Be careful not to violate any Fair Housing laws during this process.

@Luke Spencer I am not on the management side but I can tell you it took 2+ years to fill 300 units at one of our facilities and the other just hit 300 units in 12/13 months so it really depends on the demographics, and local housing market trend, the more people moving in and out the higher the demand for storage.I think if you're looking at a saturated market then the upfront cash to turn the warehouse into self storage is not a good idea but then again, maybe those operators are on back roads ( low visibility ) and don't push google ads well.

If I were investing in eastern WA, or where my extended family lives in Pennsylvania, those 100k houses in good condition are a real thing there.  

Any general advice is much appreciated.You should house hack to start.

Hey @Jonathan Baptiste, so we are a bit different than some.We have a large house that can sleep 12 comfortably and we provide a lot of stuff.

We plan to stay in this house for more than 5 years unless another great opportunity arises, but maybe it is best to allocate a bigger portion of savings to our real estate investment savings account than our home improvement savings account for the first few years.

Pricing tools that exist on the market are decent, but you also need to know how to control it, otherwise, it will go nuts with unrealistic rates far out and extreme last-minute discounts. 

I suspect there's lots of inventory, particularly for new folks coming into the area that find the real estate prices are much better than where they came from.Do you have a type of house you like to target?

I suspect it's due to the change in the housing market and economy.  

Letting your contractors (specifically if you have a GC) what the budget is and that the must notify you if a change order exists (versus they tell you after the work is completed).