The Storage Investor Show
Learn how to turn your cash into cash flow with self-storage and small bay industrial. If it has a roll-up door, The Storage Investor Show covers it. Your host, Kris Bennett, will ask the right questions to help you find, fund, and close your next deal. New episodes every Tuesday.
The Storage Investor Show
Getting Starting in RV Storage Investing with Jed Simper
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Jed Simper, the visionary behind Park it here LLC, also known as RV Safe, shares his journey from frustrated RV owner to RV investor.
His personal story begins with the struggles of finding suitable RV storage in Las Vegas, a city where restrictive HOAs and harsh climate conditions make it a challenge.
Driven by a damaging experience at an indoor facility, Jed's passion led him to develop a solution: indoor, climate-controlled facilities designed to protect RVs from the elements.
Discover how his mission is transforming the landscape of RV storage and offering fellow RV enthusiasts peace of mind.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Storage Investor Show. My guest today is Jed Simper. He is the founder of Park it here LLC, dba, who businesses as RV Safe in January 2022. He and his wife bought an RV, realized they can't park it at their house because of the dang HOA which I'm sure some of you guys have heard about, and so they're trying to find some RV parking somewhere. He realized there were some issues with that and he thought he would get into the business. So he's got a few deals under LOI. He's early in his journey. I think this would be very beneficial for some of you guys to hear what it's like starting out and kind of getting the ball rolling in the direction of actually acquiring your first location. So Jed is a few steps ahead of some of you guys out there. I'm going to try and ask the questions that you guys want to ask to help you find, fund and close your next deal. Jed, thank you so much for joining me on the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, good morning Chris. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. So talk to us real quick. How did you get started Like why RV investing and why is this a thing for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, everybody has kind of their startup or their origin story as far as a business. So you know we're based in Las Vegas, so extreme temperatures on the hot side, and obviously you know it's the same when you're in a cold climate as well. But when we bought the motorhome, we were looking for a place that was actually an indoor facility, just because of the exposure to the sun and exposure to the elements, and it was a nightmare trying to find a place to even potentially store the RV. Our options were either dirt lots or canopies, you know, with covers over the top. But if you're parking under a canopy and it's 120 degrees outside, your unit is literally baking here in the desert, and so the one place that we found was about 30 miles away from us one direction.
Speaker 2:So you have to drive 60 miles round trip, basically, to retrieve your motorhome, and it's an indoor facility but it's not an actual storage facility. They sell motorhomes, they fix motorhomes and then they're leasing the building, you know, to offset the cost of that expense, and so if we want to get the motorhome out, as an example, we have to give two to three days notice because they have to move every single motorhome out of the way and then try to get yours out. So we settled on this location, decided to go ahead and move forward with it. The first time we go to pick up our unit which again we had to have basically moved out of the building and stored the electrical cord the 30 amp cord that came with the unit was replaced, and actually they replaced it with one that was literally sparking Chris, it was literally sparking as I walked up to it. So we opened up the motor home and the entire electrical on the motor home was totally shot and, of course, because of the rental agreement that you sign with these companies, no liability for that company based off of their screw up. And so that was.
Speaker 2:That was a explosion bomb in my mind at that point, not only for the time it took us to try to find a facility that was even an indoor option, but the experience of just not having readily accessible units from that type of facility and quickly realized that anybody in the RV space especially if you're a trailer owner, motorhome or, excuse me, fifth wheel travel trailers there are not a lot of options for indoor facilities. So what we're looking to try to do on our development side is we're going to focus on an indoor element for every available unit and then also some type of a climate control. So, you know, here in Vegas looking maybe keep it around 80 degrees, because you need to be realistic about how cool you can keep these buildings. And so that's been the mindset and that was my origin story as far as realizing that, hey, this just isn't my problem If you're in a large community with an HOA, this is an everyday issue for these owners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. That's a shame. What were you charged for? Parking at that location?
Speaker 2:Almost $300 a month at that time and currently we're spending, we're still at the same location and the rental is what? 325 a month right now.
Speaker 1:It's a small little 26 foot class A that we've got, wow, okay. So yeah, that's that's uh, you know it's not cheap, uh, to keep that motor home there. You don't want those issues popping up. So now you're saying, hey, there's a problem in this space, obviously not enough parking options, because you're driving 30 miles one way, so you're spending, you know, roughly an hour or so to get there and back altogether something like that, including the time that you're there. So that is an issue. So what type of sites are you looking for to try and build up the Parking? Cheer slash RV Safe brand.
Speaker 2:Right. So you know, unlike a traditional self-storage where you're maybe three to five mile radius of most of your customers I'm evidence of that you know the boat and RV owner. They're going to drive a little bit further. So you know, ideally we're looking for acreage starting at maybe seven acres, seven to 10 acres at a minimum, and then you know if we can find something that's on more of an outskirt of the main area, I mean we don't have to be on the corner of Main Street and Main Street and in doing that, in Las Vegas, as an example, las Vegas Boulevard that's just not realistic as far as an acquisition. So if we can find locations, you know some of the properties that we found have been maybe five to ten miles that are outside of the city center. There's a couple of locations that you know. One of the key advantages that we have when we're trying to acquire land is we can get the ugly lot, so to speak. You know we don't need the perfectly square lots or something that might be hindering another company from building on a commercial property that leaves a vacant lot. So we've been able to find a couple of those around the city as well.
Speaker 2:Vegas is a destination city. So there's several examples of facilities being 20, 30 miles away and what that's actually doing is that's pulling people. You know, I know one facility in Vegas is at least 80 to 85% Canadian residents who are storing because they're winter. Basically they're winter birds. In the summer they're in Canada, in the winter they're coming down here, and so instead of having to store and drive it, they'll just store it at a location that's near there, basically where they're going to be when it's the cold weather at their home locale. And that's. That was an eye opener for us. As far as you know, we don't necessarily even have to pull from the city limits. We can pull from a destination type of a resort as well. So Vegas is unique in that aspect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you're, that brings up an interesting point. From the customer's perspective and you, being a customer yourself, what do you think customers look for, or what would you look for in a location? What's important to you?
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Speaker 2:Well, again, important to us and the reason that we were looking for is protection from the elements. You know most of the facilities available are going to be outdoor facilities, and for good reason. I mean you need a lot of land. It's land intensive From my perspective, and what we're trying to do with RV Safe is we're trying to provide a different option for the owners. We're not necessarily going to get every single person that will want to use us. We realize that.
Speaker 2:But, in answer to your question, what we found from studies is they're looking for climate controlled or basically a protected type of a unit. They're looking for security. They're looking to make sure that the units are protected. If you're in a cold weather, climate winterization is a big key as well. So the ability to have a climate controlled storage facility where you're not having to winterize it every time you take it in and out, that was a big one. You know, the biggest issues that we've seen from storage is rodent or animal damage, damage from the weather whether it's a hot or a cold weather scenario physical damage to the units or you know people that are trespassing or vandalizing units If we have a facility that's basically enclosed from anybody else. On top of the climate control. We think there's an opportunity there for us to be able to grow that side of the business. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect. And then it's interesting, you mentioned the RV owners will drive a little bit further. We had one in Indianapolis, indiana, and the furthest person that came to us was like 50 or 60 miles away, but the majority within, with like a donut kind of around the facility. So not too many close by, but roughly call it 10 miles, maybe 20 miles max in general further away. So that makes sense. So you can testify to that, obviously, because there's not as many options for you if you're looking for that climate-controlled or indoor or some sort of out-of-the-elements situation.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So a couple of the big box, extra storage and public storage. They've actually started adding the features of an indoor separately, you know, away from any other type of a unit for these bigger boxes. So they're starting to see that as well, which, again, it's not like it's a secret out there. You know, one of the one of the people that has really helped me is the advocacy group of Toy Storage Nation. These, these individuals are out there actively advocating for the lack of available storage units and not only storage facilities, but, you know, looking for a Class A facility, so something that has a protected gate, something that's monitored. You know they have different levels A, b and C. So not that there's terrible options out there, but you know there continues to be just manufactured units at record rates and they're not establishing RV and boat storage facilities at those same record rates, and so that's where the disconnect has been and where we think there's an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so as you're looking for sites, how did you you're early in the beginning, which we mentioned earlier on, you're in the stages how have you gone about looking and kind of getting the word out that you're looking for sites? How have you started building up that pipeline, Right?
Speaker 2:Well, so I've actually been an active inspector in my local area for more than 10 years, so I have access to hundreds of realtors and we've made it known to some of the earlier realtors out there what we were trying to do. Me personally, again, I have a lot of inside knowledge from the real estate space. Being an inspector, we do draw inspections, so we've seen facilities built from the time they get shovels in the ground to the time they've completed. Having access to the contractors, having access to the generals that's something that I have experience with From me personally. I've hawked properties for over two years, chris.
Speaker 2:So if I've seen that a property has still been sitting on a market for more than a year, then that's where we'll typically reach out and try to say hey look, where are you at with this, what can we do with it? Not even necessarily straight acquisition. We have a couple of potential deals with working on JVs, where the landowner is going to give us the land and then we're going to work on something on that individual location and so at this point, anything that's the size that we need. I mean we can work under seven acres if we have to. But I mean again, you'd ask, you know kind of an ideal type of a piece of property for me, if it's seven acres or more, then you know that's something that we're willing to drive and take a look at and that's great.
Speaker 2:The other part of Nevada. No, it's OK. The other part of Nevada is we also have Lake Tahoe up north. A lot of people kind of resonate Tahoe with California, but we also have the Nevada site as well, and so Tahoe would be another example of where it's a destination example or a resort, and that's a 12-month, year-round destination, whether it's winter or summer area.
Speaker 1:Okay, so looking for the sites, you're utilizing your network of realtor relationships, because they're obviously out there. They know what's going on. As far as capital is concerned, are you raising capital or is it kind of self-funded at this point? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well. So a startup is going to have a tough time finding traditional financing unless you've got deep pockets. From previous you know business relationships. So my, my, my idea was to go and look for private funding. So we've we've been able to work and develop relationships with about six private lenders so they're willing to fund deals. We have to get their pre-approval. You know we'll bring in a feasibility expert and run feasibility studies so that they can determine that it's worth them to be able to feel comfortable and move forward with those deals. But we can present typically four to five at a time and we'll get three of those four to five funded from one of those individuals. So that'll be my plan. For the early acquisitions established and we're able to actually generate revenue from the developed properties, then we can look for more traditional financing. Life Oak Bank some of those people there that specialize more with the storage type of funding would be somebody that we're looking to work with as well.
Speaker 1:So in that beginning private funding, how did you find those folks? Was it through like BiggerPockets, or was it something else? Or how did you?
Speaker 2:So we've got some. So there's a big startup community here in Las Vegas that you know. We've kind of gone out and got networked. You really need to put yourself out there.
Speaker 2:I mean, again, it's about developing relationships, and relationships for me are the most important part. That usually led me to money, because they're listening to what your idea is or the concept of what your business is. If you as a founder or a new business owner go straight to somebody and start asking for money, then you're more likely to get advice or help. And so I took the approach of trying to develop a relationship and attending as many of the startup events or functions where I knew that there might be investors or access to commercial investors. Again, the real estate connection is really big for me. We have a meeting tonight that they're bringing a lot of commercial investors and people that are interested in land type deals, so you know we'll be out there networking, rubbing elbows with that. So for me, this isn't you know, we are still early as far as actually acquiring the first property but we've been working this for almost three years as far as developing those relationships and trying to figure out how to get it forward.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, man. You know, it's funny as I said the same thing the other day on LinkedIn that I usually try to reach out asking for advice and that leads to some other conversation, which is what I'm maybe really looking for Ultimately, although it is true that I do want some advice and guidance, uh, etc. But it leads to a deepening of that relationship and most people are willing to say, yeah, I can talk to you, obviously some advice, whereas if you went to them and say, hey, would you be investing, can we grab coffee? They'd probably say no, because I don't want to be pitched, uh, something, so it's a great approach.
Speaker 2:That's a great approach well, okay, very good, so, and it's the one off, it's-off too, chris. The person that you introduce yourself to might not be the person that gets you to the money, but they have somebody that they know, and that's been my experience. It's been the hey. I know somebody that's very interested in the RV space, or that's very interested in the development space, or just very interested in the real estate space, which isn't a hard find right now for a lot of people that are trying to invest.
Speaker 1:So real estate space, which isn't a hard find right now for a lot of people that are trying to invest. So you never know who's going to get you to where you need to be. Yeah, that's right, you do have to put yourself out there, attend some meetings, talk to some people and it will help open doors for you. You mentioned Toy Storage Nation a few minutes ago. How has that been helpful? Tell the people what that is exactly, because it sounds kind of funny. But Toy Storage Nation.
Speaker 1:And then how does that help you out?
Speaker 2:Well, so Amy and Troy Bix they're the presidents and they run that and as far as I'm aware I mean you know they're doing that of their own free will they offer workshops around the country. We've attended a couple of their seminars through ISS here in Vegas. You know, again, being in Vegas, you know we get most of the major conventions coming into town here anyways, including the storage conventions, and so Toy Storage Nation is basically a group that advocates for the lack of the availability for an RV or boat specific type of a storage, not a, not a mixed use where you've got self storage and the boat and RV. They're just looking for boat and RV themselves and they have a lot of board of directors, the people who have developed properties, who have acquired properties, who have ran properties, who have experienced going through the highs and lows, and they're basically giving you information in order to help you try to figure out how to get your business moving forward. So they've been great.
Speaker 2:Anytime we've ever had any questions, they're immediately replying back with two to three people who they would recommend that we reach out, whether it's a legal question, whether it's a question that we're, that we need to know about an acquisition, whether it's a layout question. You know, one of the properties that we looked at had made their way through entitlement but they are only figuring 25 foot wide drive drive aisles which no one's going to be able to park or store any type of a large unit in that. So we sent the plot plan to one of the members of the toy storage nation and they came back to us free of charge with a new plot plan which obviously specialized in knowing and how to lay out because you get these people that might be architects or engineers but they don't know how to necessarily lay out the type of facility or the way that you need to lay out a facility specifically to the boat and rv storage that is exactly right.
Speaker 1:Uh, when you said 25 foot, I'm like no way, jose, that's not gonna work. Right, you need wider, and that's exactly right. You might pay a little bit more in this case. Obviously you got free um, you know, a free touch point, a free uh thing there, but, uh, it's worth paying a consultant, engineer, architect, whatever, who specializes in that product type, so you don't get screwed up.
Speaker 1:I had another friend of mine had the same. A very similar situation happened where it was not a storage specialist and he ended up drawing plans that had to be altered. It cost another 25, call it 25 000. As a result, it was okay in the end, but still he could have avoided that extra cost had he found someone who specialized in the asset. So right, that's exactly what we always say. Very good man, so talk to us real quick, uh, real quick, just about give people some advice. You know we're kind of wrapping things up here. I'll get to the final four questions in a second. But if somebody wants to get started in the business of RV storage, what would you recommend as far as how to get started?
Speaker 2:You know again, me personally. I just again. What I did is I wanted to find out how to be able to try to run and get as many relationships developed in Las Vegas or in the Nevada area to get this thing started. So I started from the relationships. If you're an introvert, that's hard. I would consider myself to be an introvert again. You never know who you're going to get in touch with. And putting yourself in front of city planners or putting yourself in front of meetings with people like a realtor group meeting especially a commercial-based realtor group meeting those are the people that can end up being your best friends. As far as trying to bring deals that you might not find, we've had a couple off-market deals that have been brought to us through realtors that we had because of the relationship. Now I'm a unique relationship because of the previous experience I had business-wise, but that's an easy relationship to develop, and so that's one thing Again.
Speaker 2:I reached out to Toy Storage Nation almost immediately and I probably overstepped my bounds, but I just said, hey look, I'm interested in learning more about this. I found you guys. Anytime you look up anything online about Boater RV Storage, there was typically something coming up about Toy Storage Nation. So Amy and her team are awesome. I would definitely recommend reaching out and trying to get started there, especially if you're not sure where to go. And the question that you posed to me might be a better question posed to them, because they can kind of give you an idea, maybe more caterized to where you're at locale wise, maybe more caterized to what you want to try to do are you wanting to try to do one or two facilities or do you want to try to do five or 10 facilities? So the the the individual preference of what you are trying to do as that potential business owner will have a lot to do with that, but I would. I would think those would be two good places for you to start.
Speaker 1:Absolutely A hundred percent. Man Um, talk to us real quick about a career high point, and what did you learn through that experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know.
Speaker 2:So I thought about that a little bit last night and you know, I think I'm still early in my boat and RV storage career, so I honestly believe that my high point is still to come.
Speaker 2:But I would say the high point, kind of as a funny story, would be that experience that we had with the very first time we went to try to pick up the unit, that light or that understanding of holy cow if you're not in that space you don't realize that and so just the ability to have the foresight to see hey look, this isn't a big issue. You know, if you're in a real rural town you're unlikely to pay for storage, you're just going to store it on your property. But in Vegas, as an example, the day we had the motorhome back, they had an HOA sticker on it within two hours of it being parked in front of the house. So we're not alone in that type of an example. So I still feel like my high point's to come, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say maybe the realization of what the potential was for the business.
Speaker 1:That's amazing man. That's pretty funny with the HOA sticker. What's been a low point so far in?
Speaker 2:your career. What did you learn from that? Well, the wasted time Again. So in trying to find the private funders, you're always going to have to weed through the people that are trying to take advantage or not legitimate for what they say they can do. So we spent time with one private funder that we spent almost six months with them and they guaranteed us they could do it. We had an LOI contingent on the financing being moved forward and as soon as we submitted for the loan, we couldn't get ahold of the person. And so just be smart about how you're trying to dictate your time, especially if you're starting up, because you could really put yourself in 12 different directions, but you need to focus and kind of keep as streamlined as possible. So, and and no, trust your gut. I had a feeling that it wasn't legit and I probably should have just moved on that gut. But the wasted time right now that's probably the low point so far.
Speaker 1:Interesting. What could you recommend as far as a good resource, business resource investing resource doesn't matter for the listeners.
Speaker 2:Well. So again, I've talked about it already the startup community. Most cities, most major cities, are going to have some type of a startup community, so that's a lot of free information for potential business owners that's available through the government, and why you wouldn't take advantage of that? Again, that was the mindset that I took when I first got out there from the boat and RV storage, again, I think, toy Storage Nation. I've probably talked with a rep from that group, probably at least once every three months, and at this point we're starting to develop personal relationships instead of just some person that's through that group. So them as a resource. I'm not meaning to harp on them, but they've been very, very helpful as far as my journey so far.
Speaker 1:No, it's perfect. I think folks should pay attention and attend their events. They're fantastic. They do several throughout the country. You can check out their websites, tourstoragenationcom. They'll be able to help you out, and they're not sponsoring this episode, jed. Thank you so much, man. How can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more, if they want to keep track, if they want to just connect with you online?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can find me on LinkedIn. That's about the only social media that I do as a person, but I think that's an important one for us to get the business out there. So feel free to reach out or connect on LinkedIn. We have a website, sincityrvsafecom. Right now it's more of a template we just got you know. Basically, something big is coming soon, but there's some contact information there an email and a phone number if anybody wanted to reach out. So you know we're early as far as acquisitions, but we're trying to be a player and I'm willing to pay back anything that we think could be helpful. So if anybody has questions, I'm happy to help, but I think, more importantly, we should direct the questions to Chris. This guy is amazing and appreciate what you do with the podcast and all the information you provide. It's really great.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you, jed. I appreciate it. Man Guys, reach out to Jed. I'll have the links in the description for the episode. Jed, thank you so much for being on the show. Yeah, thanks for having me, chris, appreciate it.