All Forum Posts by: Joshua Watts

@Ann Marie Giglio

We use  The American insurance group. We are based out of Chattanooga Tennessee and have apartments and self storage. I would PM @Jack Smith he will help you out. 

Here is my 2 cents. I like self storage much better than apartments and SFH. With that being said I did not have a large enough downpayment for a multi million dollar self storage facility. What I did (years ago) just keep buying SFH and smaller apartments complexes until I was able to get some of my SFH paid off and ended using them as my down payment for selfstorage facilities. We still own our SFH and apartments but as for a percentage of our overall portfolio we are around 80% self storage and 20% apartments and SFH but we have not sold anything. I like having a more diversified portfolio.

@Jason Turgeon, @Nik Moushon, @David Sisson

I did decide to go ahead and install the LED lighting I am with you guys I thinks over time it will save a lot of money. The framing for the fire wall is installed and we are a few weeks away before my guys come to install the storage buildings and doors within the space. Here is a couple pics of the inside. We also installed a new front entrance door.

Here is an update on the project,fencing for the RV and boat parking is complete. 

Looks nice! Good luck with your new investment. 

@Courtney Glass

I have self storage there and we are full. On a 17,000 sq place I would go shopping for self storage and have your friends shop also. Tell them you have a lot of stuff and you need large unit and small units. You will get an idea of the demand after a few calls. In smaller towns I find it is hard to get someone on the phone right away because the owner has a real job also. That is a good thing because a lot of people need the unit right away. Also the place you are buying should provide how much  money they are collecting per year. 

What town are you looking in. I am from the area. I just had a 20,000 sq self storage  appraisal complete in jasper Tn and it was at a 9% cap rate. Now if it was a smaller self storage I would expect it to be around a 10% or 11%. 

What I try to do is buy with a lot of up side when it comes to self storage. Two years ago I bought a storage facility for 3,861,000.00 at an 7.8 percent cap rate. I would never buy at a cap rate this low but I believed there was a huge upside and I was correct by pushing the rate and lowering the expensive. Now the the cap would be at 14% and I still have more room push the cap even higher. So what I would do is get in these smaller towns and see if you can do something like I did. And it can be on a smaller scale the 1st self storage I bought was 40 units for $110,000. (20 years ago) Try to find something with upside on the rents.  

Pawned my truck to get money to buy my 1st house. Did not have a clue how I was going to get the money to fix it up. Luck have it, this older couple gave me the money for the repairs and we split the profits. I was 21 years old. I used their money 5 or 6 more times.