All Forum Posts by: Taylor Witt

I know this was repealed by Trump a while back, but I am wondering has this been enacted already or is there a certain date it will be repealed?

Does anyone have a 2017 self-storage almanac laying around that they could share with me?  I would like to continue educating myself but don't want to outright purchase one.  I could help compensate for yours!

@Ivan Barratt Thank you, I will be sure to check that out.

@Michael Bishop I will definitely do a property specific pitch book when we have a property under contract, and then I will only present that one with some previous success. What I am looking to do right now, while we don't have anything under contract, is to put something together showing what we are looking for, what are projections would be for our criteria, IRR, returns, and then a case study of a previous investment we have done, etc. I just want to get a pulse on how well it will be received and start gathering interest and expand our investor base.

I am in the midst of working with my business partners as we are preparing for upcoming syndications.  Currently, we do not have any under contract but we have been speaking with some investors.  I would like to put together a pitch book to show these investors.  We have experience in apartment investing and other real estate ventures that we would like to leverage to show our success.

We have a general outline of what we want it to look like but are struggling to put together some of the finer details, pages, etc.  I also want to make sure we include everything that we should.

Would anyone be so kind as to point me in the direction of a good pitch book they have seen or have?  Like I mentioned before, I don't want it to be property specific, but essentially shows our plan with past success.

BP,

I am looking to get my business better marketed.  Been looking into AdwordsNerds, PushFire, SoaringSEM, and Investor Carrot.  Maybe I'm too new to know the difference, but there seems to be quite a discrepancy in price and not so much on the offerings they provide.  Is there anyone that has experience with any of these companies and their thoughts about them?

What should I be looking for in these companies?  What are other peoples reviews?  Anything helps, thank you!

Taylor Witt

@Justin Silverio Yes, I do have access to the MLS. Would you mind walking me through your process for pulling those records?

BP - My reasons behind writing this post are to track my own progress, get other peoples best practices, and give updates along the way so we can all learn.

I am doing my first direct mail campaign focused on self storage facilities in Minnesota.  I purchased a list from List Source which I was initially excited about and really enthused to get my postcards out the door!  But after digging into the data that was provided, I noticed that only half the County's I was looking to mail to showed up on their list.  I was going to miss half my audience of who I thought I was mailing to!  I called List Source to investigate further, they looked into it, and a day later a gentleman called and said that some County's don't provide their information.  Then I looked into the data further, and about 5% of the addresses I received were actually addresses to self storage facilities.  I'm not sure why this information was provided or in the criteria, because I spoke with 2 different customer support reps and said I should have the correct information while creating my lists.

So I decided to buckle down and create my own lists.  I found the markets that I wanted to be in and I ran Google searches and cross referenced with Map Quest to verify I was getting all the facilities.  I then checked the all the County's in which these facilities are located to find the owner and mailing address.  I have 400 or so remaining data points to enter before sending my first mailer out.  I will be doing 3 separate postcards, 1 each month, and be following these up with phone calls.

What have others done to be successful in their marketing efforts?  What other options do I have other than List Source, or should I just continue to build my own database?  How often are you sending mailers and changing your letter/postcard you are sending?

I will keep everyone updated as I go with results.

I'm heading to Scotts training in a couple weeks out in Indianapolis. Really excited to see what comes of the training! His information I have already purchased has been valuable. I'll write with my review once I return.

Cody, you had mentioned you can run these facilities without a manager. How do people do this? Are there still not move outs and cleaning to be done? Also, isn't reconciling units imperative? What systems do people put in place to fully automate their facilities? I know Software is incorporated and kiosks can be used, but how else is a nearly hands off approach achieved?

Thank you both for the reply!

@Krystallin Baker If you wouldn't mind getting us in contact, that would be great!  My contact information is below.