All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

Waiting in 20 breakfast burritos for the guys.  Time for a BP post.  All of the PE groups I have worked with are on a 3 to 5 year exit strategy.   Same as a syndication.  Usually want a double squeeze.   Both volume and profit percentage.  

One of my tags.  You’re right even if you’re wrong.   It’s your money.  Point is they are right and always will be.  

I have to try their street tacos for lunch. Been to two restaurants and they looked good but didn't have the flavor. My buddy says you have to get street tacos on the street to get the flavor. Now that would be a great BP post. In the "Why" to do REI. Where are the best street tacos you ever had.

@James Hamling

Been getting weird server messages also.  

Forgot.  You asked.  This is in a C market.  You can google our website and see our locations.  Some A/B/C locations.  

Quote from @Michael K Gallagher:

@Henry Clark thanks for sharing!  what is the market this was in, and what metrics did you look at to know that it was worth it or the right time to expand?  thinking specifically what were you seeing with demand to know it was time to add units?

 @Michael K Gallagher

I wrote a post “Will they come?” that goes in detail.    

My background is as a Controller and CFO, a math guy, so I have to know.  Not just a guess.

Steps:

1.  There is no “Timing” just market demand.   Either need more or doesn’t.  I use a rule of 1 unit for every 6 people, not households.  Don’t trust anything I say.   Everything in Self Storage can be validated.  Even my 1 for 6 rule.  

2.  Population in a 1 to 3 mile radius.  You can find by googling.  If 10,000 people then 600 units are needed.   Size 10/15/20 doesn’t matter.  Climate controlled or not, kind of doesn’t matter.  I’ll explain later.

3.  Competition you can google.   Then either count units using google earth view or drive around and count.  You can actually tell sizes also. 

2 tells you the market size.  3 tells you the competition.  Now let’s “Gamble”, I’m an Accountant so I don’t like to gamble in business so let’s improve the odds in our favor.

Pick 4 areas and do the above study:

1.  Market 1,000,  competition 1,200

2.  800/500

3.  2,000/1,300

4.  1,500/800

I would look at markets 3 and 4 first, then 2.  
Next comes zoning, location, availability and price.  Don’t get hung up on one location.  Make an offer, if it doesn’t work make an offer on another location.  Come back a year or two later and keep checking on the locations you couldn’t close a deal.  

Dont buy.  Premiums are to high today.  Unless they have expansion room.   Or if you surround them with other locations and you can dictate higher rental rates later after buying.  

Location 1 above.  I actually know a situation like that, that I would love to build.  All competition is to the south.   All customers are to the North.  For some reason they primarily built 20 foot units.  I would build more 10/15 size units.   Close to the customers.  

Where in the U.S.?  Could anywhere.  But building cost is almost double in the last 5 years.  I would pick a market where 10x20 units rent for $130 per month or higher.  Drive up, non climate control.  I’ve talked with many people on BP.   There are still tons of markets that need storage.  Understand Self storage is driven by life change.   Death, divorce, move, fire, construction, etc.   All people and all markets are driven by the same factors. 

Conexes or cargo containers are a little different since their cost is lower and no property tax.   So they work in lower price markets.  Plus your risk adjusted return is better since you can buy and sell them as needed.  Versus a building.  

Do the steps in my post near you.  You can give me a call and I can look at the market on line and let you know what I see.  We only do business in a 40 mile radius, so we have no interest elsewhere.  

Scaling- your only issue is financial.  I’m in Belize right now and in Croatia in 2 weeks.  This phone no matter where I’m at manages all of our locations.  I could use a Call center but I like staying on top of our Occupancy.  

Why?-  if you build at least a 200 unit location in a market with 10x20s renting for $130 or higher.   Day one with no tenants you have $1mm equity appraised above cost built in.  Or you hold and do Cash Flow plus your equity increases as your occupancy increases.  

BP.  I would like to hear a battle Royale post between Columbus and Memphis posters on their two markets.  They also have to walk thru some

Flow thru deal and the numbers. 

Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Henry Clark:

All posters on this thread.   The newest Podcast byline is 469 with @Wale Lawal

How many podcasts are there as of today? Why haven't any more of the active posters been on a podcast? I don't monetize so no value to me. I would value your podcasts and would actually watch versus other REI non BP experts.

BP- please put some of the above posters on a new podcast and let me know so I can watch.   Thanks. 

BP- I would love to watch a podcast of a couple of the active posters on the same podcast round robin, with subjects such as: risk management, risk adjusted return, if I had Zero dollars, if I had $50,000. Best STR market in America, cashflow versus appreciation, Stock market versus REI, secret sauce, worst or missed deals, scaling, deal flow examples, etc etc. Let me know when I can watch them.

REI is great. Why? No 8 to 7. Enjoying lunch with the guys.

 i have posted a few times here on BP and have applied to the podcast on multiple occasions and just stopped because I never hear back. I typically see people with zero experience or get rich quick stories and I am guessing that is what they are looking for as it sells, not people who have been in real estate for 25+ years and have gone from the traditional W2 to building $50M+ companies....

BP.  I would like to hear a podcast with @Chris Seveney.  Possibly on Scaling. Or another topic he finds timely.   Please let me know when I can listen to.   Thanks. 

All posters on this thread.   The newest Podcast byline is 469 with @Wale Lawal

How many podcasts are there as of today? Why haven't any more of the active posters been on a podcast? I don't monetize so no value to me. I would value your podcasts and would actually watch versus other REI non BP experts.

BP- please put some of the above posters on a new podcast and let me know so I can watch.   Thanks. 

BP- I would love to watch a podcast of a couple of the active posters on the same podcast round robin, with subjects such as: risk management, risk adjusted return, if I had Zero dollars, if I had $50,000. Best STR market in America, cashflow versus appreciation, Stock market versus REI, secret sauce, worst or missed deals, scaling, deal flow examples, etc etc. Let me know when I can watch them.

REI is great. Why? No 8 to 7. Enjoying lunch with the guys.

Quote from @Remington Lyman:

Quote from @Henry Clark:

AI. Why does Octoberfest start in September?

My brother is killing me.  He is at the Hofbrau House in Munich having a Stein of beer with a pig knuckle.  Actually we were there last year.  That was the only reason I wanted to go.  My wife being of German heritage we went to Octoberfest. Plus later we went back for their Xmas Market.  
He is working as Civil Service overseas.   Him and his wife are having a great time because they have a lot of extra cash.  

Back to real estate.  

He finally got into a position to do self storage so he asked me to help.  $310,000 down.  Sold 13 months later making $850,000 Longterm capital gain plus he got his downpayment back.  

AI.   I don’t know how to use AI and don’t want to know.   Could one of you AI how to make $850,000 in Self storage in 13 months?  I have a BP post on this project.   But would like to see  if I have been AI’d out of existence.   Thank you.  

I’ve only watched 4 podcasts ever in the last year.  I wasn’t thrilled except for one.  Are the podcasts as interesting as the above?  Let me know which ones to watch.  Thanks.  

Octoberfest in German Village, Columbus, Ohio > Munich. Could you prove me wrong?

 I could either ask Google AI which is bigger.   Or I would need to go to Columbus to compare.  2nd sounds better.  

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Henry Clark:

AI. Why does Octoberfest start in September?

My brother is killing me.  He is at the Hofbrau House in Munich having a Stein of beer with a pig knuckle.  Actually we were there last year.  That was the only reason I wanted to go.  My wife being of German heritage we went to Octoberfest. Plus later we went back for their Xmas Market.  
He is working as Civil Service overseas.   Him and his wife are having a great time because they have a lot of extra cash.  

Back to real estate.  

He finally got into a position to do self storage so he asked me to help.  $310,000 down.  Sold 13 months later making $850,000 Longterm capital gain plus he got his downpayment back.  

AI.   I don’t know how to use AI and don’t want to know.   Could one of you AI how to make $850,000 in Self storage in 13 months?  I have a BP post on this project.   But would like to see  if I have been AI’d out of existence.   Thank you.  

I’ve only watched 4 podcasts ever in the last year.  I wasn’t thrilled except for one.  Are the podcasts as interesting as the above?  Let me know which ones to watch.  Thanks.  

So jealous Henry.... 

Rugby world cup was announced for Australia and with it we cancelled Octoberfest '25' to put towards an epic world cub experience '26'.... 

Octoberfest starts in September because of..... the weather, lol. Sounds funny but it's true. It was moved up as better facilitated by September vs mid October weather.

As for your ai question, ai doesn't really work that way. 

The answer will vary a lot depending on the ai a person is using, and if it's an ai model trained specifically for REI type questions.

Think of ai more like being a person. General ai is just a general person. Ask it such a question and it will probably say something like it's not trained to give a specific insightful anser to such a question, but it can get some cited references if wanted. 

But take an ai, who's trained for specifically that purpose, and it will answer per how it's trained to work and the database it's utilizing. 

The magic in ai is in how it's trained, and the database it's utilizing. Kind of like a human staff person right, there only as good as how they were trained and by the information they have access to. 

Sounds like I can’t be replaced so I’m okay with AI.

 BP recommend you add an AI forum.  Monetize.  Allow AI “Experts” to advertise and sell data searches.  

Also recommend you use an AI response

Now I know why Octoberfest starts in September.  But how do I know it’s not an AI response????

Our son is moving from Catania Sicily to San Diego.  We held off doing Pacific trips since he was in Europe.   So might book Australia in 26 also, not for rugby.  Really want to do a Yakatori Grill crawl in Japan first. 

BP improvement note.   I went to the NO convention.  Was really hard to meet up with people of the same interest.  Recommend you put signs up at the lunch breaks and the lounge areas with different REI topics.  

Well back to REI. Purchased and installed 50 new cargo containers. $65 per month on around $3,400. Meets the 2% rule. No property taxes. No toilets. 100% write off this year. Local auction sold 4 at retail for $4,800 each. So downside risk isn't to bad. They should help pay for our trips next year.

BP. Please put an automatic AI response for every new post about Insurance or S&P 500 being better than REI.

AI. Could someone AI, went past my 4,000 post.  Do I get a free BP hat?  If there is no such hat, could you send me an FBI hat?  

It’s your money, you’re right, even if you’re wrong.