Self Storage Income

Welcome back everybody to the Self Storage Income podcast! I’ve had people ask me lately how it is that I can do all of the things that I do. From self storage investing, my health insurance brokerage, to my new book, and my online companies, there’s no two ways about it, I have a ton going on and I absolutely love it. But how can one person do so many things at once and keep it all on track? There’s one key - leverage. In today’s episode I’m going to dive into this idea of using leverage to grow both professionally and financially. As I always say, success is never built on an island. Time, money, knowledge, relationships - we have to use these resources and leverage these resources to be able to grow and function at our highest level. We cover all of this and more in today’s episode. Thanks everybody, AJ Be sure to go to selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal. You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher The Self Storage Income Podcast is Sponsored by Janus International - https://www.janusintl.com/  

Welcome back everybody to the Self Storage Income podcast! Today we’re talking about good ‘ol small towns and the pros and cons of investing in a self storage facility there. There’s great opportunity to be had in small towns when you’re looking to start investing in self storage. But like most great opportunities, there are risks and pitfalls that you need to plan for and be aware of. We walk through the details of one of our small town deals, a facility we still own today, and talk about why it was a good deal, what we looked for, what we saw, and why we ended up purchasing the facility. If you’re just getting started and have limited cash on hand to invest, small towns can be the perfect opportunity for you to get your feet wet, and to start building your self storage empire. Thanks everybody, AJ Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal. You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher The Self Storage Income Podcast is Sponsored by Janus International - https://www.janusintl.com/  

What’s up everybody, welcome back to Self Storage Income. We’ve had a lot going on at our home office recently in regards to staffing, so that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in today’s podcast. Owning and operating a storage facility at its fullest potential is a lot different than most seem to think it is. The key words here are “operating a storage facility to its FULLEST POTENTIAL”. Sure, you can hire someone to sit there all day and watch TV, not train them on sales, maintenance, or anything else, but not long down the road, your self storage “cash cow” will be more like a dead cow. Not only that, so will any other facilities that you buy. If you want to succeed in storage, if you want to scale now and in the future, building the correct systems, processes, policies, and procedures is critical. These aspects are even more critical when you’re hiring and training employees. Today we’re going to go over the exact job description that we provide to our facility managers. It’s super important that your employees know what the job is and what your expectations are day to day, week to week, and month to month. Laying down those expectations and ensuring that your employees are achieving them is equally important. Another aspect to this, those same employees also need to have the training, support, and procedures to follow to help them succeed. These are all topics we cover today, so get your notebooks out, take note, and be ready to crush your self storage investing future. Thanks everybody, AJ

Welcome back everybody to Self Storage Income! Today’s episode comes from the overwhelming request to address this topic. Just this past week I was part of a webinar with several other real estate investors. We were interacting with the viewers who were asking us questions. The most common questions we were getting had to do with current opportunity. Everyone wants to know - is now a good time to invest? Is this slight downturn your opportunity to leap? Is this the 2008 you’ve been waiting for? I’m going to lay it out here in the show notes, the fallacy of this kind of thinking. Let’s just address this out of the gate - do not try to time markets. Trying to time markets only leads to missed opportunity and you ultimately never getting where you want to be. So if timing markets isn’t an option, then what is? How do we know when to buy and when to hold off? I’ll give you the answer right here and now - don’t time the markets, time your capital. I’ll cover that topic in depth in this episode. WE also take a deeper dive into the subject of knowing when to buy and when not to buy, where the opportunities are, and how to take advantage of them. As always, thanks for listening everybody. Keep sending us your feedback, suggestions, ideas, questions, and so on. We love hearing from you all and couldn’t be more excited to have you along for the ride. AJ

If you’re wanting to get into real estate by funding your deals using other people’s money… this is the episode for you. What’s going on everybody!? AJ Osborne here with another episode of Self Storage Income. As always, I’m super excited to share this episode with you all. Obviously, we’ve talked a lot about real estate investing on the podcast and how so many of us have leveraged the incredible nature of real estate investing to build wealth and financial freedom. We’ve talked quite a bit about self storage and its amazing benefits, but we haven’t talked a whole lot about funding these investments. This is especially an important topic if you’re just starting out in self storage investing. As you might already know, there are a ton of tools available to fund or finance your investments. Today we’re talking specifically about how to work with banks or credit unions and industry insiders to build your knowledge, your confidence, your network, and ultimately your self storage investment portfolio. These aspects we cover today will help you build your industry knowledge, your confidence, and your ability to raise money, to fund deals, and to grow your self storage empire.   Thanks for listening guys! AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher The Self Storage Income Podcast is Sponsored by Janus International - https://www.janusintl.com/  

As it’s becoming more and more known that self storage is a strong performing asset, whether the markets are up or down, investing in self storage is quickly growing in popularity. But these are crazy times we’re living in. Markets are up, down, sideways, and none of us know what to expect between today and tomorrow. So the question is - is now a good time to buy or invest in a storage facility? The short answer? Absolutely yes, but, just as with any investment, only if you do it right. It doesn’t matter whether a market is up or down, a good deal is always a good deal, and a bad deal is always a bad deal. And trust me, the good deals are out there. We’ve looked at more deals in the past several weeks than we did in the last twelve months combined. So we know we have to do this right, but how? Well I’m glad you asked because we’re going to cover a lot of ground today that will help give you the tools to successfully invest in self storage, the tools to do it right. We talk about the economic nature of self storage, how we look at and value storage facilities, what capital markets and lenders are doing, how self storage has performed compared to other asset classes, and the two things that will always kill a storage deal. This is an incredible episode, enjoy it, take notes, and start looking for opportunities. Thanks a ton for listening everybody, AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher The Self Storage Income Podcast is Sponsored by Janus International - https://www.janusintl.com/

Thanks so much everybody for tuning into another episode of Self Storage Income. As you may be aware, we’ve been lining up some exciting guests to shed their light and experience on the self storage industry and self storage investing as whole. Obviously, we love self storage and want to give you only the best tools, resources, and advice possible. That’s exactly why we’re happy to welcome John Lindsey to the podcast today - Co-founder and President of the Lindsey Self Storage Group. Storage has been a part of John’s family for generations. From owning and operating, to finding, analyzing and brokering deals, to facility development, John has seen and done it all. To say he’s a wealth of knowledge in the industry would be an understatement. We cover a lot of valuable ground in today’s episode with John. We go over the current market conditions including the financing and funding outlook, development and oversupply, to how to find and successfully analyze storage deals, and even go over strategies that you can deploy in your own investing to help protect you from recessions and market corrections. Whether you’re a seasoned storage veteran or you’re just beginning, this is an absolute must listen episode. Be sure to stay up to date on the latest storage industry information on John’s website at https://lindseyselfstoragegroup.com/ Or contact him directly at (919)381-7799. Thanks for listening everybody! If you’re enjoying all this awesome content, please take a moment to leave us a review! AJ The Self Storage Income Podcast is proudly sponsored by Janus International   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher

Welcome everybody to another episode of Self Storage Income. We have another incredible guest on the show today that we’re excited to bring you. If you’ve ever thought about placing a cell tower on your storage facility property or on any real estate you might own, this is a must listen episode. Our guest today has over twenty years of experience as an attorney, working for companies such as AT&T. Today, he owns and operates his own company centered around cell tower agreements and negotiating and enforcing those agreements for property owners. Our guest today is Hugh Odom. The cell tower world can seem like a complete and total black box of unknows. Even having done a number of cell tower deals and agreements in our self storage business, how the cell tower industry is structured and how it operates has been pretty confusing for us. In this episode, Hugh lifts some of that fog surrounding the cell tower industry and how property owners can benefit from these deals instead of unknowingly giving up ownership and control over their assets. Hugh shares what property owners need to look for and be aware of in these cell tower agreements, how to look at and value these cell towers to truly understand what you are providing to the cell tower company, and the keys to completing a cell tower deal successfully. We couldn’t more excited to share this episode out with you all and help to shed some light on this incredibly interesting asset. If you’d like to have Hugh and team review current lease agreements and contracts, or you’re thinking about placing a cell tower on your property, be sure to connect with Hugh first. You can reach him on his website Cell Tower Lease Experts or https://www.celltowerleaseexperts.com/   Thanks for listening everybody! AJ -------- This episode is brought to you by Janus International.  -------- Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher

Welcome back everybody to Self Storage Income! I can’t tell you guys how much we appreciate all the comments, emails, and reviews we get from you all. It’s such a huge help for us to hear from you and to connect with you. Today’s episode is right out of one of the comments we’ve received from you. The question was about storage facility management. Here’s the comment asking about the management aspect: “What are you looking for when you’re evaluating a facility? What would you change? How do you evaluate employees already in place?” That said, we jump right in and answer these questions in detail. We also share how exactly we structure and operate our management team. It’s always a great time to be asking yourself how you’re going to set up or improve your management team. No matter where you’re at in your storage investing journey, you should be asking yourself these questions often and evaluating what needs to be done. These structures directly affect our ability to scale, to cut expenses, and so many important factors to being a successful self storage investor. As always, be ready to take notes and absorb all that this episode has to offer. And please, keep sending us your great questions and feedback so that we can continue producing content like this and share with you exactly what you’d like to learn from us. Thanks everybody, AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher  

Hey what’s going on everybody!? Thanks a bunch for tuning in to another episode of Self Storage Income. We’ll start off by saying… a lot has happened this past few days across the U.S. as the Coronavirus continues its advance. Currently, state and local governments are deciding which businesses are essential and which are not, essentially picking and choosing which businesses are required to shut down, and which businesses can continue operating. The definitions of essential and non-essential business has differed among the states in which we own and operate facilities. It’s been a very much “fly by the seat of our pants” scenario to say the least. Regardless, we’re full steam ahead. We’ve had numerous employee meetings addressing employee concerns, outlining our plans and current updates to our operating procedures, and so forth. Even though most of our offices at our storage facilities are closed, our employees are going to still be hard at work providing value to our tenants. In this episode today, we outline what steps and actions we’re taking currently to address this incredibly dynamic issue and also what we’re seeing and experiencing through all of this so far. Thanks again for listening. Be sure to keep in touch as we continue to share our insights and experiences with our storage facilities as we continue through this. See you next time everybody, AJ Be sure to go to  selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal. You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher   ** For updates on the Covid-19 Virus, you can check out the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website to learn how to ptortect yourself and your loved ones and what to do if you get sick.   

Welcome everyone to this episode of Self Storage Income. Today we have another special guest on the podcast that I’m super excited to introduce you to. He and his firm have over $3 Billion in transactions and over 20 years of industry experience delivering self storage and commercial real estate financing solutions to clients across the U.S. Who is this rock star? The one and only Devin Huber. There’s no two ways about it, there is a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now. What does this mean for self storage and commercial real estate financing? Not only that, but how does this downturn compare to the financial crisis of 2008? We also talk about CMBS loans, how this downturn is affecting these specific loans and the lenders offering them. If you’ve thought about utilizing a CMBS loan, we also discuss who CMBS loans can be for and how to utilize them. Another point of discussion is interest rates. How is the Treasury dropping, but interest rates rising? Lastly, and most importantly, we talk about the opportunity that comes with downturns such as this. If you’ve listened to this podcast at all you know that we’re always driving forward and looking for the next best step and opportunity. That said, what can you do as an investor or owner and operator to take advantage of uncertain times such as these to continue to catapult yourself forward. Financing is one of the hottest topics we hear about from our listeners. Be sure to take notes, listen to this episode multiple times, whatever it takes - be sure you absorb everything that Devin and his extensive experience has to offer in this incredible episode. Have specific questions for Devin or would like to get in contact with him and the BSC Group? Check out the links below. The BSC Group Website  Contact Devin Huber  Thanks everybody, AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher   ** For updates on the Covid-19 Virus, you can check out the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website to learn how to ptortect yourself and your loved ones and what to do if you get sick.   

Well as you’re all aware, there’s a virus on the loose and it’s wreaking havoc around the world. The looming uncertainty has caused markets to dive. How is this affecting self storage? This being such a huge topic globally, we decided to address this a bit. We also talk about one of the major components that helps your storage facility weather all storms, and it’s probably not what you’re thinking. We’re talking good employees. We talk about the processes and procedures we have in place for our employees, how having good employees has put us a step above competitors, and much more. Employees can make or break your investment - listen in and be sure that it isn’t the later. As always, thanks for listening everybody, AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher   ** For updates on the Covid-19 Virus, you can check out the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website to learn how to ptortect yourself and your loved ones and what to do if you get sick.   

What’s going on everybody, I hope you’re all doing great and you’re out taking care of business in the self storage world. In today’s podcast, we’re talking storage facility maintenance and operations. One of the biggest misconceptions a lot of people have about owning and operating storage, is that there’s very little maintenance. Which is absolutely NOT the case. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it, “there aren’t any toilets!”, as storage is generally being compared to owning multifamily property. People who say this are correct, that there aren’t as many toilets. However, there’s a plethora of other ongoing and as needed maintenance tasks and obligations that have to be addressed. We cover different ideas and strategies on how to limit maintenance related expenses, how to consolidate vendors and contractors, how to streamline projects, and ultimately the massive effect that all of this can have on your bottom line. I’ll leave it at that so you can get to it! Thanks for listening as always. Keep an eye out for our episode coming out next week as we continue to expand on how you can make the most out of owning, operating, and investing in self storage. See you next time, AJ   Be sure to go to Selfstorageincome.com to get your free copy of my Self Storage Playbook. This step by step playbook walks you through from start to finish - how to identify a self storage market, how to perform due diligence, how contact a current owner, and ultimately how to land a storage facility deal.     You can also find the Self Storage Income Podcast on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Self Storage Income. Today we’re talking self storage automation. There’s no doubt that the world is changing. Not only that, the world is changing at an alarming rate in regard to technology. The self storage industry is not outside the scope of this change and continued implementation of cutting edge technology. You might be asking - what kind of technology is cutting edge in the self storage industry? Imagine a tenant being able to pick up their phone, select a unit at your facility, rent that unit, access the facility, store their belongings, and leave the facility without ever having to talk to an on site manager. Now stop imagining and start listening because it’s a reality right now today, and that’s why in today’s episode I’m happy to welcome John Bilton and Nelson Hendrix from Janus International. We go in depth on the latest technology that Janus International is deploying that allows storage owners and operators to automate their storage facilities, to track tenant data to optimize operations, revenue, expenses, and more. Just 5 years ago, the self storage industry couldn’t even begin to imagine the technology that is available today that would help storage owners, operators, and investors get the absolute most out of their storage portfolio. Listen in and get the latest from the experts on self storage automation and optimization. Be sure to check out the Janus website: https://www.janusintl.com/ As always, thanks so much for listening, we’ll see you next time, AJ

The question all self storage buyers and sellers want to know - what is it worth? I share today some insights as far as how self storage is valued, but also the very multi-faceted and subjective nature of self storage. I dove into two aspects of value as well - Return and Risk. How do you balance these two elements and what do they mean to you? I also go through a list of how to begin valuing a facility, what to pay attention to and what not to pay attention to, the importance of a margin of safety, and more. Get your notepads out and get ready to take notes so you can get out there and start crushing your storage goals. See you next time guys! AJ