I admit, I had an opportunity to buy a self-storage facility 15 years ago and quickly dismissed it. 250+ tenants and constantly driving over to rent units did not seem like a good deal to me! And at the time, I may have been right.
Now, however with modern technology the industry has become one of the best investments both in financial return and ease on my time. These are my top three reasons I love storage as an investment:
1. Easy to systemize. I have owned many small businesses. Each I started with me doing most or all of the work, and later hiring out some of the work. With the technology today, storage can be systemized right from the start. In a few months, we can have the facility basically running on autopilot. I own hundreds of storage units yet hardly ever talk to a tenant and have never rented a unit myself to a tenant. I own facilities 500+ miles from me that I operate remotely.
2. Little maintenance work. Storage units rent for remarkably similar prices per sqft as houses and apartments. Yet storage units often have no electricity, no plumbing, and certainly no
appliances. It’s a metal garage! I go months without a tenant calling needing any kind of repairs.
3. Lien laws v. Eviction laws. Lien laws are way simpler than eviction laws and very favorable to the landlord. It is easy to have an auction for a non-paying storage unit and these days you can auction online. House and apartment evictions can be much harder and time consuming, and as we see in 2020 the government has the power to take away the landlords right to evict. Not to mention the mental anguish that I can feel from evicting a family from their home.
Having made the switch to Self-Storage as my real estate investment arena three years ago, I can’t imagine going back. Great returns, less work, and little government interaction makes for a good life.