It’s not what you know, It’s who you know – Your Lenders

It is so important to know the right people in the self-storage industry. Because, if you know the right people in the industry, you will hear about self-storage owners who are struggling or self-storage owners who are ready to retire. This can give you the chance to approach those sellers before they put their home on the market and you have a lot of competition. However, in order to be able to stand out from all the other potential buyers, you need to make sure that you have your financing in order.

There are a lot of lenders in the commercial world. Some of them are better than others. You want to create a relationship with a lender who can get the loan done. You want a lender that has a lot of loan options. You definitely want a lender that is experienced in SBA loans.

When you are looking at a lender, you want someone who is experienced rather than someone who is new to the business. You want someone who can go to a loan committee meeting and fight to get your new self-storage loan approved. You want someone who believes in you so much that they will convince the loan committee to approve your loan.

You want a lender that knows how the market is shifting so that they can guide you. You want someone who is familiar with rates and how they trend. If they are experienced, they will have relationships with various banks so they will know who will be interested in your particular self-storage project so they will take it to them first.

Your lender is one of the most important people on your power team because if they can’t get you the money, it makes it much harder to get your deal done. Take the time to find someone that you can form a long term relationship with. Ask for referrals from other successful self-storage investors. Find someone that will be there long term for you and fight the fight. As always, happy investing.