Not a whole lot of builders there, law of supply and demand.

That's a $2,400 commission.  40% goes to the brokerage to cover overhead, staff, office lease, advertising, supplies, licensing fees, e&o, etc.  

However, current tenants smoke pot pretty consistently.

There are over 40 Different ancillary income streams in the Self-Storage Industry - Truck Rental, Selling locks, boxes, and moving supplies, lighting, shelving, records storage, pack n ship, ebay.....  

@Leo GoykhmanI will try to answer question #1 You might try sending a yellow letter to anyone you know that owns property your interested inWritten on yellow paper in red ink it simply states that you are interested in purchasing the property at (address) and if they are thinking of selling supply your contact infoSorry don't have time to answer the others

I had one say he replaced all the smoke alarms and when I went to the property guess how many smoke alarms I saw?

One guy has 2 German Shepherds; its a relatively small place with a small yard, he travels and would have a roomate stay with him, in a band and has a lot of musical equipment, etc... and the other couple asked me about house parties, smoking, and how many people I would allow to say in the house at any given time. 

I've shared my thoughts and investing history with them and started getting positive feedback about wanting to partner in future deals.Here's my question:How do I make the leap from being equal equity partners to a syndication where I supply the deal and knowledge and the down payment is supplied by the partners?  

Do the best you can with the inspection, just know that depending on how hot the fire got, how much smoke was in the house and how long, where exactly the fire went, etc can end up causing a lot of unseen damage. 

EDIT - your lender would supply a pre-approval or pre-qualification letter that usually will work as proof of funds, but you still need a financing contingency because the lender can still say "no" to funding a deal they don't like.