
Self Storage Income
The authority on creating wealth and income through self storage.
Find our video podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoaCszL7eN9T7EixaJgL49WTLsT-CWLD1
Latest episodes

Oct 1, 2024 • 29min
263. The Man Who Taught an Entire Country to Start Using Self Storage w/Henry Madden
Ten years ago, barely anyone in Brazil used self storage, or even knew what it was, for that matter. But one man, Henry Madden, saw what no one else could: a country sentimental about physical items, with a population living in small apartments and needing more space. The problem? How can there be demand for self storage when nobody in Brazil even knew they needed it?
Fast forward to today, Henry owns the most popular, highest-demand self storage facilities in Brazil. He can’t build units fast enough and is raking in high rents even with Brazil’s significantly lower building cost. So, how did a foreigner successfully create a new industry, learn the laws and regulations, and succeed even during lockdowns?
Want to build wealth in self storage? Like Henry, you need to think outside the box (or more like BUILD the box). He shares exactly how he started his business, built his massively successful first self storage facility, and the lessons YOU can learn from his experience to invest in a market nobody else believes in.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
Why Henry chose Brazil as the country to start building his self storage empire
Educating an entire population and creating (not finding) self storage customers
The surprisingly high rents Henry brings in at his Brazilian facilities
The cost to build a multi-story, class-A self storage facility in Brazil
Out-building your competitors in dense, urban areas so you control the market
The one event that “triggered” Brazilians to start using self storage
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Moby Self Storage https://mobystorage.net.br/

Sep 17, 2024 • 1h 1min
262. Self Storage 101: Underwriting and Analyzing a Facility in 2024
How do you get the best self storage deals? You’ll need self storage underwriting! Underwriting (AKA analysis) allows you to tell whether or not a facility is worth the price, how much you should offer, and whether it’s even worth buying in the first place. Plus, it’s not just about analyzing on-market deals. You can use our self storage underwriting model to find the “money on the table” off-market deals that most investors will miss.
Today, we’re teaching you the first steps of how to value a self storage facility. Regardless of how a seller prices their facility, you MUST perform this analysis to ensure you get a good deal. AJ and Conner discuss the intrinsic vs. extrinsic value of self storage investments and how to control one of these factors so you ALWAYS buy deals with significant upside. We’ll touch on underwriting expenses, revenue, occupancy, and more, plus the one huge opportunity that most investors are missing out on today.
Ready to buy your first self storage facility or expand to the next one? This is where to start!
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
How to underwrite (analyze) a self storage facility to ensure it’ll make you money
The “money on the table” variables you can’t overlook when analyzing storage deals
Why the “value” of a facility is NOT the same as what a seller prices it for
Why you should never, EVER assume the market will make your facility worth more
One huge opportunity in self storage that most investors are running from
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Sep 10, 2024 • 48min
261. How to Get More Self Storage Customers While Spending $0 on Ads w/Jason Koonin
Self storage investing ISN’T only for the United States. Our neighbors to the north might be a way better pick for your next self storage facility than down here in the States. Need proof? Today’s guest, Jason Koonin from Bluebird Self Storage, is getting higher occupancy and rents and spending $0 on ads with his Canadian self storage facilities. How is he doing it, especially since big facilities in the States are fighting tooth and nail to get any customer in the door? His self storage marketing strategy is a little bit different…
First, how does someone new to self storage go from having zero experience to building A-class facilities across a different country? Jason shares how his self storage companies exploded in 2020 and 2021 and how they managed to survive 2022 and 2023. Not only that, Jason realized something that most self storage operators get completely wrong about customer acquisition—you DON’T need to pay for ads…at all! Through strategic self storage SEO, he’s bringing in customers at a fraction of the cost while most of his competitors are still trying to outrank him.
We’ll also speak about the significant differences between Canadian self storage investing and American self storage investing and why now may be the best time to get into the Canadian market as their population grows, with VERY few self storage facilities to match the demand.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
Why Canada might be the next best place to buy (or build) a self storage facility
How to get more self storage customers without paying a dollar for ads
Jason’s self storage SEO strategy he uses to outrank even the biggest competitors in his market
What you MUST do as soon as you start building/planning to buy a self storage facility to rank #1 on Google
Jason’s outlook for the self storage industry and what he’s doing to beat the competition
Why development is starting to come back and good news for those in self storage acquisitions
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Forge Building episode
Sunbird Storage
Storagely

Sep 3, 2024 • 1h 1min
260. Building Storage Units for Beginners: What Experts Know That You Don’t w/Forge Building Company
Building storage units is not easy, but if you listen to this episode, you’ll be more educated on the self storage development process than most investors out there. If you’re thinking of building a storage facility, this information is essential for you to make the best design decisions and avoid financial pitfalls that could sink your project before it even gets off the ground.
Hamish Bell and Melissa Anderson from Forge Building Company join Conner today to talk about the self storage industry and what’s happening with development in 2024. With interest rates still high, more projects are being abandoned, but does that make now a bad time to build self storage facilities? What happens when the supply gets taken up due to all the delayed and canceled projects from today? We’re sharing our thoughts on this episode.
Plus, we’ll be getting into the details of building storage facilities, from prices to designing and planning, getting the city on board before you break ground, pitfalls to avoid, and the process you must go through to begin, whether you’re a new investor or someone with previous development experience.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
Self storage development 101 and why building storage is so different than other asset types
Why more self storage development deals are being abandoned in 2024
Construction costs and calculating the price to build your next facility
Conversions vs. new build development and which is a better bet in 2024
Design and planning, plus the one thing you should do BEFORE you begin to build
Advice for brand new investors to get started with their first new build facility
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Build with Forge
Email Forge: sales@forgebuildings.com

Aug 27, 2024 • 47min
259. Turning Apartment Storage Lockers into Full-Blown “Micro” Storage Facilities w/Alex Harman and Peter Smyth
These two business school graduates may have cracked the code for self storage in big cities. By converting apartment tenant storage lockers into full-blown “micro” self storage facilities, tenants renting tiny units can easily walk a couple of blocks to store their bulkier items, WITHOUT paying the premium of storing at one of the big REITs much farther away. This duo has been so successful that they’ve scaled to sixty locations fast, and they’re not stopping anytime soon.
Alex Harman and Peter Smyth, founders of Local Locker and White Label Storage, realized how profitable self storage could be when they were in business school. The problem? Like most students, they had very little money to go out and buy a self storage facility. After struggling to find convenient storage in their own market (New York City), they wondered if they could turn apartment basements into “micro” facilities for tenants like them. They threw together a rough and ready prototype facility, and…it worked!
Now, with sixty facilities under the Local Locker brand and another sixty or so being managed by their team, they’ve tapped into the true success of small self storage. Today, I’m talking to them about how they started, the tech stack they use to run these “micro” facilities,” the operational problems they’ve had to solve, and why tiny storage units are crucial for dense cities.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
How “micro” self storage could be taking over dense cities with limited space
Scaling your self storage portfolio fast and why having the right tech is crucial
Systematizing your self storage operations, even if you’re a small facility
Why running a self storage facility yourself is rarely a good idea
Self storage “rules” you must follow to avoid troublesome tenants
Why many apartment tenants DON’T want to rent a unit from a REIT
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Local Locker
White Label Storage

Aug 20, 2024 • 50min
258. Building a Self Storage Portfolio Fast After Leaving a Time-Sucking Business w/Courtney Galyan
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Courtney Galyan has worn many hats. He’s been a real estate broker, worked in development, and even owned a pizza franchise. All of those made good money, but the problem was his time was being slowly sucked away. He wanted the “passive” income real estate provided along with the freedom NOT to have to be on-site, running the show every single day. The self storage business, although overlooked by most investors, was Courtney’s lifeline.
After driving around a popular lake town and looking for facilities, Courtney and his business partner quickly realized how high the demand for storage was and how poorly most of the facilities were run. Through a commercial broker friend, they secured their first self storage deal, and it was exactly what they were looking for.
Now, less than a decade later, Courtney has over 750,000 square feet of self storage—a massive amount for any investor to tackle. With eleven facilities across the South and the Midwest, Courtney has had to bob and weave through hot markets (2018-2022) and slowdowns (post-pandemic). He’s made some mistakes and learned some crucial lessons along the way he’s sharing today that any investor, even brand new ones, can take to heart to scale their facilities faster and get ready for this next market cycle.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
Why Courtney ditched his successful pizza franchise to invest in real estate (and specifically, self storage)
The tiny, untapped tertiary markets that have massive pent-up demand for self storage
Calculating the risk-to-reward for your business and why self storage makes so much financial sense
Why Courtney believes there’s even more demand for storage facilities coming
Self storage’s return to normal and why it’s EASIER to make decisions on investments now
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Resolute Ventures Group
Give Courtney a Call: 317-995-2187
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Aug 13, 2024 • 34min
257. Self Storage Management for Beginners: 10 Crucial Tips You Can’t Ignore
Do you know what makes you money in the self storage business? Management! If you get your management and operations right, you’ll see your revenues jump, your occupancy rates increase, and less turnover from your paying customers. After running our $250,000,000 self storage business, we’ve learned a thing or two about making a facility perform the best (and what makes the most money).
Conner is back this week to walk through ten crucial self storage management tips beginners can use to make their facilities more successful. We’ll hit on increasing revenue, why occupancy ISN’T as important as you think, the metrics you must be tracking, and why thinking of ways to fail makes you more successful.
With the storage industry becoming more competitive, this is something you CANNOT afford to drop the ball on. Get this right, and you’ll scale your self storage investment portfolio faster and with fewer headaches. Get it wrong, and you could be stuck with expensive, underperforming facilities until you course-correct. Whether you’ve got one facility, twenty, or are just starting to invest in self storage, these tips could get YOU to the next level.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
Ten crucial self storage operation tips that will make your facility more successful
Why occupancy rates AREN’T everything (and what you really should focus on)
Following the “PACE” framework to ensure your facility doesn’t fail
What to do when you have a limited budget but want to improve your facility
How to beat your competition by zeroing in on the “details” of self storage
Why you DON’T want to invest in self storage by yourself
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Aug 6, 2024 • 28min
256. How We Turned $4.5M into $30M with This ONE Self Storage Conversion
This might be the biggest, best self storage conversion we’ve ever done. We turned a $4.5 million bankrupt building into a $30 million self storage facility. And here’s the thing: we could have NEVER done this if we were building from scratch. This was a needle in a haystack, and today, we’re sharing how we found it, why other investors overlooked it, and the problems, profits, and lessons from it.
Not only was this building massive, but it’s also now one of the most tech-first self storage facilities we’ve ever owned. We had to be really patient with this one. It took FOUR YEARS to get this facility open, and now, we can finally discuss the final numbers and details with you. If you want to make HUGE wealth-building leaps, then stick around because we’re talking all things self-storage conversion and the traps to avoid on your next deal.
We’ll explain how we picked up this deal for far less than it should have cost, why we went a million dollars over budget, why we changed our layout and made more money because of it, and how we did it all while storage rates were falling, interest rates were rising, and investors were running away from big deals in fear.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
How we turned a bankrupt building into a self storage facility worth tens of millions
Why you MUST buy when the rest of the industry is sitting on the sidelines
How to avoid the development “traps” that’ll lose you money in self storage
The importance of checking zoning BEFORE you buy and why it’s crucial to get this right
Why we went a million dollars over budget during this ONE project
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Watch Our Videos on This Conversion

Jul 30, 2024 • 28min
255. The Truth About Owning a Self Storage Facility…
Owning a storage facility is not for the faint of heart. Yeah, you’ve got the everyday headaches of late payments, locked-out customers, and the occasional pest problem, but that’s NOT what we’re talking about today. Conner is flying solo on today’s show to share some real footage of what’s (only recently) gone wrong at our facilities. And if you’re looking for your first self storage investment, you CAN’T miss this.
What happens when someone is living in a unit? Or, even better, what happens when they burn down your units while they’re living there? How about a trash pickup truck smashing through your front gate? Trailer theft? Tenant-on-tenant vehicular damage? We’ve got it all in today’s show and have the photos and videos to prove it!
Want to know what it’s REALLY like owning a storage facility? Then don’t miss this episode. Plus, if you’re a storage operator who wants to see how the biggest and best facilities take care of huge headaches like these, stick around for Connor’s tips toward the end!
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
What owning a self storage facility is really like (and all the problems we deal with!)
Why you should ALWAYS tell your trash pickup service to WAIT for the gate to open
What to do when a tenant who’s (illegally) living in your facility burns their unit down
Why you NEED security cameras set up throughout your facility from the start
Inspecting your units regularly and how this can save you massive amounts of time and headache
The systems and processes to put in place NOW so you can deal with these incidents
Why it’s all worth it, and self-storage is still one of the BEST assets to invest in!
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Inner Circle
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Jul 23, 2024 • 1h 2min
254. Starting Out with Small Self Storage Facilities (Huge Opportunities Coming!) w/Jeremiah Boucher
The self storage industry is changing. Back during the Great Recession, small self storage investments tanked. Their revenues fell off a cliff, customers consistently went without paying, and there were no buyers or banks to bail out the owners. Since then, self storage investing has changed in a big way. REITs are growing with towering self storage facilities everywhere in big cities, and their next big target? Small self storage investments.
This poses an interesting opportunity for inventors: if you get in early enough, your facility could see a massive increase in value and even interest from a REIT. So, what should you be doing NOW to capitalize on this coming change in the self storage industry?
Small self storage investing expert Jeremiah Boucher, founder of Patriot Holdings, joins AJ and Conner LIVE to go over the opportunities, threats, and “landmines” to watch out for when buying a small self storage facility—which could be your first or next investment! Plus, Jeremiah even shares EXACTLY what you should do TODAY to a small facility to increase its value before the REIT next door comes knocking.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
The huge opportunity in small self storage investments that you MUST be on the lookout for
How the self storage industry has changed and why small markets could house goldmine self storage facilities
What to do TODAY to increase the value of your next self storage facility
The “landmines” to watch out for BEFORE you buy a facility (these WILL cost you)
Biggest threats to self storage investors and how to get around them
Why REITs are quietly searching for small facilities and markets to invest in
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Finding Your Edge: How to Win at the Game of Commercial Real Estate Investing
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