Cancer Threatened Their Income. Storage Made It Bulletproof.

What would happen to your household income if you couldn't work tomorrow? 

That single question is at the heart of this episode and for guest Christin Blunk, it wasn't hypothetical. When her husband Rod was diagnosed with stage four cancer three days before Christmas, their income stopped cold.  

What followed transformed their life with 20 years of residential real estate experience into self-storage investors generating $12,000 per month in passive cash flow…on less than 15 hours of management per month.  

Joe Downs sits down with Christin to unpack how she and Rod found and financed two self-storage facilities in Kentucky using conventional bank financing, no SBA, no private equity, with a combined investment of under $200,000 and built a portfolio now tracking toward $3.75–$4 million at exit. 

If you've been sitting on the fence about self-storage investing, this episode is your wake-up call.

Listen For:

7:13 How did a stage four cancer diagnosis completely change the way Christin Blunk thinks about income and self-storage investing?

12:24 Why did Christin spend a full year educating herself before buying her first self-storage facility, even with 20 years of real estate experience?

17:14 How did Christin finance her first self-storage acquisition using conventional local bank financing with just 20% down?

22:49 What did Christin discover during due diligence on her second self-storage deal, and how did she turn 40 non-paying tenants into an advantage?

34:36 What does Christin Blunk say to the storage investor who has all the information they need but still hasn't pulled the trigger?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: CHRISTIN BLUNK

Warriors 2 Wealth Website | Warriors 2 Wealth YouTube | Christin's Instagram | Christin's LinkedIn 

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Transcript

Joe Downs (00:12):

I want to ask you something before we get started. What happens to your income if you can't work tomorrow? Not what if the market dips or what if I lose my job? I mean literally, what happens to your household if you can't show up starting tomorrow? Most people, if they're being honest, don't have a great answer to that question. And for most people, it never becomes urgent enough to do something about it until something forces the issue. My guest today had something force her issue. Her husband Rod, who most of you who follow us already know, was diagnosed with stage four cancer three days before Christmas. He went from 205 pounds to 135 pounds in a matter of weeks. He lost his ability to talk, lost his ability to swallow. At one point, a priest walked into the hospital room. And while all that was happening, the income stopped because Christin was his full-time caretaker and you can't fill a sales funnel and take care of a man who's fighting for his life at the same time.

(01:11):

That moment, not the cancer, but the income stopping is what changed everything for them. Today, Christin and Rod own two self-storage facilities in Kentucky and are completing a ground-up build and their portfolio is on track to be worth somewhere between 3.75 and $4 million when they exit. Their current cash flow right now without new construction is between eight and $10,000 a month. Rod couldn't be here today and we'll get him on a future episode. But honestly, Christin is the one who cold called the seller, found both deals, sat in an office for four hours photographing leases during due diligence and negotiated the addendum that got her paid on 40 units the previous owner wasn't even collecting. She's the one you need to hear from anyway. Here's what we're covering today: where Christin and Rod started, and I mean really started, not the polished version; how they got into storage and specifically how they found and financed their first two deals using a local bank and conventional financing — not even SBA, not private equity.

(02:14):

What it actually takes to operate a storage business, how many hours a week that looks like, and at the end, what she would say to the person watching or listening who's been sitting on the fence. I'm Joe Downs, and this is the Storage Moguls Podcast. Every week on the Storage Moguls Podcast, we'll sit down with operators, deal makers, and capital partners who are actively building wealth across six storage verticals, because the best education comes from people in the game, not on the sidelines. And I'm excited to have Christin Blunk here with us today. Christin, welcome to the show.

Christin Blunk (02:47):

Hi, Joe. Thanks for having me on.

Joe Downs (02:50):

Oh, it's a pleasure. Your story is an awesome one, and I really want our listeners and our viewers to understand it, to really hear it from the beginning, if that's okay with you. And I apologize in advance if this is a little painful for you, because honestly, I want to go back to before the storage, because I think understanding where someone started tells you more than any deal number ever could. It tells you whether this is someone who had an unfair advantage or someone who was starting from roughly the same place most of you are. So Christin, people look at you and Rod now, at your portfolio, the exit strategy, the mentorship you're providing in our community, and they see the finish line, which is awesome. But what they don't see is the starting line. So take me back before any of this. Who were you two?

Christin Blunk (03:50):

How far back do you want to go, Joe?

Joe Downs (03:52):

I want to go back to before Rod got sick. What was your life like? Who were Christin and Rod Blunk and what were you doing and what was your trajectory?

Christin Blunk (04:01):

Sure. So we'll go back to the early 2000s. Rod and I both had a master's degree. His was in nuclear engineering. I was in business, and we both had great jobs. He was a submariner in the Navy, an officer, and I was a vice president at an insurance company. And we thought we were doing everything right. We were making great money and just enjoying life. And then in 2008, the market crashed, as we all know, and we had lost a lot of money. We bought into the mindset early on that we believed in the system — we believed in getting a good education, and I still do — but that we would continue to put money into our 401(k), our IRAs, and our mutual funds, and that's how we were going to grow wealth. And we thought we were on the right path for years. To bring you back up to speed: 2008, the market crashed.

(04:57):

We were still young at the time. Our girls were still young. We still thought we were doing the right thing, and we both agreed that we were going to continue on that path. So we continued to work hard for our employers and continued to put money into our 401(k)s and IRAs. And then finally in 2012, I had enough courage to open up our financial statements that I had been avoiding for the last four years. And I completely did not like what I saw. I was shocked, honestly, because we still were not where we were before the market crashed in 2008. And we were, over the last four years, contributing a significant amount of our income into our 401(k)s, IRAs, and mutual funds still. So it made us realize that maybe we aren't on the right track. Maybe what we were taught and what we thought was right isn't.

(05:44):

There are very wealthy people out there and we didn't know what we needed to do at the time, but we knew we needed to do something different. And so we just started educating ourselves. And I started reading books like Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, The Millionaire Next Door, Think and Grow Rich — all of that. And I know many people listening to this podcast have probably read those books and many more, but they helped us change our mindset and made us realize that there are other ways. And so Rod and I made a conscious decision to go into residential real estate. So we opened up a residential real estate investment company. He was still working his W2 job. I was running the business. We did over 450 transactions, probably in a six-year period. We were fixing and flipping, buying and holding, wholesaling, doing private money lending — you name it.

(06:32):

Life was crazy. It was fun, but we were busy. And then, gosh, I can't remember the year. A few years later — 2016, 2017 — Rod was diagnosed with stage four cancer, like you said.

Joe Downs (06:49):

Three days before Christmas. I mean, you talk about an absolute gut punch in general, but the timing — my goodness, just to add to it. And I'm guessing everything stopped for you. And I want to ask you about that period, not just because it's a powerful story, but because it changed the way you thought about money — that's what I heard — and income, in a very specific way. So can you walk us through that?

Christin Blunk (07:13):

Yeah, absolutely. And it did. And I believe we go through these journeys and obstacles for a reason, and we grew from them, and I'm grateful for them. Doing the residential real estate, we thought we were on the right path — again, creating wealth, creating the life that we wanted to — even though we were trading so much of our time in the residential real estate to do that, we were still enjoying it. But when Rod got diagnosed, he quickly became very ill and he wasn't able to work. So he didn't have any income, and he was so ill during this time, but he needed 24-hour care. Somebody needed to be around him 24 hours a day. And so as you mentioned, that person was me, Joe, and it was an honor to take care of him and I wanted to do that, but we now had two people that didn't have income coming in and three daughters.

(08:10):

So my focus at this time was just to get through this, to keep my daughters alive, keep my husband alive, and we'll muddle through this just like we always do. We were fortunate enough to have had enough money in our savings account to be able to carry us through for a while until he was able to get back up on his feet. And what really made me start thinking is that there was a point in time during this journey — several times, actually — where we did not think Rod was going to make it and that he was going to pull through. And after we passed that point and we knew that he was going to survive and that he was gaining his strength and our lives were resuming as normal, there was always something in the back of my head. And this is going to sound really harsh, and you know how I think and I'm direct.

(09:01):

So my worry wasn't, "What if Rod died? What am I going to do?" Because at that time he was able to have life insurance and from a financial perspective, we would've been fine. My worry was, "Oh my gosh, we could very well end up in this situation again where he can't work — and now what are we going to do?" Because there's no life insurance coming in, there's no income coming in from his perspective at that point in time. And if I had to take care of him, there would be no income coming in from my side either. And so that really was eye-opening to me. And again, I thought we were on the right path with the residential, but realized that we needed to shift what we were doing because we needed to put ourselves in a position that — God forbid we ever go down this road again —

(09:45):

— from a financial perspective, we would be okay, that we would have income coming in regardless of whether we were trading our time for money. And so that's when things started to shift for us. And Rod and I went back to the drawing board and we still loved real estate. We thought we were going to continue down the path of residential real estate because that's what we knew. But after putting together the numbers and our goals, we realized that that was going to require a significant number of residential properties that we were going to need to buy. And truth be told, I do not like being a landlord. I didn't want anything to do with owning residential properties and having passive income coming in that way. So we quickly abandoned that idea of continuing to go down the path of residential real estate and started looking more into the commercial asset classes.

Joe Downs (10:36):

So how did storage come into the picture?

Christin Blunk (10:39):

Great question. So we wanted something that was going to work with the lifestyle that we wanted to create. And we looked at several asset classes — whether it was mobile home parks, self-storage, office buildings, commercial buildings, multifamily — whatever it was. I knew I didn't want to go multifamily just because there's still a residential piece to it, right? More income coming in off of it potentially, but there were still tenants that I didn't want to deal with. So I just dug into self-storage, went to self-storage academy, learned a little bit more about it, and really realized that this asset class aligned with the lifestyle that Rod and I were trying to create. And so that's where we landed.

Joe Downs (11:28):

Okay. And again, like I said in the open, folks that know us know we work together. And so this is a little self-serving as a first podcast, but it's also — I specifically chose you for the first Storage Moguls Podcast because your story, I think, is the story that should resonate with the most people. So just for those that didn't know that, full disclosure — but that's why I selected Christin. So I've known Christin for years now. And so I know when you joined the self-storage academy in 2020 during COVID, you had 20 years of real estate experience and you still spent a year just educating yourself and making offers before you bought anything in self-storage.

Christin Blunk (12:19):

100%.

Joe Downs (12:20):

Why? What were you learning that your experience didn't cover?

Christin Blunk (12:24):

Well, a lot. Okay. We did have real estate experience, but it was residential. I knew how to evaluate, buy, find, and sell residential properties and fix them up. I didn't know anything about commercial. I don't want to say it's a different beast, but it is. There's different terminology, different lingo. It's just different. And so I wanted to truly understand the business. I wanted to make sure that we knew how to buy. I didn't know how to find them. I didn't know how to evaluate them. I didn't know how to go to a bank and ask for a loan for ... I mean, I can walk in, but you have to do a little bit more preparing for a bank interview to try to get terms out of them, for them to agree to finance your commercial asset. So while there are some similarities, there are a lot of differences, and I just wanted to make sure that Rod and I knew what those differences were and that we were educated enough so that we could make good, sound decisions.

Joe Downs (13:23):

And what was that year like for you?

Christin Blunk (13:28):

Well, the learning was exciting because I always loved to learn. Being patient about finding my first deal was a little bit challenging for me. We kind of got in our own way. We live in Maryland and thought that we needed to have a storage facility in our own backyard. I wanted to be close to it, wanted to be able to drive to it. So most of the self-storage facilities in Maryland are Class A, and that is not what we're looking for. We're looking for Class B, Class C in the secondary and tertiary markets. So I couldn't find anything and just made sure I surrounded myself with the right people who could help me get out of my own way sometimes. And they showed me a path to how to find, own, and operate storage that isn't necessarily in my own backyard.

Joe Downs (14:15):

Let me ask you a simple question. Is it hard?

Christin Blunk (14:22):

No. What's hard is being consistent and not quitting on yourself. That's what's hard. That's what's hard with life in general, right? Well, Joe, listen to this. So it's a small facility. Obviously, we were looking for something bigger, but this was a great opportunity. The returns worked. And I thought — I'm like, this is great. My first deal. I can get in the game, I can learn, make sure this really works. And if I lose it all, we'll still be able to recover. It's not going to wipe us out, because in Maryland, residential real estate is pretty expensive. The cost to acquire a house is pretty high, but I bought this one for $320,000.

Joe Downs (15:07):

Why would the thought "if we lose it all" even enter your mind?

Christin Blunk (15:12):

I don't know. The fear, right? I'm always talking to myself and talking through the fear and worst-case scenario and what does that look like for us and can we survive it, right? Yeah. Did I think that would happen? No. Did I think ... I mean, you still have the land, you still have the building, you're never going to lose it all.

Joe Downs (15:29):

So the purchase price ... I'm just going to introduce it. You paid 320, which is incredible, right? And you put 64,000 down plus closing. So what did that end up being? 90-grand-ish?

Christin Blunk (15:41):

Not even that. No, because in Kentucky, taxes, all that stuff — closing costs.

Joe Downs (15:47):

Okay. So 80, 85 — somewhere in there. Yeah. So at risk was 80 to 90 grand. You were buying it way under market — it had to be at 37% below market. So was this just the ultra-conservative Christin Blunk "if I lose it all" thought?

Christin Blunk (16:07):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (16:08):

Looking back, it was kind of a silly thought. Yes.

Christin Blunk (16:12):

100%. 100%. I was testing the waters, always analyzing things worst-case scenario. And that's really not worst-case scenario, right?

Joe Downs (16:22):

But I'm harping on your thought process just because to me it's crazy. But back to the reality of the situation — you had 85-ish grand at risk. So you're right, even if you lost some of it, if it didn't work out and you sold it for what you paid, you lost your closing costs and whatever. The point I'm trying to make is you got into self-storage for probably less than you were getting into residential flips in Maryland.

Christin Blunk (16:55):

Yeah. Well, first-time home buyers in the state of Maryland are purchasing between $500,000 or $700,000 homes, right? So those price points don't exist really here. So yes, I got into storage for a lot less than what I was into in residential.

Joe Downs (17:12):

And how did you finance this?

Christin Blunk (17:14):

It was conventional financing, a local bank, 20% down.

Joe Downs (17:18):

So 20% down on your 320 purchase. Talk to me about cash flow.

Christin Blunk (17:26):

I was worried in the beginning that we weren't going to cash flow because —

Joe Downs (17:30):

Of course you were.

Christin Blunk (17:32):

— we were going to have to carry this for a little bit. But we were cash flowing day one because — how much? Day one. I don't know, probably two grand a month, day one, is what — net of —

Joe Downs (17:42):

Debt service?

Christin Blunk (17:43):

Yes. Yeah.

Joe Downs (17:47):

Just doing quick math here. So day one, you were cash flowing at a 28% cash-on-cash return.

Christin Blunk (17:55):

Yeah. Yeah. And I was worried. And it was just going up from there because I was filling up the vacant units and I was raising the street rates to market rates, so I was creating value. And so quickly, that $2,000 cash flow accelerated. And while we were there transitioning our first facility — after we'd just bought it, we're in there, we're getting dirty, we're figuring out what units need to be cleaned out, prepped, so on and so forth — we drew from the market and ended up meeting another seller and ended up getting another property under contract.

Joe Downs (18:34):

You're getting ahead of me.

Christin Blunk (18:36):

I love that. I'm sorry.

Joe Downs (18:39):

You don't have to go back. I'm going to ask you that in a second.

Christin Blunk (18:42):

I was leading you.

Joe Downs (18:44):

I want to make sure we tease everything out of this first facility because we're kind of missing it. The cash flow is amazing. We haven't finished that yet. Where's that cash flow today?

Christin Blunk (18:54):

On that one, since it's a small facility, we are probably cash flowing around four grand a month and that's after debt.

Joe Downs (19:00):

So —

Christin Blunk (19:01):

Now —

Joe Downs (19:01):

We're at 48 on our 85 —

Christin Blunk (19:04):

Initial —

Joe Downs (19:04):

Investment. So now we're up to a 56% cash-on-cash return, net of debt service.

Christin Blunk (19:10):

Yeah. And four grand's not life-changing, but it is nice to be consistently coming in on a monthly basis.

Joe Downs (19:17):

Look, you can't spend 56% cash-on-cash return, but you can spend four grand a month.

Christin Blunk (19:24):

Yes.

Joe Downs (19:25):

That doesn't suck. No. Christin, the elephant in the room now — hopefully our listener is wondering: well, what's this thing worth now? If you paid 320 and you doubled your cash flow — just if we take the one net-of-debt-service cash-on-cash number, you doubled that, which means your NOI had to double as well. What is this worth today?

Christin Blunk (19:55):

Great question. If I were to sell it by itself, it would probably be worth over $750,000. So more than doubled.

Joe Downs (20:04):

And remind me again what you paid.

Christin Blunk (20:07):

320,000. And there was really minimal CapEx. We probably put $5,000 of capital expenditures into this building, into this facility.

Joe Downs (20:18):

So five, and your closing costs were only 20. So let's just say you're into the thing for 350 and it's worth 750.

Christin Blunk (20:25):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (20:27):

And that's obviously not including all the cash flow you've received along the way. That's incredible. This is one of the reasons I wanted to have you on. There's story after story of folks that we're either coaching and mentoring or running into or meeting in our masterminds that we belong to who have this story. "My first deal was 400 grand, 600 grand, 500 grand" — and it's almost always worth twice as much today. And today isn't 20 years later. It's three, four, five years later. It's incredible. Used conventional financing at a local bank — which by the way, Belrose Group, most of our deals are local credit unions, local banks that finance them if they're not seller-financed.

(21:14):

Found through a cold call. Nothing exotic about this deal — 66 units, no insider connection, no private equity fund, no 10-year track record in storage. Just someone who did their homework, asked the right questions, showed up credibly at the bank with a business, not a gamble. And that's what I want people to take away from this. The first deal doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be right. It doesn't have to be a $10 million deal. It's just got to be the right size. And when you find the right one and you know how to evaluate it, the bank will tell you yes — because you're not asking them to bet on you, you're showing them a business model.

(21:56):

All right. Here's the thing about deal number two that I think is more instructive than any underwriting spreadsheet we could talk about here. It involves a guy who drove a school bus, repaired lawn mowers, and had never been in his office long enough to actually collect rent. And Christin turned that into a lesson that applies to every single deal you'll ever look at. So Christin, your second deal was five miles from the first. You already alluded to the fact that while you were at the first, you found it. 117 units in Vine Grove, Kentucky. You bought this for $430,000. Rod found it by literally driving up to the neighboring facility owner and introducing himself. Is that correct?

Christin Blunk (22:48):

Yes.

Joe Downs (22:49):

But when you got into due diligence, you found out that 40 of those units were occupied but not paying.

Christin Blunk (22:57):

Oh yeah.

Joe Downs (22:57):

Talk me through that.

Christin Blunk (23:00):

We were getting ready to close, actually. He didn't have a system. He rented units manually and had a whiteboard that he would write on. So we had to go all the way through due diligence without really collecting a rent roll.

Joe Downs (23:16):

I want to pause you there. So you're telling me his management system — obviously no software, not even a spreadsheet, not even a notebook — it was on a whiteboard?

Christin Blunk (23:30):

With magnets —

Joe Downs (23:31):

With magnets and markers. Yeah. I don't know if it gets more mom-and-pop than that.

Christin Blunk (23:41):

And you actually — he took cash or checks and you actually had to go into his office and pay him. So I guess he was driving buses and running a lawnmower business. So guess what was happening?

Joe Downs (23:54):

So if he wasn't there, you couldn't pay him?

Christin Blunk (23:56):

That's right.

Joe Downs (23:57):

Oh my goodness. All right.

Christin Blunk (24:00):

It was an opportunity for us.

Joe Downs (24:03):

How did you handle that? So you have 40 units occupied by non-paying tenants. First of all, what did that do to your evaluation of the deal? Did you renegotiate?

Christin Blunk (24:12):

Tried to. It significantly lowered the value. But keep in mind — I think you said we bought the previous facility at 37% below market value. This was more than that below market value. This was —

Joe Downs (24:28):

More than 37% below.

Christin Blunk (24:29):

Yes. So there was a significant ability to create value here, and we knew that. And so we tried to renegotiate because we were buying it based on the fact that it was stabilized — probably 80, 85% occupancy — knowing that the rates were significantly undervalued but that our physical occupancy was still stabilized. Come to find out, when we were getting ready to close, when we got the true rent roll, when I was going through all of his records — I had to physically go into the office and read all of his contracts and go through everything to figure out who had paid, who was up to date, who was behind, so on and so forth. And that was very revealing. There were 40 units that were behind, and I'm not talking just a couple of months behind. They were significantly behind where they should have been auctioned six months, eight months, a year ago.

(25:21):

So taking over this facility, I knew that we were going to have to come in and auction off all of these units and that would destabilize us, right? Our occupancy would significantly decrease.

Joe Downs (25:32):

Let me pause you there. How long after you closed on Radcliffe are you closing on this second deal?

Christin Blunk (25:41):

Eight months. We had a long contract period. It took a while to negotiate it and get it under contract.

Joe Downs (25:50):

You're still new.

Christin Blunk (25:51):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (25:52):

I want you to be honest during this eight-month —

Christin Blunk (25:56):

Hold on. August through February — September, October, November, December, January — six months. There you go. I have to count on my fingers. Don't mind me.

Joe Downs (26:10):

Folks, if I can do this — and can we do what you can do? Yes, Christin can do this. You can do this. So six months after you close on the first one, you close on the second one.

Christin Blunk (26:24):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (26:24):

You're still green. You're still wet behind the ears. You're still brand new — whatever expression you want to use. I know you know what you know now about this second facility, but in that moment, in that six-month window, was there fear?

Christin Blunk (26:42):

Yes.

Joe Downs (26:43):

Were you concerned about these unknowns — these 40 units, what would this look like, how will it get financed, is this a deal, are we being stupid — what was going on in your head?

Christin Blunk (26:55):

Yeah, it was going on in my head. I was thinking, "Oh my gosh, the cash flow isn't what it says and we're going to have to spend six to eight months just stabilizing this facility and getting it up and running." And I didn't want to do that — that was fearful.

Joe Downs (27:08):

How did you cope? How did you get through that? What gave you peace of mind, or what were your guardrails?

Christin Blunk (27:14):

Yeah, great question. I need to add into this because during our due diligence period too, we also found out that we needed to replace eight roofs. And 40 tenants that —

Joe Downs (27:27):

Weren't —

Christin Blunk (27:28):

So —

Joe Downs (27:28):

You're brand new, you're juggling one facility right now.

Christin Blunk (27:33):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (27:33):

You're learning the ropes and you're getting curveballs with eight roofs and 40 units not paying.

Christin Blunk (27:39):

Fortunately, the numbers still worked because we got it under contract for a phenomenal price and we knew that. So what I did was — with the units, we tried renegotiating with the seller and he wouldn't budge — but Rod and I knew that we were still going to make a good amount of money on this facility and that it was still a good deal regardless. So I got the seller to agree that: okay, we won't renegotiate the deal, but you need to sign an addendum that if I collect on these units, I get to keep it.

Joe Downs (28:11):

So what you did was you got creative.

Christin Blunk (28:14):

Yes.

Joe Downs (28:14):

And this was a point I made recently, and I implore people — I think I made it in the Storage 100 series I'm doing on YouTube. If it's a deal, you've got to find a way to make it work. If it's a deal, you get creative, and I love that. So the owner wouldn't renegotiate. He represented 40 occupied units, but it was really 40 occupied units that weren't paying. It was like 40 units that you're looking at as potential auctions, which isn't doing you any favors from a cash-flow standpoint —

Christin Blunk (28:53):

I have to bear the expense of auctioning them and cleaning all that out. But —

Joe Downs (28:56):

More importantly, you were counting on that NOI, I'm sure.

Christin Blunk (29:00):

Yes.

Joe Downs (29:00):

And now it's not there — that revenue that leads to the NOI.

Christin Blunk (29:05):

That wouldn't be there.

Joe Downs (29:06):

You got creative and what was the result?

Christin Blunk (29:10):

Amazing. He signed it and then realized he wasn't happy about it when all I had to do was pick up the phone and call these people who hadn't paid in months. And guess what they did? They paid me. And they paid me the back debt that they owed the old seller, and they were so happy that they could pay with a credit card and that I was going to send them an invoice every month via text and email. It was amazing. Out of all that, I only had to auction three units.

Joe Downs (29:40):

That's incredible.

Christin Blunk (29:41):

Do you remember? I collected 14 grand that I didn't know was — I didn't account for that in the deal.

Joe Downs (29:48):

So you paid 430. You used, again, a 20% down payment, conventional loan, which had you put 107-ish down. Down plus closing costs takes you to where? 120?

Christin Blunk (30:07):

Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Downs (30:08):

And you basically had your closing costs paid for by collecting back rent?

Christin Blunk (30:15):

It helped, yeah.

Joe Downs (30:17):

How are you doing this, Christin? How is Scotty beaming you to Kentucky once a week? How's this working?

Christin Blunk (30:23):

Very easily. The beginning — the transition pieces and getting your facility up and running right — is obviously more time-consuming than anything. But once everything's stabilized, once you have your systems in place, once the transition's complete, it really is not much work at all. So on these two facilities, I probably spend less than 15 hours a month managing them and they're doing very well. The occupancy's high, the money's coming in and I can't complain. It's very different from my residential real estate investing lifestyle, that's for sure.

Joe Downs (31:02):

Oh, I love that. Let's compare and contrast. So what's your cash flow coming from this one now?

Christin Blunk (31:09):

8,000 after debt. $8,000 a month after debt.

Joe Downs (31:13):

So we're looking at — geez, I think in the opener I said eight to 10,000, but you're really at $12,000 a month after debt service — cash-on-cash, just cash flow to you. So you and Rod — sorry to air your financial business here — but you and Rod make $144,000 a year —

Christin Blunk (31:36):

On both of these two, yes.

Joe Downs (31:38):

On 15 hours a month of work — that's what you're telling us. Yeah. How much were you making, if you don't mind divulging, when you were running the show in your residential business, and how many hours a week?

Christin Blunk (31:53):

Well, if you count the hours into what I was making, it was probably equivalent to like $17 to $20 an hour — just given how much was involved in it all. We were probably making consistently on a monthly basis — not like this — when we were flipping homes, because once we flipped a home, guess what we had? We constantly had to pour the money back. And you take a little bit to survive, but you're constantly reinvesting that and putting it into other deals.

Joe Downs (32:25):

All right. So because you just said $17 an hour — which, I don't know —

Christin Blunk (32:31):

I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean. The time involved relative to the returns — it's not like it is today.

Joe Downs (32:39):

Well, I did a quick calculation.

Christin Blunk (32:40):

Of course you did.

Joe Downs (32:42):

How much do you think you're —

Christin Blunk (32:43):

Making? Let me count on my hands.

Joe Downs (32:44):

How much do you ... I used a calculator.

Christin Blunk (32:48):

Oh, okay.

Joe Downs (32:49):

How much do you think you're making an hour now managing two storage facilities? And that's just two storage facilities.

Christin Blunk (32:54):

Well, I know you calculated it, so you tell me.

Joe Downs (32:57):

Well, take a guess.

Christin Blunk (33:00):

I don't know. You're putting me on the spot. Should I calculate it? I'll calculate it just like you.

Joe Downs (33:04):

About $185 an hour.

Christin Blunk (33:07):

Still not where I want it to be, but I'll take it.

Joe Downs (33:10):

You're only working 15 hours a week, Christin. Oh my goodness. I said week. You're saying month.

Christin Blunk (33:18):

Yes.

Joe Downs (33:19):

Hold on. I'm so wrong here. So 15 times 12 — let me do this, folks. Sorry, you're making $800 an hour.

Christin Blunk (33:33):

That's more like it.

Joe Downs (33:36):

That's incredible. That's attorney territory.

Christin Blunk (33:43):

Yeah, I can't count. I have to use my fingers.

Joe Downs (33:47):

And think of all the quality of life you have as well, right? That surrounds that.

Christin Blunk (33:53):

Significant. Yes. Our lifestyle's changed.

Joe Downs (33:54):

You're tough to get ahold of in the morning between your coffee and your yoga, whatever you're doing. Folks, if you heard what I just heard — it's 15 hours a month to manage 180 units. 15 hours a month. It's incredible. Not because they got lucky with easy tenants, but because they put systems in place and set rents right. That person — I think — was you before the cancer diagnosis, before it forced the question.

Christin Blunk (34:23):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (34:24):

You didn't get here because everything was easy. You got here because something made the cost of not acting feel higher than the cost of acting. Does that make sense?

Christin Blunk (34:35):

100%.

Joe Downs (34:36):

What do you say to that person knowing what you know right now? Not the polished version — the real version. What would you tell someone who has all the information they need and still hasn't pulled the trigger yet?

Christin Blunk (34:52):

Start taking action, right? Everybody says that, but it's true. You have to take action. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to know everything. You just have to start. And that's what we did.

Joe Downs (35:07):

What does that look like? What does starting look like?

Christin Blunk (35:09):

Well, it could be starting by educating yourself, surrounding yourself with the right people who are going to help guide you and help you see what you can't see. And then once you get comfortable enough with the education and know what to ask these storage owners, then start calling, right? Start making those phone calls. Start figuring out what market you want to be in. Just start moving forward. But have your guardrails and make sure that you're surrounded by people who can help you along this journey. I wouldn't be here today with everything we have in our portfolio if Rod and I weren't intentional about surrounding ourselves with the right people.

Joe Downs (35:50):

No, that's really great advice. And the thing that I ... Unfortunately — I mean, Rod's doing great — but unfortunately, it took a really horrible, traumatic, near-death experience to move you. And I wish that on no one. So I'm hopeful that our viewer, our listener, realizes it doesn't need to take that kind of event. And let's be honest — it won't be what the trigger is for most people. And I hope, obviously, we all sincerely hope it isn't. It happened to be yours, but it doesn't have to be. And I think what your interview — what our conversation today — says is: it doesn't have to be. It just happened to be what got you to take the first step.

Christin Blunk (36:55):

Yeah. Rod and I like to learn the hard way. Every step of the way. And that's okay. We're grateful for all the lessons we've learned.

Joe Downs (37:03):

You know what I keep thinking about as we've been talking today is the math. When Christin and Rod bought their first facility, they put 64,000 and some change into a deal that now generates four grand a month and is worth roughly 750. The second deal — you put a little more than 107 grand into it; well, actually probably about 107 when you net out what you were able to collect that the old owner should have. And that now cash flows eight grand a month. And we didn't get to this, but that's now worth — is it fair to say — 1.3 million?

Christin Blunk (37:35):

Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Downs (37:36):

Yeah. I mean, for less than $200,000 of investment, you have created value of two million in just those two deals. Together, those two facilities are producing — as we learned — $12,000 a month in positive passive cash flow, passive in that it's 15 hours a month of your time. Folks, they didn't start with a $10 million fund. They started with a cold call, a local bank that said yes, and an education — some guardrails, a mentorship. And here's what I want you to do: I want you to go to storagemoguls.ai — not to buy anything, just go to storagemoguls.ai and register and learn. We've got 106 episodes of free content there. It's called the Storage 100. It walks you through this entire asset class from zero — how to find deals, how to underwrite them, how to get a bank to say yes, how to run operations.

(38:40):

It's free. There's no credit card required. There's no trial period. You want to know if you can do this? That's where you're going to find out. And Christin and Rod are your proof. It doesn't take — and don't wait for some dramatic trigger event. Do it now. Let's get ahead of the curve here, especially with AI changing the entire landscape of how we're — the world's going to look different in a couple of years, folks. Get ahead of it now. For anyone watching or listening: the future isn't a chance. It's a choice. That's Rod's line and it's a good one. Thanks for listening to the Storage Moguls Podcast. We'll see you next week.