Seller says he spends five hours a week at his storage place. Is that real?

Question

The facility is 180 units on a paved lot, gate with a keypad, no manager on site. The seller told me he drives over twice a week, walks the rows, and the rest is done from his laptop. He also said storage is recession proof because people always need somewhere to put their stuff.

I want income that doesn't turn into a second job, so five hours a week is exactly what I'm looking for, which is probably why I don't trust it. What's actually filling those hours, and what's he leaving out? I've read that the auction process for people who stop paying is slow, but I don't know if slow means weeks or months.

brandonlee36 · Answer

Five hours a week is the average, not the week the gate motor fails. When my access control went down on a small place I was helping look after, that was three days of phone calls and a $2,800 repair, and every tenant who couldn't get to their unit called. Delinquency chasing is the steady drip. On 180 units you might have 10 to 15 people late in any month and someone has to actually call them.

karen_whitfield · Answer

Lien and auction timelines are set by state statute and they run more like 45 to 90 days from first missed payment in a lot of places. Ask him what his write-off percentage is.

diane_kowalski · Answer

Ask whether there's extra dirt on the parcel. Half the small facilities I've looked at have an unpaved back acre the seller calls an expansion pad, and that's the piece that turns into a two-year entitlement project if you decide to build on it. If you only want the five hours a week, buy the one that's already fully built out and don't kid yourself that you'll phase in more units later.

Seller says he spends five hours a week at his storage place. Is that real?

3 replies