With that, (and regarding your Question #2) I think your expense line items and numbers will run very similar to what can be found in this BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3915/27972-analyzing-the-financials-of-a-self-storage-facilityYou'll have larger units, which typically means longer length of stay and lower turnover so your management/payroll expense could be lower.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/finding-contractor

Here's a guide that describes what good cash flow looks like and how to analyze a property.https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rental-property-cash-flow...

Actively reading blogs on BP.

We've got expenses dancing around $2-3k per month, a modest $10k stash, and a student loan payment ($725/month) the size of a small country's GDP.

Every week, I write a blog about my experiences as a long-term SFR investor and property manager who has has been fortunate enough to invest in many types of real estate in many different markets and many different market cycles.

I recently graduated college - paid for by the houses my parents were flipping while I was off studying - and wanted to find a modest way to give back what I could.To do this, I'm making a tool that lets them scan their receipts and it will automatically upload it to a pre-formatted Google Sheet that they can keep for each property to track expenses and eventually other metrics like returns etc...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/short-term-rental-loans-a...

Our income was modest for those years (and still is modest - less than 6 digits last year). 

. - Buying with no leverage (all cash) is the right answer if you experience only modest appreciation during the hold, and if the cap rate is lower than the interest rate.