What are you key tips and tricks for self-storage investing

Congratulations on finding a great self-storage opportunity. Now that you are ready to convert your property or purchase your property make sure that you keep a few things in mind. First, remember who your target audience is. I do not mean the demographics. I mean that women are more likely to come to the storage facility than men. Because of this, you need to make sure that they feel safe.

You also need to remember that those women are the ones that are doing the lifting and the carrying so you do not want them to have to go very far to get to their unit. One way that you can help women feel more comfortable is lighting. If you have a lot of dark dingy hallways, you are going to have nervous tenants. However, if you have lights, with timers or motions sensors, you can help them feel more comfortable.

Another thing to keep in mind when you have a closed self-storage building vs a drive up facility, is climate. In the summers, those buildings get hot and, in the winters, they get cold. You need your hallways to be climate controlled so that your tenants are comfortable while they are accessing their belongings.

You also need to make sure that you have a few handicapped accessible units on your self-storage property. You can get conversion kits. If you do not have a few kits available, you open yourself up to trolls. There are people out there who simply call businesses looking for an opportunity to sue. If they call you to see if you have an accessible unit and you say no, you open yourself up to a lawsuit. Find out what the percentage of handicapped units you need is and make sure that you have them for your self-storage facility

Another idea to consider is free rent the first month. If you offer the first month free when someone signs up for at least 3 months, most people are not going to move their belongings at the end of that period. They have them well situated and they do not want to go to the trouble of moving them again. This will entice people to move into your self-storage units over someone else’s unit. They always assume that they will not need the storage for longer than that, but three months can turn into years.

Always allow your clients to pay their self-storage bill with a credit card. Preferably, set up an automatic payment where you can just debit the card each month. There is no reason not to keep your billing this simple. If people have to actually pay each month with cash or a check, then they will think about how much they are paying to store that “junk” and they may realize that it isn’t worth it. If their belongings are out of sight and out mind, then they will just forget about them and let you keep on charging their card. This is a way for your to simplify the billing for your self-storage facility too.

There are so many simple things that you can do to make your self-storage facility more appealing to tenants and easier to run. For more information check out our website. Happy Investing.