".  If you read most of my posts, I end with that suggestion.  Why am I recommending you don't do that?  Read A thru C.  Existing Experience, Financial position, Age/life cycle, critical thinking skill set.

E. You already recognize there will be a ramp up stage where you personally invest more time in the development. You could start doing SFH/MFH, but it will take you years to learn it and a lot of personal time. Plus half of the Return, is the fun of hunting/landing the property, staying under budget and then getting it rented. You can't invest that much time and would not enjoy it since you have to long term trade off Dental work, which pays more and is comfortable. Doing a large storage location is a one time event over 12 months during the development Phase 1. Phase 2 thru how many, takes very little effort. You already know all of the answers and who is going to do it.

How much are you willing to lose?:

You actually have two questions above.    How much time in your life cycle are you willing to lose to reach your passive income level? How much money are your willing to lose?

Life Cycle-  how much cash flow do you need to stop being a dentist or to go part time.  At some point you sell your practice and work part time so you can invest and enjoy your life style.  How many years do you have to develop a passive income plan to hit that number?  A large storage location gets you there quicker than almost any other investment.  Remember, I'm not selling you anything.

How much are you willing to lose?-  First of all, if you don't do something in the next year, you're never doing a Passive investment plan.  Your financial life is to easy.  Its pre-set, and you know it.  Again, I don't know you.  Positive-  So how much money are you willing to lose, to achieve your life cycle on the timeline you want?  $50,000;  $100,000; $200,000  etc.  Negative-  At that number, will your kids still get to go to college?  Will you still be able to vacation?  Will you still have a profitable Dental practice? Etc, Etc.  That is the number you are looking for.

Lets go Barbecue some Elephant:

Before we get started and fire up the grill, lets see if we need to stop.  Get the following answers on the 14 acres:

a.  Is it zoned correctly?

b.  Is it in a flood plain?  No point in building if you have to get flood insurance.  Go find another piece of ground.

c.  What is the storage unit market there?  How many people in a 3 and then a 5 mile radius?  How many storage units are there?

d. How are you financing? What is your LTV%? SBA 10%; SBA 20%; Conventional 25%; Conventional 40%. You need to know how much cash or collateralization at 65% value you need.

Lets Fire up the Grill:

a.  14 acres-  your not going to use all 14 acres.

  1.  A 14 acre site is as rare as "Anodontia"., 

2. Your radius will not support 244,000 sq ft of storage. Even if it could you would have other competition in the market and have the extreme risk of a big REIT coming into your market and devaluing your operation. (High Risk),

  3.  Size of your location.  For a manager you will need at least 300 units, which is about 4 to 5 acres depending on the shape of the land.  About 120 units per 2 acres.  If doing Boat/RV's, then another 3 to 4 acres.

  4.  Again depending on the shape, size, entrances, and visibility of the land, recommend you immediately Subdivide and sell portions.  If possible you keep a large frontage and then the entire back section of the property.  Sell off the road frontages, that can use the visibility.  Basically you want an L shaped property, with the toe being your access to the highway and the storage.

b.  Lets build:

  1.  Do in phases, let the shape of the land and the driveways determine how you will build.  But plan on building out as you need them.  Can run the numbers, but at a minimum you will need to build at least 300 units to support a manager (part time, weekends you cover for now, to learn).  24 hour phone service(part timer and you).

  2.  Big cost issues.  Find out if you need water or sewer access.  Road type, concrete or rock.  Don't do asphalt in Florida.  Storm ponds or drainage.  You have to build for run off, can't have flat drives in your area, especially for the long driveways you would have on a 14 acre site.

c.  Financing:

  1.  Lets start with 4 acres of land. @$100,000 /acre= $400,000; yes, you need to finance the rest of the land.

   2.  330 units at $3,200 erected= $1,056,000;  Steel is increasing 25% now.

   3.  Concrete driveways- $400,000

    4.  Fence/automated gate- $60,000

    5.  Electric- $50,000

     6.  Security- $60,000

     7.  Office- $35,000 with furnishings

     8.  Engineering- $50,000

     9.  Dirt work- really depends.  You said flat, so go with $30,000

   10.  Is Electric/water/sewer/fire service available?  If not add $20,000 up to $250,000 more.

11. Talk with you Finance outlet and see what their LTV% is and if you have enough Collateral.

What happens if you get Barbecued?:

Land- $1,500,000;  if you sell as is, you will pay 7% commission plus holding costs (interest/property tax) for 1 year.  Estimate- $190,000; you lose.

You build out the 4 acres and 330 units.  Lets say you have $2,300,000 into it.  Your market should be good, otherwise you shouldn't have built in the first place.  Then it becomes a question of when you sell.  At 30%/50%/70%/90% occupancy.  This may sound strange, but that's the market.  The day you complete the location, it should be worth about $2,500,000 to $2,700,000 before you rent to one customer.  When you get to 90% occupancy, it should be worth about $3,000,000 depending on your rent levels, possibly more.  If your in a good market, you should be at 90% in 2 years.  Estimate- $0 you lose.  It all depends on your analysis of the market at the beginning.  Read my post, "Will they come?"

There is nothing in self storage that can't be vetted.

1.  Take the above and build an outline or get my Checklist 101 post.  Challenge the largest numbers or unknowns first and work your way down.

2.  Sign up and go to seminars or classes as soon as possible.

3.  Start valuing and analyzing storage properties.  Even ones you will not buy.  If you don't get this one, buy or build another one.  But keep doing the math.

"Don't Start Small and make your big mistakes early."  Jump in.  You are one of the few people I will tell this, and I don't know you.

@Troy Owen

Your welcome.  I'm only here for the next 1 to 1 1/2 years; until we move on to our next investment asset and life style.  Please use the Self Storage services and training centers as much as possible.  I don't know how much they cost, but I can tell you whatever it costs, I have more than paid for a years worth of training through my learning experiences.

Looks like your already an investor, so the following comment might not be for you.

Growing Wealth takes three things:

a.  An Idea.

b.  Financing (not necessarily)

c.  Someone to jump off the 9-5 cliff.

Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early.

1.  Look at any EPA or hazmat issues first.  Know what/who has used the building.

2.  At 15,600 your in an "in between" size.  Need to go bigger (not an option) or smaller (2,000 Sqft) units.  Also look at Parking spots, and access to determine potential usage.  This would be a great 5 or 6 unit spot for Contractors (plumbers, electricians, car enthusiasts, etc.

3.  Your clear span is okay if you can take out any walls to make single pays larger.  

4. Door sizes?  14 foot tall and 12 or 14 wide.

5. Gentrification. If this is in Flourtown, looks like a great location to various areas. See what zoning allows for changes. Your back ground shows SFH/MFH. Change this to industrial condos MFH.

6.  This would be a great size for a Craft Beer operation.  Production and bar.

Make the offer at an industrial usage; although you might take to a higher value product.  Not giving you much help from an industrial standpoint, but I like higher value use conversion.  Make the offer "Subject to either rezoning or Special use permit".  Put a redeemable earnest money deposit down to hold the offering.

Love taking coal and making diamonds.  We mainly do Self storage, but are getting ready to do Contractor bays on 4 acres.

Great project.

@Nicholas Ludwiczak

See the post I did on Self Storage valuation.

Cash flow at 65% occupancy should be zero, including interest and principal; for Phase 1 build.  That's on a 20 to 25 year term loan.  If your at $500 per month on 87.5% occupancy, I would walk away.

Do a cost to build on the Storage units.  I'm going with a 2 to 3 acre lot out in the suburbs or countryside.  $3,200 erected per unit; 3 acres at $??,???, Fence 2 acres $20,000; Gate system $15,000;  Electric $7,000;  Security $7,000; road rock $20,000; driveway entrance $??,???; No water/sewer/storm pond or drain.

Segregate the analysis of the house and the storage.  Especially if the house can be subdivided from the storage and sold and managed separately.  Analyze the house like you would normally do.  Then isolate on the storage.

This is a good size location to start with.  Determine if Self Storage is something you want to do.  I like to stay in my "lane" and not have several different types of businesses going at once.  Or if your market is small there, then you might need more "Lanes".

Find out why he is only 87.5% full.  Either the market is not big enough.  Or he is not marketing correctly.  Or he just added new units.  87.5% full from a unit, economic or sq foot standpoint?  If it is from a unit standpoint and most of the vacants are 5 x10's; but the economic occupancy it 95% then different questions arise.

Changing rates is not that big of an issue.  As people noted above, where are they going to go?  Its the middle of winter, also.  If you are sensitive to the potential for people leaving, then do it in segments.  Example: Do it by unit size, every 2 months a different size increase.  Or do it on all new contracts.  Or do it based on Lowest rates first or long term renters first.

This could be a great deal, but analyze your market.  What is the population size and how many units are in the immediate area?  Raising rents even $10 per unit has a large impact on the analysis.  If your market can support it, do a Phase 2.  This will only take a 35% occupancy to breakeven/payoff.  Added to Phase 1, this makes the total deal more attractive.

Check with your bank if they are willing to take a Second position on the property, if the owner does a loan on the down payment.  Don't ask the owner for a loan.  Just have the balance due 5 years out with zero % interest as part of the sale.

Don't buy the "business".  Buy the assets.  Have the assets listed separately on the contract.  House/roads/buildings/fence/electrical/security/signage/landscaping/etc.  That way it is easier to do year one writeoffs and not have to do a Cost Segregation study.  You determine the figures, tell him the figures to use for each of the above. Don't ask, unless he just built all of this and it is fresh on his mind.  Try to put as much value as possible away from the house and the storage buildings, to get faster write off.  Ask if you can put in a section for a Non Compete agreement so you can move more money away from the house and buildings.  You can write it off quicker.

Try for a 10% SBA loan.  To hold the deal since SBA can take a while, do a $10,000 earnest money deposit for 6 months.

Great first step into Self Storage.

@sarah andrews; follow up to your post and @steve c comments.

Response to question, “How are Self Storage locations valued?”. I will go with a multiple response answer.

Simple answer: If you look out on Loopnet, most Self Storage listings will show Cap rate.

Layered answer: I'm just talking about Mom/Pop and not REIT valuations. Most of them list for what they "think" it is worth, with no financial development of their listing price. Basically blood/sweat/tears valuation. Most of them have only owned and will only sell one location.

Integrity of Cap rate or data: I would look at the source or realtor behind the listing first. If a National self storage realtor, then they will most likely have challenged the data behind the Cap Rate. If a local Realtor they may not have cleansed the data. I looked at one location that is getting a lot of attention, and Property taxes and Management fees were not included in the Cap Rate calculation. They weren't trying to hide anything, they were just going with the info supplied from the owner.

Valuation method, who cares: There is a lot of REI cash sloshing around for self storage, thus a financial approach to valuing an asset is probably not the best approach for a listing price. You as an investor, however have to make sure the numbers work for your goals. I've evaluated several properties "List”/ “price I would offer” = $1,000,000/$600,000; $1,250,000/$1,000,000; $2,500,000/$1,800,000; $1,350,000/$800,000. They will probably get their price, just not from me. Currently “Developing” is a better investment than buying. But Developing is not in everyone's tool chest or timeline.

Our financial targets are 8 to 12 year payback/off, including interest/principal; with a 20/25 year term loan.

When evaluating a property from a Financial standpoint your major items are:

a. Revenue and is it sustainable.- audit the rent roll. Past dues, and length of rentals, last price increase. How many are the owners.

b. Property Tax- google local tax rate and also look at GIS map with tax info.

c. Insurance- use rough $2,000 per $500,000 valuation

d. Management- depends self service or onsite.

e. Electric/upkeep/grass/snow- estimate

Throw all of the above info out, except both of our financial targets.

Evaluating a property, the following are the steps we go through:

1. Financial targets met?

2. Develop financial data our self, other than Revenue figures. Your biggest numbers are noted above in “a” thru “e” above.

3. Value assessment. Lets compare two locations with the exact same net income and buildings. Both listed at $1,500,000 with cap rates of 6%; they both hit your financial targets. Both are in two different locations(A/B). I pick “B”. Why?

- B, has two extra acres tied to it. We can add 130 more units. Which has a payoff of 3.5 years once full and an occupancy of 35% needed to break even (including interest/principal).

- B, last raised their rents four years ago. $10 per unit increase on a $80 unit, increases your cash flow around 30%, and may reduce your total project payoff by 2 years, approximations.

- B, is not automated. Move to autopay, reduce your work load/management costs.

- B, has truck and packaging sales. Get rid of it and reduce management costs.

- B, has a two way intersection, with pull out lanes. C, does not have a cross over intersection.

- C, is in a market with 10 units/100 people; B, is in a market with 4 units/100 people.

- B, is in a hilly area, with almost no zoning for Self storage and in the middle of neighborhoods. C is in a flat industrial area, where anyone can build storage and away from the neighborhoods. Evaluate zoning maps, zoning codes, future zoning plans.

4. Risk Assessment. The last two items above are your risk assessment.

Don't tell the seller. I am willing to pay an extra $200,000 for "B". When you look at locations listed, they won't tell you the items noted in 3 above. Don't get hung up on the COC, NOI, Cap rate, etc. Verify they hit your "numbers". Challenge the data, then evaluate the properties on their merits.

Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early.

@Taylor White

My family did a Trailer park for about 10 years.  We are now in Self Storage.

Short answer Self Storage is better on all metrics you noted above.  As mentioned by Steve Cheslock, higher barrier to entry, both dollars and zoning.

Long answer, can't answer you:

ROI, is relative to how you bought in, Self Storage or MFH. Are you talking the same market for both.

Vermont is too wide a spread of Economics.  Are you talking Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth; basically the Boston market.  Or Middlebury, Lincoln, Hanover.  Both Self Storage and MFH are very location specific on both their Land/Unit and Rental price.

Realize the same can be said for MFH (BRRR), but on your 100-120 unit location (2 acres) you have both the Development gain of $100,000 to $200,000 just building the location and getting operational. Plus the ongoing returns. Other than Land price, it would cost the same to build in no matter what town your in, expensive (Portsmouth) or inexpensive (Hanover). If you buy in at the correct price, your return will be greater in Portsmouth or Manchester. Your rent will be double. Even if your land price is double, your return will be higher since the building/fence/security/electrical/etc will be the same.

The really big swings in building a Storage location are: Footings required, Concrete/Asphalt roads or rock, Sewer/water required for bathroom, fire hydrant required, storm retention pond or drainage, etc. These will impact your ROI comparison.

On your ROI calculation, Self Storage-

Building maintenance- zero;

Snow/road/grass maintenance; 

Property Tax/Insurance ($2,000/yr)/electric lights/Interest Expense

Management fee- we do it ourselves, but for comparable charge something.  We spend about 25 hours per week on 800 units, including grass cutting/snow removal/weeds/customer calls- self service.

Advertising- we don't do any, but use Sparefoot (about .5% overall).

Depreciation/Taxes- leave to you.  We do early depreciation and shoot for negative returns the first 1.5 years depending on year one write offs.

We don't think about ROI. Our objective is a location with an 8 to 12 year payback (payoff-including debt/interest); on a 20 to 25 year term loan. We look at cash flow. Buy or develop, and hold. Plus market appreciation (which actually occurs immediately upon opening) on the backside.