I am looking to speak to some people that are knowledgeable about the self-storage market in the Memphis area. 

Personally, I self manage but have built systems to allow it to be fully remote and very passive.

Being the military, it had that definite institutional overtone to it, but the basic premise was the same.I recently toured a new senior's complex in which on end - for those who were still relatively self sufficient - had individual units (bedroom, sitting room / kitchenette ... effectively a bachelor apartment but without a full kitchen) clustered together in groups of 4 with their own common room / kitchen and courtyard.On the other side of the complex were units for those who required more assisted living.  

Courtesy of Dodd Frank, its doubtful the self employed will ever be viewed by lenders as favorable as a w2 employee.

Next question.... will you self-manage it, or turn it over to a professional management company, or some type of hybrid? 

The third was a program on Self Storage which was highly informative and I enjoyed through AJ Osborne.

Bizarre.My wife and I also have a self-directed 401(k) plan, @Tina Artigliere and @Alicia Prokos.

In the past two years we have completed over a dozen flips, We are holding 20 rental units self managed and 2 self managed Air BnBs.

Than learn with that safety net until your ready to take things back over to self-manage again. 

The advantage of Reg D over relying on the general exemption is (1) if you comply the SEC can’t come back and say you should have registered and (2) if your sued by a disgruntled investor you have a definitive defense, which means an attorney is unlikely to take an investors case on a contingency basis - unless fraud was committed.