First Climate Control Storage

[Shuff Mauldin]

Investment Info:

Other commercial investment investment in Laurel.

Purchase price: $800,000
Cash invested: $100,000

12k ft2 Unit A class Climate Controlled Storage Facility

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I had been looking at and learning about storage for over 5 years.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I had a local realtor who knew I wanted to purchase commercial. It was an estate who owned the asset and the executor was really good at what he does. The deal died 3 times, as ever good deal does, but the seller knew I was a good buyer and I knew he was an honest seller. It was just a matter of us working through things and progressing towards closing.

How did you finance this deal?

local bank financing

How did you add value to the deal?

I started advertising, improved security, invested in better lighting, added automation, and implementing technology which made doing business easier for the customer. I increased revenues by doing active rate management, offering tenant insurance, and by enforcing fees.

What was the outcome?

The business is running smoothly and we are getting good word of mouth. We are also in talks with a local moving company about leasing them office space in the building at a very reasonable rate.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

way too many to list

[Shuff Mauldin]

Laurel, MS (but Maryland is everyone's first guess)

Thanks @Andrew Bravo!  The largest barrier for me personally has always been science behind  determining current and potential demand.  It's a rural area so not as easy as using the normal population/radius/rentable ft2  fromula.