All Forum Posts by: Nick Heil

I use Sitelink and like it quite a bit. I will say though that it's definitely not very user friendly at first and will take you some time to get the hang of it. It is pretty robust, though, and they are making a lot of improvements. They introduced the ability to access some of its capability through a web-browser, but still much to improve on. Worthy of note is they were just bought out by sparefoot.com and are investing heavily in their customer service and development team and announced they will be launching a lot of new features, so that could sway your longer term decision.

Thanks @Michael Wagner that is also a very good point. A good website and social media presence has always been important, but it's even more so now. I think a solid location will always be important, but its becoming so to a lesser degree when compared to online presence. 

Creating a nice website is also so easy now, too, through providers like wix.com (that's what I use). So much of the competition doesn't take advantage of this and still have no website and it can easily be your biggest sales tool.

Having good pictures is so easy these days with cell phones. I take pictures of units and constantly post to social media, which in turn automatically updates my website with new pictures of my units showing the different ways that people use the units. Definitely a must to be a good online marketer. 

Originally posted by @Tyler H.:

What do you guys think about purchasing rural storage units? Im looking at purchasing a storage unit in a smaller town with population around 6,000. Let me know your thoughts as its 68 units and not a secure facility. 

Hey Tyler, I just stumbled upon this post and wanted to give you my .02 cents. Rural self storage investing can definitely work. To put into perspective, I live in a small town with a population of 6,500 and there are over 200 units in the market and they are all full! None of them have a fence either, but are well lit and the crime rate in the area is pretty low so it's not a problem.

A very rough rule of thumb in the self storage industry is about 10% of the population rents storage. So when I approach a market I look at the population and multiply it by 10%. So, with a population of 6,500 I might expect there to be a market for about 650 storage units. Again, this is a very rough starting point and on the high end. Every market you explore will be different. From that point, I lower my assumptions to ensure I'm being conservative or more realistic and I take a look at what's actually in the local market. For example, my market has that population of 6,500 and there is approximately 200 units in the local market and they are all full. I have added to this market and I'm completely full at the moment.

There is another guy in a town close to me who has over 100 units in a town with a population of less than 1,000 people. He's completely rented all the time, but he has that success because the town he is located in has a popular summer lake that people like to boat on and he's located on the busiest road. He's also located right on the local snowmobile trail system so he has boat renters and snowmobile renters and always maintains a high occupancy. From the outside looking in, you would never consider investing in that market since the population is so small. But without really analyzing that market you would have never realized the opportunity for boat and snowmobile storage that actually existed there.

So as long as your units are in a highly visible area within town and look nice I think it would probably perform pretty well, but I know nothing about your market.

Matthew Ries Hi Matt, great question! I thought if that too, but unfortunately it’s cumulative so even if they were separate and did at different times they look at the effected square footage on the entire property so I can’t get away with that.

Hi Anthony,

Great Questions. You could get all of that insurance under one policy if you preferred. For example, you could have general liability insurance to protect you from lawsuits, but you would also have property insurance and loss of rent insurance and have it all on one policy.

I would always recommend carrying property insurance on your investment, however to answer your question; yes you could just get general liability insurance on the property to protect you from lawsuits. You just really need to keep in mind what you would do with the property if you did suffer a total loss (fire, earthquake, explosion, collapse, etc....)

Another big recommendation I have is to ALWAYS require your tenants to carry renters insurance. In some states, you are not allowed to require it in your lease, but you can still strongly recommend it. If your tenant causes bodily injury to someone else or they were at fault for burning down your property (left the stove on or something like that) their renters insurance would pay for it and protect you and your insurance company. Best thing is, renters insurance is usually $100-$200 annually for the tenant so it's cheap. It protects their belongings, but also protects them from liability (trip and falls on the property, dog bites, golfing accident, etc...)

If an older individual trips and falls at your property and they sue, a good attorney will sue the tenant and also the landlord. If you enforce your tenants carry renters insurance and name you as an additional insured then their insurance will protect you as the landlord.

Thanks @Lane Kawaoka. It certainly makes me cringe as well. I'm not trying to discredit or devalue what you guys do, definitely worth every penny.

With this property I fully intent to use engineered plans in the future as I build self storage and boat & RV buildings. I was just hoping I could avoid that sort of investment initially to just put down a large gravel pad (on what is already a rural piece of farmland) for my existing portable storage business to get some quick income going on the property and use that income to invest in the property further.

Thanks guys. Yeah I’m usually all for paying the expert and I will eventually in this case, too. However I purchased the land for $65k and I wasn’t expecting another $30k just for the permits/plans to put down a gravel pad. That’s just my fault for not further researching up front. Really, what sparked this is I was hoping I could do enough to get greater than 5,000 square feet on my own so I could get some units on the property. I already have an existing business and units ready to be placed so if I could get 40-50 units rented it would be nice to have that income as I prepare for the larger development costs to come down the road. I hope to build a much larger pad where I will need additional permits and then eventually actual self storage buildings. If I stay under 5,000 square feet I don’t need a storm water management plan, which may be what I do to get started, however this is much smaller than the 52,000 square feet I was planning to start with.

Just curious if anyone has any experience creating their own storm water management plans?

I own a 10.55 acre farm field in PA where I'm looking to put down a large gravel pad. I will use the pad to park portable storage units to rent. In this town, if you want to put a gravel pad down that exceeds 5,000 square feet you need a storm water management plan. Luckily, the field is already quite flat.

I'm having a survey done on the property, so I will have that to work from. Engineering quotes were outrageous for creating the plan and if I understand correctly I don't think they are rocket science.

The founder of Spanx was able to figure out a way to write her own patents, so I'm hoping I can figure out how to create my own storm water management plan for putting down a basic gravel pad.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks Billie! That's great, I would love to attend one. What time is the meeting? I'm not sure I'll be able to make this Thursday, but I certainly would like to in the future.

Hi Everyone! I'm also glad to see some local discussion about real estate investing in Erie. I actually live and work in Corry, PA, but I make it to Erie quite often. I closed on my first duplex property in December of 2016, but I'm also heavily involved in self storage/portable storage. I own 40 portable storage units and I'm hoping to close on my first self storage facility soon, which would boost me to over 130 units. My duplex is in Corry, however I plan to be an active investor in the Erie market as well. My background is in finance as I worked as a financial analyst for several years and I'm passionate about all things investing.

I also work as a Commercial Insurance Agent so I would love to connect with local investors to share investment experiences and resources, but also help with your insurance needs as you progress in your investment careers.