by Marc Goodin
Making a plan, working hard to make it happen and making a multi million dollar profit may not sound sexy to some but it does to me. How about building your self storage from the ground up. Starting with just a dream and ending with a business that allows you to retire early in style. Sounds sexy to me!
Yesterday, I helped a franchisee put in an offer for an existing very rundown self-storage facility with 40,000 sf of self storage. Plus it had income from 3 billboards and one cell tower and the possibility for a small expansion. The combination that the sellers financial books were literally kept on a back of a napkin, weeds are growing just about every where and the fact just about all units sizes from a 5 x 10 to a 10 x 20 were $50/month kept everyone from buying this site
So we just assumed the facility is empty or will be, once rates are raised. The seller just reduced his price down $500,000 to $3,000,000. The offer made was $1,500,000. Even if he pays $2MM and adds in $500,000 to clean up and add amenities like fences and cameras he will have a grand slam. This kind of deal will not be around when interest rates come down and everyone is looking to buy again.
When most people are giving up because of high interest rates the go getters are finding exceptional deals - thats Sexy! If you want you can give me a call in a couple of months and I can tell you how this one worked out.
Another franchisee just got a great property under contract for $400,000 last month. Many people skipped this site because the regulations were very restrictive and intimidating, including limited the maximum individual building size, large buffer areas and a limiting maximum lot size. It appeared that the regulations were written on purpose (or by accident?) so that self storage would not be built in this zone, as it would take several variences. But with some trial and error a plan was develop that only needed a single variance for the maximum permitted lot size. The Franchise owner just received the needed acreage variance and his 90,000 sf facility is under design. This will be a grand slam. But sites like this will be hard to find when interest rates go lower. Again, if you ask me working hard and using imagination and ingenuity to find a great #selfstorage site is pretty sexy.
Earlier this month a Franchise owner offer the city several hundred thousand dollar for a parcel of land they owned. During the due dilligence period the city provided us a Phase 2 Environmental Study that projected the site clean up would be aprox. $375,000. They could have and should have given us the report much sooner. The Franchisee changed her proposal to $1 for the property. That is dam smart and #sexy.
Is it sexy to read the menu from the right to left? - of course not. How about if you never worried about money ever again or worried about retirement because every month your self storage made you $30,000 no matter how long you live. Thats sexy! Thats me and my wife GP out on the town last week.
You may think how in the world can self storage be sexy. It is just a bunch of metal that makes up storage boxes. In the end premium, first class, and sexy self storage is not about what’s inside the unit 4 walls but what is outside of the box. Think of hotels. There are over 1400 budget Motel 6’s in the US. I would agree Motel 6 is not sexy. There are 43 Luxury Ritz Carlton Hotels in the US. And I can tell you without a doubt they are very sexy in many ways. If a hotel can be sexy why can’t a self storage be sexy? The more sexy and luxurious your business is the less competition you will have. And of course more of those premium facility sexy profits.
There are 3 Ritz hotels in my hometown of Sarasota. And one more under construction. There are less than a hand full of cities worldwide that have 3 or 4 Ritz Hotels. I walk by the entrance of one on my morning walk every day and the tanned gentleman always waves out to my wife, calls us by name and wishes us a wonderful day. That’s a bit sexy. Do you greet all your customers by opening the door for them, call them by name and wish them a wonderful day every time you see them? The Ritz has regular training for their staff, do you?
When I walk the beach in front of my home I love to walk by the Ritz Beach Resort. The beach chairs and mini drink tables are lined up perfectly in rows with umbrellas and towels in place. Drinks are hand-delivered to everyone sitting on the beach, I bet that would make you feel sexy, or at least put a smile on your face. Is your self-storage spic and span to perfection? And on the hot summer days do you hand-deliver water and soda to the people at their units? Day in and day out the Ritz clients are treated like gold. Our average self storage customer is worth over $2000 in income. Why not treat our self storage customers like gold? Is gold sexy?
If you want to have a 15-minute call to learn how Storage Authority helps insure your self storage is a sexy and a premium self storage in the hospitality buisiness and more are accomplished at your facility and how we help you find land and get your facility built please send me an email or call me – no appointment needed: marc@StorageAuthorityFranchise.com or 860-830-6764
Get more information on Storage Authority Franchise at www.storageauthorityfranchise.com/opportunity3
Marc Goodin is the President of Storage Authority Franchising. www.StorageAuthorityFranchise.com He owns 3 self-storages he designed, built, and manages. He has been helping others in the self-storage industry for over 25 years. He can be reached at marc@StorageAuthority.com or directly at 860-830-6764 to answer your franchising, development, marketing, sales, and operations questions. His best selling self storage books are available on Amazon.
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