Self-storage is not passive income.

Whoever sold it to you that way owes you an apology.

It's passive right up until you're on the phone with a tenant who's 4 months behind, has about $300 of junk in his unit, and is threatening to sue you for $8 million.

I recently made an offer on a facility I sold a couple of years ago. The owners who bought it thought they were buying passive income.

The distinction that matters is low-touch versus passive.

Low-touch means you built the system. Online rentals, autopay, a third-party call center, an ops manager, local boots on the ground, and written processes for delinquencies and auctions.

Passive means you're hoping nothing goes wrong.

Something always goes wrong. A gate breaks. A tenant stops paying. An auction has to be handled correctly or it turns into a legal problem. Someone breaks into a unit. Someone is living in a unit. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Low-touch owners have a process for that. Passive owners get a surprise.

Buy storage as a business and it can treat you very well. Buy it as a mailbox-money fantasy and there's a decent chance it ends up for sale again.