All Forum Posts by: Courtney Glass

@Chuck Kramer we had a group of what I believe to be opportunistic college students from Knoxville try to book our place last week.  It was a group of seven 18 and 19 year olds who asked for an exception to our age limits.  We still turned them down even though we have been getting cancelled like crazy for March and just had our first April cancellation.  It has been hard though to figure out how much to lower standards in order to help us weather this situation as best as possible.

Echoing everyone else.  Great job Avery!  

I just snapped a photo with my cell phone and it uploaded.  Not as good as my professional headshot but it works.  Thank you.

@Nandy B. And @Clint Harris I would sign up for a Mastermind. We currently have one STR and it has gone so well that we are working on our second one now. Not on the coast but in the mountains near a national forest. Would love to share and learn with others working in this space.

@Scott Meyers thanks for the response. My partner just visited the facility today actually as I currently am out of town for an extended period for my day job. I am also already familiar with the town as it is very close to where I grew up. Next step will be for my partner to visit the competition to get an idea of their occupancy rates. In my conversation with the owner over the phone he claims his pricing is simply FMV based on an appraisal he had done several years ago for just the land and vacant buildings. He of course is happy to share that appraisal with me. Should I bother getting another one done on my own? Also he is very keen to do seller financing which I think is a plus. Thanks again for chiming in with your $.02.

@Michael Wagner thanks so much for posting your thoughts. I don't have it under contract. Listing price has it at $40/sq ft but 2/3 of the sq ft is the building that needs to be converted to cc and therefore not immediately income producing (unless I just rented it to a commercial tenant or something while working on stabilizing the existing units). I estimate the NOI of the already existing units once filled back up to 88% would be $33,500. What are your best tips for estimating the cost of a conversion of a building to climate controlled? The seller claims he is just selling it for the price of the vacant buildings and land, the "business" that comes with it is free.

Update: So the self-storage facility I am looking at has not been actively managed for 2 years and is only 30% full with rates well below market value.  There are units needing to be auctioned and it's basically a defunct mess.  However I also took that to mean there is value add opportunity.  I bought a report to analyze the market from radiusplus.com (found this service on @Michael Wagner's page) because I wanted to try this product out.  It says this small town is at 10 sq ft/person, so not great.  Also a big part of the cost of the property is a large 11,000 sq ft building that could be converted into climate controlled, but of course the conversion is an additional cost.  Plus I'm a newbie and a little intimidated to take on a project like that right out of the gate.  There is room to expand as well.  What do you guys think?  Too many red flags??  Especially for my first acquisition?  Scott Meyers if you see this I am one of your students.  Would love to hear your thoughts too along with everyone else.  Thanks advance to all of you (especially the experienced investors) who are willing to give me your opinions. 

I am having the same problem.  Tried the app but it won't let me add a photo there either.  Should I still email a photo?

This one is 17,000 sq ft and in Athens. How can you tell the market isn't saturated in Jasper?

I am looking to buy an existing self-storage facility in the Southeast TN/North GA area and just found one for sale.  I am mostly just working on learning how to properly analyze these deals.  I am struggling to figure out how to evaluate this particular market because it is a small, rural town.  Any tips on how to evaluate these types of markets?  I would like to do at least a little bit of my own market analysis to determine if it is worth paying Bob Copper or Chiswell & Associates for their market analysis.  Maybe the answer is to stay away from the smaller, rural markets completely, at least until I get more experience?  Thanks in advance for any insight/tips.