The Storage Facility Nobody Wanted. The Deal Everybody Missed.

Is the gap between what your storage facility is and what it should be worth more than the facility itself? 

Joe Downs sits down with Sydnie Wilda, operations and property management expert at Anytime Storage, a hands-on operator who has managed both boat and RV facilities and self-storage, including facilities within Joe's own portfolio. 

The conversation delivers a field-level breakdown of the two most overlooked opportunities in storage investing right now: underperforming mom-and-pop self-storage facilities sitting 30% below market rents, and boat and RV storage operations being run like oversized 10x10 units. 

With 600,000 new boats and RVs sold annually against only 25,000–30,000 new storage spots added each year, the supply gap is real, but Sydnie reveals why the operational gap is the bigger opportunity, and exactly how to close it. 

Storage investors at every stage need this episode.

Listen For:

4:08 Why do self-storage operators consistently mismanage boat and RV facilities when they cross over?

6:26 How does access failure at a boat and RV facility damage tenant retention in ways self-storage simply cannot?

10:31 What does Sydnie Wilda actually see when she walks into an underperforming mom-and-pop storage facility?

14:05 How do bad Google profiles, below-market rents, and missed insurance revenue represent fixable management problems?

24:52 Where does Sydnie Wilda see herself in five years, and what is she doing today to make it happen? 

CONNECT WITH GUEST: SYDNIE WILDA, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | ANYTIME STORAGE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I want you to think about something for a second. There are roughly 600,000 new boats and RVs sold in the United States every year. The industry adds somewhere between 25 and 30,000 new storage spots to accommodate them. Do that math. That gap doesn't close next year. It doesn't even close in five years. But here's the thing: the supply shortage is the smaller story. The bigger story is what most operators are doing wrong with the spots they already have. They're treating boat and RV storage like it's a 10 by 10 unit with a bigger door. Same rate logic, same tenant communication, same mindset. What they're missing is this. The boat in Bay 14 is not a vehicle. It's the boat someone's dad taught them to fish on when they're 12. The RV in the back corner is the vehicle a family loaded every summer for 15 years. These aren't belongings. They are memory-making machines. And the operators who understand that, who run their facility like the caretaker of something that actually matters to people, those operators have the lowest vacancy and the longest average tenancy in any storage class you can buy. And it's not just Boat and RV. There are mom and pop self-storage facilities sitting at 60% occupancy right now with rents 30% below market and a Google profile that hasn't been touched since 2015. The owner has run it the same way since 2003. He thinks it's worth 800,000? It's really worth 1.4 million. If someone who knows what they're doing gets their hands on it. That is the opportunity. And my guest today has been Inside Both. I've seen this business from every angle, educated hundreds of students, and learned firsthand who succeeds and why. That's what drove us to build StorageMuggles.ai, an AI-powered community with the tools, the structure, and the guardrails to teach people how to buy storage facilities. Check it out at storageMuggles.ai. And by the way, that's exactly why we launched this podcast. To bring you, the operators, the lenders, and the real people who've bought deals so you can hear their stories and learn this business from folks living it every day. I am fired up about today's conversation. Let me introduce my guest, Sydney Wilda. Sydney is an operations and property management expert with anytime storage. She has managed storage facilities hands-on, including for a period of time, one of mine, maybe two of ours actually. She's someone who's been inside the boat and RV side and the self-storage side. She's the person you call when you've just acquired a facility. You need someone who's actually done this to walk in on day one and fix it. Sydney, welcome to the Storage Moguls podcast.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Thank you for having me, Joe. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Cool. All right, Sydney. So true or false, just before we get started here, true or false, roughly one in ten US households rents a storage unit. Fewer than half of Americans own a passport. So one in ten, one in ten US households, that's a fact, rents a self-storage unit. Is that one than half of the Americans who own a passport?

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I'm gonna have to say that one's true.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Because that is true.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

That is true.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I I knew the boat won, the boat and RV, because one in ten has one. So that one, that one I knew, but the second half tricked me up just a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Yep. So there's more people own a or rent a self-storage unit than own a passport.

Why do self-storage operators consistently mismanage boat and RV facilities when they cross over?

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Sydney, you're you're you're pulling the the stat down.

unknown 4:11

All right.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Sydney, I want to talk about boat and RV storage specifically because I think most people who buy into this vertical are making the same fundamental mistake that they before they even get the keys. And this couldn't be more timely because I'm in the middle of my boat and RV 100 series on YouTube right now. So I was excited to when the idea came to have you on, I was like, yes, this is perfect timing. So Sydney, you've managed boat and RV facilities, you've seen how they get operated. What, in your opinion, is the single biggest mistake you see operators make when they come from the self-storage space or vertical niche, whatever you want to call it, into the boat and RV niche?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

I think the largest mistake that I've seen owners and operators alike make when it comes to boat and RV storage is running it like it's traditional storage because it's not. It's a completely separate niche that needs its own special attention and has its own special rules. So you have a lot more you need to be cognizant of when you're looking at boat and RV storage.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

So you just you grabbed right in my intro there and you ran with it. But but here's the here's the thing. I actually stole that from you in a conversation we had recently.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

I figured you had, but no, I wasn't gonna call you out on it. I was gonna let you just run.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

No, but you know, no, Sydney, when we had that conversation, I don't know, a month or so ago, um it really made me think about how we were probably looking at it the wrong way. Um and I really love that line I had in the opening there that they're memory-making machines because that's what they are. So I I think what I think the example you use in the conversation we have is look, you know, when somebody, when the gate doesn't open on a Saturday morning, if you're there to get, you know, your your wife, your wife or spouse, whatever, sent you to the storage unit, you know, with the honeydew list of go get this and do this. Gate doesn't open. It's almost like, hey, guess what? Gate didn't open. You're all, you know, good where my golf clubs and going to play golf. Not not when the gate doesn't open when you're there to get the boat or the RV. That's a completely different scenario. Walk, walk me through, walk, walk our listener through why what that difference is and why is it so immensely different.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

I

How does access failure at a boat and RV facility damage tenant retention in ways self-storage simply cannot?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

think the thing that people forget about when they're looking at this is it's a vehicle. I mean, everyone expects to be able to go outside, jump in their vehicle, and drive away. The only difference is that, you know, there's different restrictions, so they can't necessarily have it at their house, but they still need to have that same ability to grab it and go. So when you look at boat and RV storage, having that access is extremely important. You know, someone's showing up, you got to get out to the lake before the fish start biting. So you're there early, the gate's not opening, your buddies are waiting for you, you're trying to call and get a hold of someone, you're trying to figure out how you're gonna make this happen. And if there's any hiccups in that process, people are gonna be extremely dissatisfied because from the time that they purchase it, they've been set up to have a certain kind of customer experience.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, and and the you're so right. And this in this story, I think you told me that just stuck with me was you said something like, think about the grandfather. And I think I even said that in my opening, who's there to take the grants of the 12-year-old, 10-year-old out fishing for the first time. That's a big day, right? Kid got up early. Um, he's excited to go with his grandfather. Maybe they hit the bait and tackle store for the the the uh excitement's building. And you get there and that gate doesn't open, and it's completely deflated. Now a grandfather who's who's you know paid his bill on time, he's been a great customer, you know, whatever. He's he's about to take his grandson on again a memory-making trip. And a gate, an operational failure is the difference between their memories and their frustration, their their excitement buildup and then total deflation. And it's these things can happen, right? But it's how you handle that. Or and if I'm if what's funny is as I said that, I'm thinking how you handle it, it's already too late if if you're thinking about how you handle it. It's how you needed to be prepared for that moment because that moment's coming, it will happen. So, how is your facility prepared for that moment? Your gate will fail, folks. How how are you set up for when it does? And if you're if you're thinking about it, oh yeah, I should probably, I should probably put a protocol in place to handle it's too late. That protocol needs to be on the gate. If this gate doesn't open, you call this number and we will have someone there in X amount of time, or we will do this, or we will do that, or we will give you the we will tell you where the key is under the hidden rock or something, whatever it is. Because the difference between me not getting my boxes out or moving a couch that day, which which could be important, by the way. I'm not completely undermining it, you know. Maybe maybe that's the weekend you gotta move the couch, but it's a completely different feeling being on the outside of that gate between having to do something I don't want to do and not being able to do something I really want to do. And and when you highlighted that for me, it really just stuck with me. Like the self-storage industry generates more annual revenue than the entire Hollywood box office. True or false? The self-storage industry generates more annual revenue than the entire Hollywood box office.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

I want to guess that that one's pretty true, too. It wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

You are two for two. It is true. The storage industry does over the self-storage or storage in general, does over $40 billion a year. The entire U.S. box office in a good year is worth, would you like to guess? There's a little bonus here.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

27 ish.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

10 to 12. 10 to 12 billion a year.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Really?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yeah. It's good to be in storage, folks. Forget forget Hollywood.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Great time to be in storage.

What does Sydnie Wilda actually see when she walks into an underperforming mom-and-pop storage facility?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

All right. Um, I want to talk about the mom and pop opportunity because there's a version of this that people think is risky and a version that's actually a business plan, frankly, hiding in plain sight. So, Sydney, when you walk into an underperforming facility, what do you actually see? Give me the picture.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

When you walk into an underperforming facility, there's gonna be things that automatically stick out to you. The first one that comes to mind for me is gonna be the rates. The second is gonna be facility condition. And I would say the third is probably going to be the tenant experience overall and how dated that experience can be.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Give me some examples of that.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So, you know, it's mom and pop. So maybe they're they don't have a website, so people have to come in or they have to call to try to reserve, and then they still have to set an appointment to meet someone in the office, or they go online and it's not a user-friendly interface, so they can't rent a unit in less than you know five, 10 minutes. It's taking, you know, 15, 20 because there's different questions being asked and different things that have to be filled in, and they've made it all mandatory because this is how it's been set up. Um, there's no after hours lines, or if they are, it goes to you know, Joe Schmo, who lives on the back of the property in a shed, and um he's he's taking care of it. Like these these things show how dated a facility can be and how it's actually performing. And I mean, contrast, you walk into a modern facility, it's clean, there's clear lighting, clean instructions everywhere, there's systems set up for people. So if someone calls and they have an issue, it can be taken care of very, very quickly. It's a very urgent request. Um, and you're you're able to interface with different people, you're able to rent a little bit faster, and it just flows smoother.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So, what are some of the things you do with the excuse me, the old facility to make it operate and feel and look like a new facility?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So when you're walking into that older facility that I kind of painted that picture for, the things that you can do right off the bat, which should scream for everyone, this is an amazing opportunity, is it's signage, it's paint. It's maybe it's repairing the gate, maybe it's upgrading the gate if it's standing open. You know, it's making sure that the people on site are, if you have someone on site, they're they're well kept, they're nice, they're polite, they're friendly, they can easily address anything there. So they're very capable people that are on site. You know, if you have an office, you walk in and you know, you're greeted and someone is there and they are actively working on the facility in some way. Whether they're, you know, responding to tenants via whatever facility software management system they have, or they're getting ready to go outside to do some facility maintenance, they're taking care of a door repair, they're they're very active on the property and they're they're making a difference. It's not something that's just being done passively, it's actively being managed. So maybe they're sitting there and they're doing tenant rent increases for existing tenants. Maybe they're sitting there and they're working on how to inform tenants about you know something coming up on property. There's active communication going both ways, and it's just a completely different experience than something passively being done and you know, everything kind of being deferred for later.

How do bad Google profiles, below-market rents, and missed insurance revenue represent fixable management problems?

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Love it. In our experience, Cindy, um, when we take over an old mom and pop, and by the way, everything you described in that first picture is exactly what we're looking for. Like that's the value add. That's what we want to find. That's those aren't problems, those are opportunities because we know how to fix them. And typically, um what we see, the low-hanging fruit, is the Google business profile. Um, like you said, they haven't raised rates in years. They're doing a terrible job with their delinquency, um, if they're even trying. Um, they don't have an auction process. They're not charging tenant insurance. Can you touch on each one of those, what you do and why they're so important?

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Well, I think the big one that you just mentioned is that is that tenant protection. Because having that in place is not only a benefit to the owner of a facility, it's a benefit to the tenant themselves. Whether they have insurance that covers their storage unit or not, that allows that if anything should happen, because anything can happen. And any operator who says that something can't happen on their property, so it's not necessary, is kidding themselves because I have seen crazy things happen at storage facilities that you would never have anticipated. So tenant protection is a benefit for the tenant and extremely important, not only to boost you the NOI of your facility, but to really make sure that you're giving a tenant a positive experience. Because if you are able to get that to them, then they understand that you can help them. They understand that you do have their best interests at heart. You're giving best tips on how to store your items. You know, you're you're actively engaging with them in a different way.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

So the bad Google profile, the below market rents, the delinquency, the missed insurance revenue, none of that is a problem with the asset. It's a management problem. And management problems are the most valuable kind because they're fixable. And that's, you know, that's what you guys do, right? That's that's what we're looking to do when we buy facilities. So um, folks, it everything we're talking about here sounds like a problem, but it's just an opportunity. And I and I love that too. When you when you see problem, you should really see opportunity, and that's that's what we we teach people and coach people and mentor people to to do and see. So uh love that all right, Sydney. Yes, true or false, there are more self-storage facilities in the United States than McDonald's, Subway, and Starbucks combined.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

That one I'm going to have to say false on. Because I know that there's somewhere in 52,000. Is this where I finally get off track here and it was true?

SPEAKER_02 16:53

I mean, it was set up for you to just agree and say true. I thought it was easy. Sydney, it's not even close. There are between 52 and 68,000, which is a huge range. Really depends on the publication you read. I've always said 55 to 60,000 is where I've found the most publications. Um storage facilities in the United States, McDonald's, 13,800, Subway 20,000, Starbucks 16,800. So it's total 50,600. So if my math is, if if my sources are correct, 55 to 60, storage wins every time. Besides, who would want to own those franchises? Terrible. All right.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Not when storage is at play.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Cindy, what's the what's the one thing that looks this is not your true and false, by the way. This is not this is not a layup for you. What's the one thing that looks most complicated before you own a facility that turns out to be a nothing burger once you own it?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I think for that one, it's going to be tracking down vendors for different things. Because when you're looking at a storage facility, there's so many different moving parts and maintenance items that appear like this is so crazy. How do I do this? How do I manage this? What a, you know, who do I need to talk to? But really, once you get into it, it's you find a reliable door person, you find a reliable gate company, reliable landscapers, cleaning company if you need it. You have those people and you build out a base. And that is after that base has been built out, you're good. It's not, it's not always gonna be, you know, running around like a chicken with your head cut off because something happened day one at purchase and you didn't have someone lined up. You find someone reliable, you find someone you trust, and you put them into place.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Uh, that would not have been my fear of my first one. My, my uh, in fact, I can remember my first concern was how do you raise rents on people? Like it just didn't feel good to be raising rents. But it turns out it's almost just programmatic. Um, if you do it the right way. Um, but I was that was one of my big fears is oh, I don't know if I could raise rent on some people, which is weird. I don't know why, because I've I've owned, you know, uh single family rentals and we raise rent.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

But going back to, I remember my first price, like my first rate increases that I implemented back when I was just a little store manager. And it was like, okay, um, you want me to send these notices to these people? And back then it had to be sent via mail, it couldn't be in an email. So it was printing out letters. What if they call stamps on them? And I was like, okay, well, yeah, it's what if they call me? What if they need more background information? What if they don't want to do it? You know, what if they do move out? And granted, that wasn't really a concern. You know, the facility was stabilized, it was 93% occupancy. Like we were doing very well at that facility and that property. But it was like, uh, wait a second, you want me to do this and tell people they're gonna pay, you know, five, 10, 15 more than they're currently paying.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

And and the one, what if they move out was a concern too. But you do the math, it's just a you know, if you're doing it in the right market in the right cycle as well, you do the math. You should you maybe you lose three percent, which I'm not, you know, not a huge fan of losing uh customers. We already talked about that, uh, you know, the retention's important, but um 10 bucks across, you know, let's say take a hundred units, 10 bucks across 90 versus losing three. Uh it's it's it's pretty simple math. The math maths there. Uh but again, you gotta have the right circumstances, the right market situation, um, you know, the right demand, etc. So uh so folks, the the operational reality is almost always less complicated than people imagine it. And the systems are learnable. The software runs the systems and the phone, which most people forget about, is still how you how most of your customers uh find you.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

So you have research and you're joining the associations and everything, all of that is so freely available. Like any question you could possibly ask next to the really weird situations has probably already been answered.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Don't forget about storage moguls.ai, Sydney, because all those all those answers are.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

StorageMoguls.ai.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Shameless plug opportunity, but I had to take Sydney. The average storage tenant rents their unit for about three months. True or false?

SPEAKER_00 21:51

False. I think the average is is a little bit further out than that, if I recall correctly.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

You are correct. Would you like to hazard a guess?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

If if I remember right and I'm fairly close, I believe it's somewhere between nine and twelve months.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

I'm gonna give it to you. The reality is 12 to 14 months on average. People move in, they never leave. It's not quite the Roach Motel, but it's like the Roach Motel.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

You know, you gotta go to keep these easy, easy layups.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

With no roaches. No roaches at the Roach Motel. Um, all right. Sydney, last question. And I want you to actually think about this before you answer. There's a book called Be Your Future Self Now. Have you ever read it? That's not the question. This is a pause, pause little intermittent question here. You've not read Be Your Future Self Now? The amount of times you're on planes, uh you should be download that audiobook and start listening to it. Mr. Beast, you familiar with him?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Okay, well, I only became familiar with him because of my my sons when I would walk in on them watching insane stuff on YouTube. Um he is, by the way, what the book is about. He's the very beginning of the book, he's the introduction. Um he's why the author wrote the book. Um, and Mr. Beast has talked about this this idea. If you don't wait to become the person you want to be, right, you start acting like that person today, right now, from where you are. Right. So Sydney, here's the here's the question. And if you're listening, I want you to think about this yourself. Five years from now, what are you doing? Not what do you hope you're doing? What are you doing? Where are you? What does the if you have a portfolio? What does it look like? What does your life look like? And what are you doing right now, today, to make sure that's actually where you end up? That's the whole concept of be your future self now. You you you determine five years from now, and this is what Mr. Beast did. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but you know he's a YouTuber, so you can probably imagine what he did. And he did what he did was really, really amazing. And he was 17 years old when he did it. He's the most followed person on earth, and he's about 28 years old right now. So, Sydney, listener, where are you? Not what do you want, not what do you hope. Where are you? Who are you five years from now? And what are you doing right now, today, to make sure five years from now, when we have this conversation, I can point back to this podcast and say, look, you did it.

Where does Sydnie Wilda see herself in five years, and what is she doing today to make it happen?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

For me, five years from today, I own probably two, three facilities at that point. I'm sitting on a couple of different state boards for self-storage associations, continuing to educate, continuing to help other owners grow their portfolios, and probably working towards being on the National Self-Storage Association board. That's that's a very long-term goal for me and something I'm very passionate about. In five years.

SPEAKER_02 25:23

It's five years, Sydney. You just said it. It's five years. You gotta make it happen. I love that answer. I absolutely love that answer. Now, what you just did publicly was what Cortez did. He burned the ships, it's what Mr. Beast did. All right, you now, you now have to become your future self. So you are going to do it. All right.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Absolutely. Or take it. It's not just a promise to yourself.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

It's now in public. It's now in public. All right. I I I can't, I love that answer. Thank you for that. It was great. All right. Here's what I want you to take away, folks. It whether it's a boat and RV facility with 200 bays and a waiting list or a mom and pop self-storage facility running at 60% with rents that haven't moved in four years, the opportunity is the same. It's the gap between what it is and what it should be. The gap is real, it's measurable, and it's yours if you know what to look for. And that's what we're gonna cover here every week: self-storage, boat and RVs, pro storage, industrial outdoor storage, truck parking, small bay flex, light industrial, all of it. We'll have guests, we'll have folks who just bought deals on or now owner operators, uh, talking about their deals, lenders, the full picture, straight from the people doing it. So if you're not already at storage muggles.ai, go there, register, it doesn't cost anything. Uh Storage100 is 106 episodes, it's completely free, no credit card, it's on YouTube. There's no triplayer, just start. Start becoming your future self now. If you are like Sydney saying to yourself, five years from now, I'm gonna own two to three. I'm gonna challenge her to do it in three years, maybe even less. But she's got the five-year goal, and it doesn't matter. And that's the point. The fact that you'll start now to make sure you hit that five year, I don't want to give away too much of this book. But I promise you it'll happen sooner. Folks, please like and subscribe and share. And here's why that matters. When you share this episode on LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube, you're telling everyone in your network that you're in this business. And that signal goes a long way. Your next partner, your next investor, your next deal may come from someone who saw that share. Share something specific that hit you today. Make it real. All right, Sydney, thank you so much for being our guest today. Uh, you're definitely gonna be back, not just uh for we're gonna break down some more boat and RV stuff in the future. I'm gonna have you back for it. But we're also gonna check in with you over the next couple of years about where we are in becoming your future self. And I I have a feeling we're gonna be pleasantly surprised. I'm Joe Downs with the Storage Moguls Podcast. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.