Strength in Numbers with Marcus Crigler

Episode 66: How to Build Monthly Cash Flow With Self Storage Units - Bree Hartman

• Marcus Crigler • Episode 66

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Self-storage is both a business and a commercial real estate investment. You can double down on both and make it more passive with the right systems in place.

Joining us in this episode of the Strength in Numbers podcast is a self-storage investor and educator, Bree Hartman, to talk about how she built an $8 million self-storage portfolio starting with one deal she found while pregnant with her daughter.

Bree shares how she went from working a W-2 job and running a gym to buying self-storage facilities using SBA loans, partnerships, and simple operational systems. She also breaks down why self-storage can become a strong monthly cash flow business when you focus on finding underperforming facilities and adding value over time.

This episode gives a practical look into how self-storage investing works. Listen and enjoy!


You'll Learn How To:

  • Use SBA loans and partnerships to buy larger assets
  • Create recurring monthly cash flow with self-storage units
  • Build systems that make self-storage more passive
  • Find good storage deals through Google Maps


What You'll Learn in This Episode:

(02:43) If you want to go fast, find a community, and insert yourself

(04:30) Building an $8 million self-storage portfolio in under six years

(05:57) From W-2 job to entrepreneurship

(07:49) Buying a $3.1 million facility while becoming a new mom

(10:06) How to make a self-storage facility a successful model?

(10:40) Utilizing SBA loans to acquire your first storage facility

(12:18) Turning self-storage into a scalable business with systems

(14:06) The truth about “passive income” in self-storage investing

(15:24) The three-part framework and operations for storage facilities

(17:34) Myths surrounding self-storage investing

(19:45) Self-storage works as a subscription-based business

(21:15) The “7-11” strategy for increasing rental income

(24:05) How Bree finds storage deals using Google Maps

(30:20) The importance of learning underwriting and market analysis

(31:11) “A storage owner can’t say yes to an offer they don’t have in their hands.”

(33:23) Deal finding cheat sheet and storage offer calculator


Who This Episode is For:

  • Real estate investors who want to move from traditional real estate investing
  • Business owners who want to explore self-storage investing
  • Anyone who wants to build long-term cash flow


Why You Should Listen:

Bree keeps the conversation practical and straightforward. She explains how self-storage investing really works without making it sound overly complicated.


Connect with Bree Hartman:


Connect with Marcus Crigler:


SPEAKER_00

Self-storage, it's a business and it's commercial real estate, right? You get to double down on both and you get to make it more passive, but you have to put the right systems in place with that right boots on the ground or operator that's also taking care of it.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Strength in Numbers, the podcast for real estate entrepreneurs who are tired of being broke and not having control of their finances. If you're ready to finally take control of your money, slash your tactics, and start building real wealth, you're in the right place. And now here's your host, Market Krigler.

SPEAKER_02

Hey there, and welcome to the Strength in Numbers Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping real estate entrepreneurs just like you finally take control of your numbers so that you can stop living deal by deal, stop living month by month, and finally start living the life of real estate you truly desired. My name is Marcus Krigler. I am the founder and CEO of Beck, CFO and CPA. And we help real estate entrepreneurs across the country save money, make money, and build real wealth in real estate. We do that through our proprietary accounting processes, our proprietary tax strategy processes, and ultimately our proprietary CFO processes that help you understand where you're at, where you're going, and how to get there. Guys, this episode is going to be a really, really important episode about wealth building. And what you're gonna find out is that sometimes in real estate, it's not about doing deals every single day. It's about doing the work every single day to get one big deal. And Bree Hartman's gonna talk about how she spent nine months during her pregnancy to get her first self-storage deal and how it's exploded to an over $8 million portfolio in counting. You're gonna enjoy this episode with Bri Hartman. All right, welcome back to another episode of Strength in Numbers Podcast. I've got with me Bree Hartman with storage school. Super excited to have her on the podcast. Just got off of a networking meeting with her. She brings the fire, she brings the excitement. So I'm super excited to hear all the things that she has to say about self-storage. Bree, how are you?

SPEAKER_00

I'm doing good. I'm excited about this.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So we've got introduced through Coaching Inc. Tom Kroll, you know, obviously one of the biggest connectors in the industry and in any industry almost. So we got connected through there, and and you're a kind of a big deal in that group, right? You do all the networking calls and you're kind of bringing that group together. Tell me a little bit more about coaching inc before we get too deep into uh self-storage school.

SPEAKER_00

I I mean, I think the biggest part is having a mentor, right? So I always say, like, if you want to go fast, go find a community and insert yourself. And so I think, you know, I've been a part of other masterminds, but Tom's man is incredible coaching inc. We just came back from Florida. Yeah. And so having a hand up to like a mentor and then having a hand down to a mentoree, like that's what it's about. And I think you understand that too, is like being able to be a coach. And then I got to get coached, right? You need a coach of a coach to be better. And I think that's something that stands out amongst everyone is like, are you willing to continue learning, right? And being in the trenches, especially with your students. And then you are trying to be the best version of yourself always. So that's what I love about you know, Tom's group and and getting to meet people like you. I got to see you like in person, but the the room was so large. So absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. How do you feel too about that?

SPEAKER_02

It was great. It was great. So it was the first event that I had. And so we got to, you know, I got to hang out with, I had a few clients in the room. So I got to see it's always fun to you know get to love on some clients a little bit, but also uh a few vendors in the room. Actually, Darren Bentley, who produces this podcast, was in the room. So that was the first time I got to meet him in person. And so just a lot of that, a lot of that fun stuff that uh and and meeting a lot of new people, right? It's always it's always good. And a lot of times I go to these these masterminds and it's great, but I'm meeting with real estate entrepreneurs, right? And a lot of times they're clients, but this mastermind was different in that it was working on the business more, right? And we were really focused on how to improve the business, how to, you know, improve our marketing, how to improve our strategies, those kind of things, which I don't always get. So it was really nice to expand my mindset. Let's move into you a little bit. So I got a little bit, I did a little digging on you, a little digging. So you have a great story, but before we get into kind of your background and your story, talk to me a little bit about where you're at today, and then maybe let's talk about how you got there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. So right now I've been in self-storage, gosh, for about five, almost six years. And um, in that like, you know, five years, we've acquired over like eight million dollars worth of self-storage facilities and more. And so I always like to say, you know, yes, am I newer on the block, hands down, but I am a fast learner and I think just doing things creatively, right? Like, you know, the big why here is for my daughter and being able to be an example of what's possible for her. And and that's really just how this started was like, how can I, you know, do something different than my W-2 job and be able to have a random Tuesday to go up to Tahoe and go snowshoeing or to take her sledding? And so that's really how I think all this like started. And it starts to snowball, especially when you are, you know, building wealth and also doing it in a way that's scalable instead of just go out there and buy as many things as possible. It's like, how do you go out there, like you said, buying, you know, two to four good assets a year? And that's kind of like my soap focus and sweet spot is like, how do you own, you know, majority have have JD partnerships, divide and conquer in commercial real estate and leverage larger asset classes?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I love that. I love that. So you started out not in self-storage. So five years ago, you started in the self-storage, and I got to know why self-storage, right? Especially five years ago, because I know self-storage wasn't all the rage five years ago, right? And so you really had to probably kind of get through the needle stack to kind of figure out that this was the asset class you wanted.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I always say I had nine lines, and it's true. I feel like I've done, I feel like every flavor of a career trying to like find, you know, like what fits and what works for you. You know, I'm in my like late 30s, so I'm not this young 20-year-old that gets to jump in, right? And like all these smart young 20-year-olds, I'm like, it's so awesome to see this. But really, you know, I had a W-2 job for seven years. I worked for the state of Fish and Wildlife. Um, I was an environmental scientist, did some really awesome things. We would call our big game, loved it until, you know, you kind of are like, wow, you know, my cubicle mate or colleague is counting down his retirement days and I'm making these Excel sheets better. And everyone says, Why are you doing this? You know, and so I had no idea I was an entrepreneur and I was just beating my head, you know, stagnation actually feels worse sometimes than like growth. And that's really where I was. And that made me um go back to school and I got my nutritionist degree. From there, I opened up a gym, which is wild, for five years. And when I became pregnant with my little girl, I was like 10 weeks pregnant. I accidentally rented my house, my primary home, right? And I'm like, yes, this is gonna be, you know, the vehicle. I'm gonna own 20 rentals and this is gonna be fantastic. And really quickly I figured out that there was uh tenants, there's toilets, there's black mold, and there's service dogs that caused like $7,000 of spaceport damage. And I was like, wow, I would have to, this is creating myself a whole other job. So long story short, you know, I listened to a podcast similar to this, and they said no toilets, no tenants, no employees, self-storage. And I'm like, yeah, it's like I want to buy self-storage. And so that led me down just, you know, while I was pregnant, the joke in the family was is the storage facility gonna come first or is the the kiddo? And so I dove headfirst into storage. And my one thing, like Gary Keller says in his book, is to focus on that one thing, and that was storage for me. So everyone laughs because the storage facility came first, actually. And then six weeks later I gave birth, which is like unfunded, you know, territory. You don't ever, you know, you're like a maternity leave, did not have that. So I wrote my SBA plan for a $3.1 million facility while I, you know, had my baby girl and was a new mom. And so it really was an interesting time. And I'm so glad that, you know, you like you bet on yourself and debt. And now we're constantly just buying other facilities. So the first though, I would say, gosh, man, the first four months, I didn't know if it was 3 a.m. or 3 p.m., you know, when you're when you're like starting out your storage business and becoming a new mom. So that was definitely one of the the little bit big learning curves for me.

SPEAKER_02

Wow. You really signed up for it, which you know, I that's a mom thing, right? I I think that's a mom thing. You know, there's once the baby starts coming in, like the powers of mothers is crazy. It's crazy. So, you know, it's amazing the kind of will that you have to be able to have a storage facility and you know, a newborn baby. That's that's insane.

SPEAKER_00

And I think there's also just very like for all parents in general, right? Like when you are, you know, having kids or when you are, you know, taking that big turn to growth, it's kind of like putting yourself all in, like all your eggs are in and let's go because change is important. Like I didn't want to continue training, you know, people in off hours and doing 70 hours of work. Like I wanted this so bad that I was willing to, you know, put in the time and the effort and make it happen. And so I love that.

SPEAKER_02

It's amazing. I I remember so my kids are 12, 10, and and nine now. And so I remember whenever I had my first one, and it was like, okay, you got to get your life together, you got to grow up a little bit, like you got to focus on these things. You got to, you know, if you're gonna do these things, you got to do them now. It's amazing what kind of wake-up call a kid can give you. So self-storage, no tennis, no toilets. You didn't have to go down that road too far, a little bit, but not too far. But you got into self-storage, you get your first one under wraps. When did you actually feel like, okay, this is a successful model? What did it take for this self-storage facility to become successful? And you were like, okay, uh now I kind of understand it and I want to I want to move this thing forward.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I I laughed because it probably took, you know, the first two facilities. And so, like three months later, we actually ended up buying another facility with seller financing about 30 minutes away because that's what you're supposed to do, buy others in a close, you know, one hour proximity to decrease your expenses. But you know, it's very fascinating because we bought this one in 2021. And um, it was like very much when the interest rates were going up. It was, how do I say this? It was successful three years later. Like we had to put the time in. It was an SBA loan. Like I didn't come from money, but it was a beautiful way to get in. If you don't know that you can utilize SBA, small business association loans to put 10 to 15% down versus having to put normally 30 to 35% from a credit union or local bank. And so I came in with two other partners, which is awesome. We divide and conquered. So um each of us owned one third, one third, one third. And and from there, it really like we we bought it at was interest rates were rising on a bridge loan of all things. And I had to sign my, I remember signing my house away, being like, I'm going all in and to make this happen. But what's really cool to look at this now is even though putting all that time and effort into it, about gosh, four years later, it's about it's worth about $4.9 million, an easy like seven and a half cap rate. And so we were able to raise rates about 67% over those years. I know you love numbers, but that's uh, you know, a very awesome like value add from buying it from someone that had somewhat of a website, but they were not unsophisticated and they didn't have they hadn't raised rates in like five or six years, and they really hadn't put in the time to market and any of that stuff. But I think what's beautiful, and I think this is really important now, is and this is what I teach in storage floor for our students is like, how can you look at an opportunity or a storage facility that you know doesn't have a website, unsophisticated, add value, that's that value add facility, and then take it to increasing that value over the next three to five years, right? Just to give you a little nuts and bolts of you know what we did, but you know, instantly it's like you're putting a better website on your um we increased prices by just 10%, you know, overall. We made things more automated. So um we took out they had a 40-hour employee. I don't know what she did, but um we made it everything was remote access. We put in a business that actually pays us about $800 into the office space, which is really great. It added about $100 to like $50,000 of equity, you know, for that year, which is really cool. It has a cell tower that pays us a thousand dollars a month. And then we added 67 RV and boat spots. And so, you know, everyone's like looking, I think, for this like perfect deal, and they spend years looking for this perfect storage facility or commercial real estate. A lot of people right now like the cheat code is you can make deals that are okay, great. And I think that's what a good investor does is how do they say something that people pass on and then say, oh no, I'm gonna buy that and I'm going to add this value to it in a different way. And I'm going to, you know, increase its value over time. So I just wanted to share with you, you know, it was how do I say it was not successful from day one. We learned a lot of lessons, but in a beautiful way. And now we get to reap the benefits three, four years later from there.

SPEAKER_02

Sure. So, you know, it's interesting. I talked to a lot of people, and a lot of people, it really doesn't matter the class of real estate. A lot of people think getting in and buying real estate is a passive game. And what a lot of people find out is that if you want it to be passive, you're either going to hurt your asset or you're gonna need somebody, you're gonna have to pay somebody else to actively manage it appropriately, right? And so when did you kind of figure out that, you know, this is not really as passive as maybe I, at least to get it started and up and going, as passive as, you know, maybe real estate once was thought to be.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And I would say, you know, I when because yeah, people say it's a cash cow and it's passive. I said, you know, self-storage, it's a business and it's commercial real estate, right? We get to double down on both. And you get to make it more passive, but you have to put the right systems in place with that right boots on the ground or operator that's also taking care of it. And so that's what I always say, like the first, you know, one one to two years, if it's brand new to you, it's gonna be just like a teacher. You know, if your first position as a teacher, it's gonna be harder in the first one or two years. And then the workflow, you know, then the ease gets to stuff, you know, start in just like a W-2. And so that's really, I think, in the about year two, where you really get your operating systems in place and you can scale. Cause that's the biggest part is I wanted a business that you could scale. Like I work from Sacramento, California from my home, like office here, so that I get to have, I call my definition of success is like I get to have like not early mornings, like just laid back mornings when I get to start with my daughter. And then number two, I can lay my head down on my pillow and not feel like I'm stressed out because you know, there's a toilet leak at, you know, 12 o'clock at night. And so, you know, my biggest part is you get to take that model once you create it and you just pop it into a different market when you buy another facility. And it gets to be that easy, and especially right now with AI. And so I just want to show you guys the there's a three-part framework and operations that not a lot of people know about. Um, and this is what we teach in storage school is like either you can do it all yourself, like take the calls, the sales calls, do everything on that facility. The middle one is you can have it's a hybrid approach where you can have a boots on the ground for 15 hours a week, just a 1099, and then you have a call center. And normally it's because the call center is a sales, totally different mindset than a technician that needs to like, you know, do the locks and stuff. And so this is where majority of people go for remote management. And then the third one is normally if your facility is over 35,000 square feet, you can probably pencil in a third party, but you're still, you know, every week looking at the KPIs, you're managing that third party because you care about that business more than any third party will ever, you know, care about that business. So you actually get to choose which operating structure you want to do. And I tell my students, we have to understand this in the beginning because that's how you're going to underwrite. And that underwriting is going to really make a difference on how you look at your expenses and your expense load and then your true cash flow that you get to collect. And so that's a very important piece. And I know as numbers people, you know, this is so important that people don't talk about. I think it's like the reverse, actually. And so, especially in this market right now, it's important.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it makes all the sense in the world because it seems like also it would allow you to find what complex or what asset fits your model. So if you want to be a hybrid model, you probably shouldn't go to a complex that or go to a uh a facility that would be better as a you know completely remote facility or you know, more hands-on facility, so on and so forth. So that makes that makes all the sense in the world. When you're getting into real estate or getting into self-storage, I should say, what is the you know, financing seems to be like one of the easier things with it as far as you can find financing, you know, you can find a lot of partners. What is the hardest thing about this? Why what is it making, what are what are people stubbing their toe on getting into this industry?

SPEAKER_00

And I think you know, there's myths in this in general. Like people feel like you have to own 20 doors or multifamily in order to get into self-storage, and you don't. Like it doesn't need to have a whole ton of experience. Like if you can buy a facility from a you know 70-year-old, you know, baby boomer who wants to retire and is doing it all on a yellow pad, you're gonna be able to operate it even better, right? So I think people get a lot of analysis paralysis with trying to say, I need a million dollars, right, to buy a facility. That's not true. And then the second part is I don't know how to find a good deal and I don't know what it's worth, right? And people stop there in their tracks. And so this is what I like to teach in storage school. And I found this success um right out the gate where, you know, if you become a good deal hunter, right? Like finding those good deals, you can actually bring that opportunity or deal to someone else who has money and also is like, hey, I have, I love my W2. I want to take advantage of that depreciation, right? And you guys can partner with little to none of your own money. You know, we say little skin is in the game, right? Because both of you are good partners. But I think this is an important piece is that you are finding the opportunity. And if you want, you can also, you know, operate it for sweat equity and then come in with someone else who has the money. And so I think that's the biggest part is if you get really good, because the two defining features and just commercial is you know, we always have a lack of deals and we always have a lack of money, right? And those are the two things that we need to constantly, you know, have our flywheel going on. And so um, I'd love to show, you know, a few of you guys just how to find storage properties, if that's something that would be helpful for you guys. And so before I kind of like open up my screen, just for really basics, I think um a lot of people don't know with self-storage. One in eight people like have rented self-storage in like their lifetime. And so it's very fascinating because you know, one in eight people, I don't know, uh Marcus, have you ever rented a unit before?

SPEAKER_02

Like ever when you remove I've got two of them right now.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, wait, how much do you pay in them? I always love to hear. Come on, give us a number.

SPEAKER_02

It depends. Uh so my bigger one is 250 a month, it's an indoor storage for the boat, but then I have you know my junk storage, which maybe is like 60 bucks a month, 60 something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And so what's so what's so fascinating in self-storage is that you know, people use it, you know, to move in a good time and a bad time, and businesses also use it. Like we've got a library that rents eight, you know, climate controlled units for their documents, and same thing, you know, for pharmaceutical reps. Like they can't keep it at their house, so they're gonna put it, you know, a business is like a subscription base. It's better. But what's beautiful is that, you know, Americans like, I'm expecting an Amazon package today. Like we're constantly consuming, right? Buying things on Amazon like that fast. And so we actually use self-storage just like an easy button, right? It's easy to go take your stuff instead of sorting through it and put it into self-storage. On our average, we've got about on our facilities, people stay for three years on average, I would say, you know, depending on, you know, the facility. But that's a long time, like 250 times, you know, three years, 36 months. Like that's a great little automated, you know, cost of acquisition right there. And our longest person stayed like 14 years, which is wild because it's probably just junks, you know, in there. But the the biggest part, I think that's the thing is it's a subscription-based business. And it would take a lot of time for Marcus or you on you as a parent to go take your stuff out because I raised rents by 10%, right? Like $25. You wouldn't go take your stuff and go down the street to go rent another unit. You'd have to like put all your stuff into a U-Haul, not go to your kids' games just because I raised rents. And so a lot of times people just stay, right? And that's what our goal is. And so as an operator, and I know you love numbers, so I'm gonna just like give you spill the tea, we call it a 7-Eleven. And so we see, you know, once someone stays at six months, we raise it by, you know, sometimes six or eight percent. And then at month 11, we'll raise it again, right? And we'll keep competitive with the market rate, with supply and demand. And so instead of like owning a house where they can only raise it once, right? We're able to raise it twice because it's a month to month lease. And so that's how we force appreciation. And that's just on one product we call, you know, there's many ways to make money and revenue in self storage. And so boat and RV, we've got cell towers, we've got billboards, we have tenant protection plans. So every person has to either show their homeowner insurance or have to purchase $12. It's an automatic, they don't show it to us, $12 add-on. Um, because we're not responsible. They are with other stuff, right? Right. So I just wanted to show you some of like the a little bit of the basics, but also it gives you a really good understanding, you know, why self-storage has been a huge, you know, topic in the industry, as well as it's only going to be needed more and more as people move on to the outskirts, declutter, you know, downsize. My mom's like, I'm downsizing. That's my word of 2026. But I just wanted to share with you a little bit, you know, with your listeners, why people use it in a good time and in a bad time. But I do think to show you guys just how to find storage deals. And this is something that I teach with storage school is like, hey, how do you find a good mom and pop owner that does not have a website or has a website and does not take rents online, right? Like that's the competitive advantage. And so if you guys are wanting to think about it, we look at a market, we don't want to be in, you know, like Raleigh, North Carolina, larger MSAs, we want to be in like third or fourth tier market. And so if we focus on third and fourth tier markets, a lot of the time the rates aren't in there, such as public storage, CubeSmart, like you know, life storage, like we don't want to compete with them. And so I I'm going to give you an example. So give me a town. I don't know, you we can we can look at a couple others that I have a couple in my brain, but from 5,000 people population all the way up to about 150,000 population, like a city and a state that's why don't we do where I'm at?

SPEAKER_02

How about Ozark, Missouri? Let's see what we'll see what Ozark, Missouri looks like.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's actually I was looking at there's one um Sullivan, Missouri. Do you know where Sullivan is?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know where it's I mean I've heard of it, but I don't know where it's at.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah. So this is let's I'm gonna open up my screen.

SPEAKER_02

It's about 15 to 20,000 people.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, 15 okay this is that's perfect. And so let me open up share. And so if you guys are just listening on on the podcast, I'm gonna walk you guys through it, but if you should go to Marcus's podcast or YouTube to watch this because I want you guys to be able to find storage deals. And so I just pulled up Ozark Missouri and he's right 21,000 people right there. And so what you can do Google's is free and this is majority of how 70% of people find us online through Google Maps. And that's what you do when you're Googling self-storage you go into Google Maps, you click on nearby, and you write let's go nearby self-storage inside you click enter and so all these little red dots we call them this is kind of like the Google map pack but these group all these red dots are storage facilities in Ozark, Missouri. And so I like to kind of get like a lay of the land a little bit and so you're kind of like right there out of Springfield. I have a business partner in Columbia so I know I've got some good yeah it's a good area. And so what we're looking for though is on the outskirts of these growths, we're looking for facilities that don't have a website or they like have a website or it's unsophisticated. So like this is a perfect one no like no website right here if you're looking on the YouTube and I'm gonna click it and I'm gonna go straight in there like this is what's wild. It is on a beautiful like highway highway 65 right there. Nice facility like this is a beautiful facility that has no website. And so it's like they've got 3.4 stars. So the other things that I look at that are mom and pop or could be an unsophisticated owner is that normally like if they have less than 15 reviews like this one has 10, it indicates they're not using Google, you know, right to gain attraction and attention. And then if it's less than 4.2 stars it also indicates that they're not utilizing it to the best abilities like as a customer service. Like something's going on right yeah um they could be absentee they could be living somewhere else or they're just like hey we don't care right we're cash flowing and that's not always the best because we have to do customer service. But I would literally just call this one like this is a beautiful facility you probably live right there you know from it that's I would purchase five minutes away from my house. Yeah like I would like right there on the main highway I could take my little Google man I look at it you know sign out front some land for expansion RV and boat it might have a billboard in the back like this is a beautiful property. So what I like to do is um you know I have my students build a list and we cold call right you can cold call or send uh mailers or send them um messages but it's very simple and and I get people to you know you want to build a relationship. So I'll call the owner say hi hey is this the owner of stowaway storage and they're like yes it is well hi you know I know this call just might be out of the blue but I go by you know your storage facility I drive by it every single day on Highway 65. And you know I just was curious if you would ever consider an offer on your storage facility. Silence. And he might be like oh well I haven't thought about that or right now we have a lot of owners that are saying yeah actually I want to take money you know what what would your offer be? And that's how you build this relationship. And so even though he might say no Marcus I might I would say hey well tell me how you bought it like I want to know how did you buy this come to buy this facility and I want to hear the story. And so that creates a relationship right and no like and trust. And so you do this 20 calls a day five days a week it's only a matter of time you know before you get that first facility. And so that is what if you we just closed um one of the students closed a $1.5 million dollar facility near an hour outside of Houston, Texas. And so you guys 65% you are still mom and pop. And so that's what I just wanted to show you is that there is so much opportunity at hand right now.

SPEAKER_02

It's so easy and you know it's interesting because I think a lot of people stay away from it and a lot of my audience is single family wholesalers fix and flippers they do a lot of transactional volume and there's a dopamine hit right consistent dopamine dopamine dopamine every time I close a deal you know I've closed 50 deals this month storage unit you might not close a deal for a year right if you you know depending on the scenario and so and that's this case with you know any multifamily or any really commercial facility like that. And so how do you keep the mindset strong on okay I still want to do this. How do I keep the dopamine high? How do we actually keep excited about this asset class even though you know we're gonna get told a hundred two hundred thousand times before we find the the real deal no I think this is a really good question.

SPEAKER_00

And then you have the anomalies where we've had a few students their fifth call like we had a firefighter buy two facilities and on his fifth call the owner is like you know absolutely I'll take an offer and he's like uh what do I do now? You know and that's what we want we want people and it's so funny because I know you're a CPA and my numbers people sometimes have the hardest time because I I like to kind of slap them around a little bit I'm sorry I just do because you guys are so in the weeds and I my dad all there's like four generations of engineers all the the guys in our family are engineers and my brother would take like four months to buy a vacuum. And so you know sometimes it's like it's less about all the numbers and all the things and having to know it all versus like let's just work on getting an owner to raise his hand and say he wants an offer. Right. And so I think it's important to know this, right? So we're like constantly building relationships in our flywheel but it is true right so I think the expectation especially in this day of age right now is houses you can close in 15 to 30 days like it's the truth. In self-storage, our due diligence is longer like we've got you know 60 day due diligence with a 30 day close that's 90 days sometimes. And so that's the biggest part is that you also are closing a larger asset class that is normally 10 houses. So that's how I like to think about it is like you know instead of like 10 houses, you know, a storage facility might take a little bit longer, but the fruit to its labor is going to be 10 X. And I'm always like oh my gosh if you guys are doing Airbnbs right now, like storage is like a drop in a hat, you know, in the sense of like easiness, you know, once you get these systems in place, especially for my CPA, like logical people. And so I think that's the biggest part is not being discouraged, but it's building these skill sets that last a lifetime. And so even though it took me nine months right to find my my first deal because I didn't have all you know these like a storage school or place a community to go to, you know, I was learning how to find deals. I was learning how to underwrite a deal like how do you underwrite it where it's like what is it worth today, right? With based on its gross income, what could it be worth in three to five years if I put my operational plan on top of it and is it in a good market? Right. Like that's a huge supply and demand. We have to look at that and then what is my offer today? Not tomorrow because how the broker evaluated it they want you to pay for pro forma in the future value. And you know as a good owner you're not going to pay for that right so how do you you know put out a good offer and so what I'm seeing actually right now in this market, which is beautiful is the people that you know get the deals is the follow up. And so they actually, this is a great quote and it's true in real estate it's like a storage owner can't say yes to an offer that they do not have in their hands. And I like repeat this back because I tell this to my students you know a storage owner can't say yes to an offer they don't have in their hands. And when I say that because most people especially people that are really logical they're like oh it's not worth it moving on. And so no tell them what it's worth send them an offer on what you think it's worth today based on that value. And what we're seeing is three to four months later they're coming back with 300K off that deal. Like the one we just closed March 31st was um that $1.5 million dollar deal. It was under contract at 1.8 fell out of contract and with the owner and then we picked it up he wanted 1.6 we got him to 1.5 because I'm a shark. And so being able to close that and just being like the right owner to close it and to make it happen. And so that's my biggest you know take on this is making sure that you are putting offers out there on what you think it's worth today, even though it might be cringeworthy or you know you're like oh they're not gonna even look at it. No, the broker or the owner is going to get some shots and they're gonna be educated on what they think it's worth. And then you have to follow up by saying you know you are the right buyer. And that's what I teach my students is like we got to kind of put a little spin on this for you know 2026. Why are you the best owner to buy this facility because you're gonna take it and do these three things like by just by saying that it's not a cover letter but just by saying that and making it different in your email or whatever it is when you present it goes beyond and you know above and beyond.

SPEAKER_02

Sure. Yeah totally makes sense totally makes sense I know we're right at the edge of the time you've you fit us in uh graciously I know you're getting ready to go cold call some uh storage facilities right now with some of your students so that's I know that's uh that's something you got to get to before we jump off here though I finish all of my podcasts with the same question my big belief is very simple if you want to get better results you've got to make better decisions better decisions equals better results consistently and so if you were to kind of talk to my audience and say okay what better decision could they be making today to get better results what would that be yeah so I would say definitely make sure because I want to give you guys this storage deal finding like cheat sheet and my storage offer calculator but even by just plugging in and doing like 30 minutes at your lunch hour, going on you know Google Maps and actually calling that facility number and just giving them a call, building that relationship jump or going to that facility shaking hands with that owner will get you you know to that next level.

SPEAKER_00

And so the other thing that I really think is important is just like you said, is like inserting yourself like we started this conversation, you know, with a group and a community that are like action takers and are doing the thing. And so that's why very much like we started storage school because there really isn't very much education about storage because it's very niche, right? Very unique. We're like the 1% right or even less than that. But I think being a part of a group is so important not only to learn right what a facility is worth but it's okay that owner just said they would take an offer what do I do next and that's what we do is we help people with that. And so many people have we say go cause problems and we want to help you solve them. Right. We have someone that um is going to be closing an offer in um the Arizona Arizona is the deal it's really cool because they caused issues and they joins a group that can actually help them. So um yeah if you guys are wanting to take some action I'm gonna give you guys um these two resources. And so it's a deal finding cheat sheet which we talked about goes step by step through what Google Maps. And then the second part is an offer calculator. So this is storage offer calculator which shows you what a facility is worth which is awesome. So if you um go to the link I'll give you the link below but you can also just send me a DM with you know calculator to 9165797209.

SPEAKER_02

That works as well. Awesome awesome we'll definitely get that in the show notes as well so make sure and take action guys nothing happens in your business without action that's that's at the end of the day it is an action business. If you're struggling with there I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs out here right now that are in there they're doing the day to day grind. It doesn't matter if you're coaching business if you're in a house flipping business whatever it is you're in the day-to-day grind and you're trying to figure out how to invest how to get into a bigger asset class how to do something and build wealth and I know self-storage is a way that a lot of people are doing it. If you need help with that you should go check out self-storage school that is a great community where people are actively doing deals. Bree's leading it she's doing a great job leading it make sure and go check that out Bree appreciate your time I I'm gonna cut it off right now I know you got to go I appreciate the time and uh look forward to talking to you soon. Thank you so much. It's been awesome. What an awesome episode if you stayed to the end you got to watch Bree go in to my local city find a self-storage facility that is on the major highway in my city and ultimately find that it is probably underperforming because they don't have Google reviews they don't have a website they're not maximizing their reach and it's a major facility in my little town in Ozark, Missouri see business is not complicated, right? She showed you in five minutes how simple creating a business is but it takes your actions to do that, right? And so the big lesson here is take action on what you truly want in life. That is what Bree did she did it to start with at nine months pregnant. She bought her first facility at nine months pregnant and you could too now let me talk to you about buying a facility that is just the beginning the road starts to actually get paved when you start working in that facility right you've got to understand the numbers you've got to understand the finances and this is with any business right this is with any real estate situation. So if you need an accounting firm that understands real estate, understands what it takes to make a real estate deal successful reach out to Beck CFO. We're happy to help we're happy to take a look at your situation help you build wealth the right way in real estate guys we'll talk to you soon. Until next time keep making better decisions so that you can get better results.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to Strength in numbers if you're ready to take control of your finances and start building real wealth in your business be sure to schedule your free discovery call with market at BETFO.com to get started. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next FSL,