Data Points That Actually Matter When Closing Storage Deals

Are you still piecing together self-storage market data from six browser tabs, census pages, Google Maps, and a legal pad full of math while a motivated seller waits? 

The institutional buyers cracked the code long ago, and in this episode, Joe Downs pulls back the curtain on the exact platform they use to do it.  

Guest James Breunig, Head of Sales at StorTrack, the platform tracking over 74,000 self-storage and boat and RV storage facilities across the United States, brings 18 years of storage industry experience to the table. 

Breunig reveals the 24-point data framework serious buyers use to evaluate markets, the single rate-trend indicator that predicts occupancy without even knowing the number, and why one data point will almost always steer a first-time storage investor wrong. 

If you're in the research phase right now, this episode is your unfair advantage.

Listen For:

03:48 Why do most first-time self-storage investors rely on a single data point and get burned?

07:15 How does rate trend data reveal self-storage occupancy without pulling the actual number?

16:11 What does James Breunig show a first-time buyer on their very first day inside StorTrack?

19:43 How can self-storage investors use StorTrack's discovery tool to hunt deals across the entire country?

29:41 What does James Breunig recommend for investors still sitting on the sidelines doing market research? 

CONNECT WITH GUEST: JAMES BREUNIG, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | STORTRACK

James' LinkedIn | STORTRACK LinkedIn | Website  

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Transcript

Joe Downs (00:00):

Picture this. You found a storage facility. The owner is motivated. The numbers look right on the surface, but you've got about maybe 72 hours before this thing goes somewhere else. You're sitting at your kitchen table, you got six browser tabs open, census data, Google Maps, a calculator, and a legal pad covered in math and you're trying to figure out whether the market actually supports this deal. Two hours in, you're no closer to the answer and somewhere in the back of your mind you're thinking the big operators don't do it this way. They have tools I don't have access to. Well, here's what I want to tell you folks. That gap is closed. The data that the institutional buyers use to evaluate markets, track competitors and spot deals, it's all available to you right now and today's guest is the person who's going to show you exactly how to use it.

(01:10):

I'm Joe Downs and welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast. My company's acquired 20 plus storage facilities, over 50 million in assets across multiple storage niches. I got three more under contract right now, two pro storage facilities in development, and I've seen this business from every angle. Educated hundreds of students and learned firsthand who succeeds and why. And that's what drove us to build storagemuggles.ai, which is an AI powered community with 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 I 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 the folks living it every day, especially from people like my guests today. And I am fired up about this conversation.

(02:00):

So let me introduce you to James Breunig, who heads up sales at Store Trac, the platform that tracks over 74,000 self-storage and boat and RV facilities across the United States. He's been in self-storage for 18 years, the last four of which has been at Store Track and he's talked to more first time buyers trying to crack a market than just about anyone I know. James, welcome to Storage Moguls.

James Breunig (02:26):

Hi, Joe. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to the conversation and talking about what's going on in the market.

Joe Downs (02:37):

I know our listener is going to be very interested, especially if they've never heard of Store Track or they're just thinking about self-storage and they didn't even know that this tool exists. And then I guarantee we have listeners who have been beating around the bush, they're on the fence, they're on the edge about using Storage Ox. So I'm excited for today's conversation. I know it's going to be very beneficial for a lot of our listeners. Before we get started, James, I told you before we started, I like to ask some true, false questions just to see how knowledgeable my guests are about this self-storage industry. So no pressure, although you should feel a little bit since you're an industry pro. I'm just kidding, James. All right, you ready for the first one? Let's

James Breunig (03:20):

Do it.

Joe Downs (03:21):

Here we go. The majority of self-storage facilities in the United States are owned by individual or small operators, not REITs or institutional funds.

James Breunig (03:34):

True.

Joe Downs (03:37):

It is true. That was a layup. You knew that one. About 70 to 75% are independently owned. The REITs are visible, but they're not the whole market. I know before I was even involved in self-storage, I would not have believed ... In fact, that's what interested me the most. At the time I got involved, the number I think was 80% was owned by mom and pops. I think today depends on who you read. It's anywhere from, give or take, around 70%. And most facilities you'll ever buy, or most of us will ever buy, are owned by individuals. People who bought one facility 20 years ago and ran it themselves and that's who you're buying from today. And that's what Store Track helps you find, I believe. All right. Here's something I hear constantly from people who are genuinely close to their first deal. Not thinking about it close but actually close.

(04:34):

They've found a property, they've talked to the owner, they're negotiating price, maybe they're already past that, they're working on the contract, then they freeze. Not because they don't want to do the deal, but because they don't trust their market read or the read of the market, right? They don't know if the market actually supports the occupancy they need to make the numbers work and they don't know how to find out fast enough or if they can rely on the information they have put together. James, this buyer that this profile I just painted, and we've seen it a few times, this is the buyer that you talk to every day, is it not?

James Breunig (05:15):

Oh yeah. I talk to a ton.

Joe Downs (05:19):

What does the fear actually look like from your side where you sit? We see it because we coach and educate a lot now at storage moguls and we're the bumper rails, we're the guardrails, we're the uncle, the grandfather, the dad, whatever, who gives them the confidence. What do you see from people who don't have people like Jack and Tim and Rod and Chris at Swordge Mugles?

James Breunig (05:46):

They're trying to-

Joe Downs (05:47):

They're just coming to you with-

James Breunig (05:48):

A lot of times I see them trying to make that decision on a simple supply and demand number and it's never that simple. So one of the things that we do is again, we show them just even in our very most basic level, we show them about 24 different data points. So everybody says, "Oh man, it's above seven square foot per capita." I heard that's the number everybody heard, right? But then again, if you look, there's so many other factors. So if you go into what's the rental housing percentage, is it above or below what you would say seven square foot per capita is a good number? In some areas, five square foot per capita is a good number because they have big houses and there's very little rental or apartments or multifamily. So again, there's that factor. The other one that I always look to are rate trends.

(06:51):

So a real simple quick sniff when you're looking at a market or if you're thinking something, maybe the square foot per capita is above 10 and I can show you markets where it's above 13, 14, 15, and guys are getting three bucks a square foot.

Joe Downs (07:14):

And everybody's fault.

James Breunig (07:15):

Yeah. So if the rates are trending up, here's a really quick cheat. If the rates are trending up, occupancy is going up. If rates are trending down, occupancy's going down. There's so many people using some type of revenue management tool that when you just look at the average of a market. And again, obviously there's some markets where that's probably going to be the outlier, but as a general rule, that's one of the things that you can look at without even knowing the occupancy number, but it's never as simple as one data point. And unfortunately that's where I see people.

Joe Downs (07:59):

You're so right. And we get that all the time, not just from people that are interested in storage, but even from the students after their learning storage, because look, you're drinking from a fire hose. It's a lot of data. There's nothing, and I tell people this all the time and I have to do it in a self-deprecating way, but I'm being honest about it. I'm not Elon Musk. I'm not launching rockets. I'm not that smart. I'm not dumb, but I'm not that smart. I tell people, if I can do this, you can do it. But it takes immersion. You're drinking from a fire hose. There's a lot of new information coming at you. None of it is calculus, none of it. It's all easy to understand at a fifth grade level at some point. You just have to immerse yourself. And Store Track, while it's a wealth of information, can be overwhelming to people, like you just gave a great nugget if rates are trending up, occupancy's going up and vice versa.

(09:06):

People don't understand that and then they also don't understand street rate versus in place rate. So assuming that I'm a new customer and I'm looking at Store Track, when I'm reading rates in a market, I've picked a market, what am I looking at? I'm looking at the street rate that everybody's advertising. Is that correct?

James Breunig (09:30):

Oh, absolutely. So one of the things I always, another, again, because I will get a ton of calls on, are my rates too high? Are my rates too low? What should I be doing? The first question I always ask everybody is, is there demand? I mean, are you turning people away? Are people coming to you or is the phone just not ringing? And the biggest mistake I see people make is that they lower rates, not understanding that nobody's seen their rates in the first place, or maybe they're on a back road and nobody even knows they exist.

(10:13):

Sometimes, like I say, when I look at it, I'm always amazed at that's the first thing that everybody gravitates to. And I can tell you that having the lowest rates, again, if you want to go that route, you better have a way to recoup that or have some type of mechanism in place to get that back up because the guys that are doing that are good at it, they're not going to leave those rates sit there. But to your point, a lot of people feel that that bait and switch is unfair. And I can tell you that what we're seeing is a lot of the large operators, not the publicly traded, are tending to go with more time limited promotions, 50% off one month, 50% off two months.

(11:02):

My other advice I always tell people is, if you think price is the issue, do something drastic. You don't have to reduce all the rates on all of your units at your facility, pick a couple of your most difficult to get to least rented. One of the things going through acquisitions, I'd go onto properties and I'd see units that had been vacant for three years because somebody would just rent the ones around the door. You want to run a low rate, cut the rate in half, you do the one that you haven't rented in three years, make sure it's that unit and see if that's the problem. If you didn't get any more rentals this month, that wasn't the problem.

Joe Downs (11:50):

You reminded me of a conversation I had with a student the other day. He was all excited about a deal and we were looking at the competitors and I said, "Well, you're $20 or you're $15 less than them, but they're closer to the population than you are. Are they full?" And he said, "Well, I don't know what their occupation is. " I said, "No, no, no. You've got these unit sizes where all your vacancy is. Are they full in their unit sizes?" And it's getting the students to understand that there's the market within the market. So my storage facility is in a market with five others, but so is every unit size, right? And you need to understand what the occupancy of each unit size is, not your facility as a whole and then how does that relate to the rate of your unit size, your street rate, your inplace rate, and what your competitors are charging?

(12:55):

And by the way, what is their occupancy of that unit size? And within 15 minutes, he called two other facilities, was able to get enough information to realize, "Oh, they have a ton of vacancy in that unit size. My performance says I just raise the rates and lease them up and I'm printing money here, but I said, but that's not your market." And just getting him to understand the market and within 15 minutes he called back kind of tail between his legs in a good way, you were right. I'm like, "It's not about me and right. It's about you learning. Now you know that's a step in the process. Before we get excited, we're going to check that. " And that's all about having the right information, the right tools. Now he did that manually. He probably could have, if he was a Store Track customer, could have just done it on Store Track.

(13:43):

So that's the real cost of not having the right tool, right? It's not just time. It's the deal you didn't do because you couldn't get comfortable fast enough or the deal you almost did because you weren't working with the right information. And I want the audience to hear that that information exists. You don't have to build it from scratch. You don't have to wing it. The answer to, does this market support this deal is findable and it's findable in minutes not days because of the data that's being aggregated and disseminated by Store Track.

(14:20):

All right, true or false? A storage facility in a market with a supply index under six square feet per person is generally considered undersupplied, generally considered undersupplied.

James Breunig (14:36):

True.

Joe Downs (14:38):

And I gave you that generally because you already alluded to a market at five square feet per person, so I didn't want you to get tripped up. That is true. Six square feet per capital is I think on the lower end of the rule of thumb here and you can touch on this if you want. When I got into the business, it was seven. Now I'm hearing eight to 10 on the national average. Below that markets tend to have higher occupancy, stronger rate growth, more pricing power, whether you think it's six, seven, eight, nine, or 10 square feet per person. And most first time buyers have never heard of this number. I know James, you talk about it on every demo. It's one of the first filters serious buyers use when they open store track. Let's actually, why don't you walk me through what a first timer does on day one, because I want to get tactical here and think this is ... I think this is where most people get lost, right?

(15:33):

Not in the concept but in the execution. So you can understand that the market data matters. What's harder is knowing what to actually look at when you open a platform for the first time. So James, you've done

(15:47):

I'm sure hundreds of demos for people who are brand new even to storage, right? I'm sure you've done them for experienced people, but let's focus on the new person. Walk me through what you show them. If I'm a first time buyer and I just got access to StoreTrack today, what do I do first? What am I looking at? What am I gone? What am I looking for and what tells me whether I should keep going or move on?

James Breunig (16:11):

Again, really the quick answer to that is when you're looking at the summary screen, again, you're going to want to look at square foot per capita, but then I want to know what's the square foot per capita for the market? What's the square foot per capita for ... And again, each market's different. And again, especially going back to this is where the question gets loaded when we say it's six square foot per capita. Good. Yeah, it is. And if you have a hundred people that live there and it's six square foot per capita, I'm not sure it's going to take much more supply. So again, good population density. I want to see is the population growing? What's happening in the housing market? Is there more multifamily coming? I want to see our rates trending up, but the real quick answer, obviously look at square foot per capita, look at again, population.

(17:24):

Is there enough population- Is

Joe Downs (17:25):

There a market snapshot?

James Breunig (17:26):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (17:28):

If I have a specific facility or market in mind, there's a market

James Breunig (17:31):

Snapshot? Yeah. So a quick market view and even-

Joe Downs (17:36):

What does it show and what's a quick way to read it?

James Breunig (17:40):

It's going to start out with square foot per capita and the total number of stores within that market. And again, the market is defined by either a radius. So you can go anywhere from on to 10 miles or you can do a drive time, 10, 15 minutes. So if you have natural barriers, like for example, a river or you're along a coastline, something like that, then I would use a drive time because it's going to be more representative of your actual market. And then for really densely populated areas, we have a polygon tool, you can actually draw your market. So if you know or have a pretty good idea where your clients are coming from, you could set it up that way. But again, define your market. That's the other thing. I see people that look at a city or they know, "Hey, oh, well, how's the market in Leavenworth, Kansas?" I don't know, give me an address because everything is market centric.

(18:42):

That's why I'm always hesitant to when people put out the national reports or national numbers, wow. I mean, I can look at a city and I can pull probably three or four markets that are out of that particular area that are doing extremely well and I can pull another three or four that are doing extremely bad. So define the market. That's what I always tell people. So use the exact address.

Joe Downs (19:13):

I want to use it to find deals,

James Breunig (19:15):

Not

Joe Downs (19:15):

Just evaluate

James Breunig (19:16):

Markets. We have a discovery tool. So you can put in the specific data points you're looking for and you can do that by state. You can do it by the entire country. So for example, if someone's looking at square foot per capita, again, one of the other data points that I would put in there, apologies for that.

Joe Downs (19:41):

No, I think he's looking for deals right now.

James Breunig (19:43):

Right. He's listening in, but again, you- Don't forget

Joe Downs (19:49):

To tell him about how to

James Breunig (19:49):

Find deals. But again, putting that population number behind that square foot per capita, putting in a rate, let's say I don't want to look at any markets below $1.50 per square foot, you can do that. Or believe it or not, I have clients, they want to look for the worst markets because I feel that that's where the best deal is and there's nowhere to go open up. So anyhow, you can reverse engineer that whole search. So put in your data points.

Joe Downs (20:21):

Can I search by, let's say I'm a supply index guy. I want to be under seven square

James Breunig (20:28):

Feet.

Joe Downs (20:28):

I can search for markets that are some square. Okay. So those are opportunities. How about things we want to avoid like FEMA hazard zones or maybe places we want to look for like opportunity zones?

James Breunig (20:44):

Yeah. So we have filters on the map. So business opportunity zones, although from what I hear, there's a number of changes coming with those. However, they're there and believe it or not, I know a couple of groups that develop nowhere else or purchase property nowhere else than in those business opportunity zones. So that's literally they've made up that is their method. Yeah.

Joe Downs (21:12):

They've got a strategy and they're using StoreTrek to

James Breunig (21:16):

Employ it. And same with the FEMA hazards we do have. You can easily overlay that on the map. Traffic.

Joe Downs (21:25):

You know what I like about Store Track is you don't have to have a PhD and data analysis to use it, right? It's doing that for you. All we need to do is ask the right questions in the right order. And this is a platform that gives us the answers without making us piece it all together from five different sources. I'm thinking about my opening I talked about, because I've been there with the six different tabs open, probably more than that actually and you're trying to dial in on this and then triangulate that and you got population, but doesn't city data doesn't cover, it gives me the county but not the town and I need to dial into this. So I'm now making guesses and that's a lot for someone new, a first time buyer with trying to piece all that information together and have confidence because you're the one putting it together.

(22:24):

So I think it gets no more spreadsheets and I think you get better answers if you have the right questions and faster answers.

James Breunig (22:35):

The next enhancement that we have coming out is there's going to be a Claude integration. And so again, if you don't like the way we display the data, you can just ask it the question however you want to.

Joe Downs (22:51):

I mean, Claud integration is a game changer. I mean, I use Claude probably more than anything at this point. It's data overload, but hope maybe you're building a portfolio that someday it won't be data overload. Who knows? It's a great business. True or false, the average self-storage facility changes hands less than once every 20 years average self-storage facility.

James Breunig (23:23):

False.

Joe Downs (23:27):

Oh, it's true, James.

James Breunig (23:28):

Really?

Joe Downs (23:29):

Now you might have the data. You might have the data that

James Breunig (23:32):

Actually- Well, I'll tell you the last three years, I would have a hard time buying that one.

Joe Downs (23:39):

Well, it says the average. Now most of these owner are my mom and pops, right? There's storage owners that hold.

James Breunig (23:45):

Sure, that's true.

Joe Downs (23:47):

When a facility does hit the market, there's always a reason retirement, estate, debt, mismanagement, the low transaction velocity is exactly why off market matters and why the buyers know how to find motivated sellers when every time. But I think that's where this data is coming from. But I would love for you to fact check me and really what you're

James Breunig (24:05):

Doing is fact checking Claude, by the way, is where this comes from. And again, thinking about the total number of single small operators, yeah, that would make sense because it's the highest percentage.

Joe Downs (24:14):

All right. Last question and I want you to think about this one before you answer. There's a boo called Be Your Future Self Now. Have you heard of it? It's fascinating. It's actually about Mr. Beast. You heard of Mr.

James Breunig (24:31):

Beast? Oh yeah. Incredible

Joe Downs (24:34):

Story. And the idea is that 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. So five years from now, James, what are you doing? Not what do you hope you're doing? What are you doing? Where are you? If you have a portfolio, what does it look like? What does your life look like? And the question is, that's part A, and part B is where most people struggle. What are you doing right now today to make sure that's exactly where you end up?

James Breunig (25:13):

So real estate has always been my passion. Again, going back to what landed me in Florida, right? I came down during the housing crisis. I own real estate currently. The one thing I have not owned is self-storage or truthfully, what I'm actively looking for now is to do something in the boat and RV storage side. Again, because it's something I travel, I have an RV that I've got stashed up in Tennessee. Summertime, head to Wisconsin, stop in Tennessee. So again, I've always been fascinated with that and that's just so you know, that's something else that we do as well as we track boat and RV data or boat and RV storage data. So that's really kind of where I'm at. And then the other thing is my older kids are into real estate. I've got two of them now with getting into their second properties.

(26:30):

So again, helping them-

Joe Downs (26:31):

So where are you in five years? You own a store, you own a boat and RV facility?

James Breunig (26:35):

I hope so. Or potentially a RV-

Joe Downs (26:38):

Not a hope so.

James Breunig (26:40):

This

Joe Downs (26:40):

Is not an I hope so.

James Breunig (26:41):

I haven't found the right ease property, but I'm actively searching, right? And I think that's the thing. So

Joe Downs (26:51):

The point of the book and the exercise is you have to state where you're going to be and burn the ships, right? That's what Mr. Beast did. He publicly stated what his goals were and he released them on YouTube in the future. So you're publicly stating to this listening audience where you are in five years, not what you hope to be, what you are doing. And then the second part is what are you doing today to make sure ... And it sounds like you want to own a boat and RV facility. Is

James Breunig (27:22):

That fair? Yes.

Joe Downs (27:24):

All right. So in five years you own one,

James Breunig (27:25):

James. I'm going to.

Joe Downs (27:28):

How did we get there? What are you doing today so that five years from now, you can tell us the story about what you were doing five years prior to own this facility?

James Breunig (27:37):

Sure. So obviously with doing research and planning both financially and looking at those, planning the area that I want to be in I think is really the important part. And then again, finding that land. If you talk to any of my friends, they'll tell you I'm a nut. I was just up in Alabama Memorial Day weekend, went up. I went up- So you're looking. Went up, looked at two different pieces of property. I haven't found the right one yet, but yeah. All right.

Joe Downs (28:18):

Well, that's the answer. This is what you're doing. You're already actively looking today because you have this vision, this goal of owning, because five years from now when I interview you, we're going to rewind to this moment. We might have the clip. We'll play the clip.

James Breunig (28:33):

With very luck at all, Joey, you won't be able to find me in five

Joe Downs (28:38):

Years.That's an even

James Breunig (28:39):

Better

Joe Downs (28:39):

Answer.That's

James Breunig (28:42):

The ultimate goal.

Joe Downs (28:44):

We'll make sure we stay in touch so

James Breunig (28:45):

I can. Absolutely.

Joe Downs (28:46):

But yeah, no, that's the answer. That's awesome. Sometimes you don't realize it, but you are doing what it takes or you have a goal but you haven't stated it publicly and I think that's important and that's what Mr. Beast did. Listen, I appreciate you being straight about that and that's the answer people are going to remember. And by the way, that's part of the reason I ask this of every guest is because I want you all to be inspirations to others as well. So here's what I want to leave the audience with. The information advantage in this business is not reserved for the big operators. It never was. They had a stranglehold on it for a little while, but thank God for StoreTrek. So what separated them wasn't secret data. It was discipline about using the right data in the right order before making a move and Store Track puts that discipline and reach for every buyer at every entry level.

(29:41):

If you're in the research phase right now, if you're sitting on a market and trying to figure out whether it makes sense, go to storetrack.com and see what the data actually says. Don't build another spreadsheet. Don't spend two more hours on six browser tabs. Get the answer. James, you said the best way for people to start with StoreTrek is to do a demo first. How can they get in touch with you to do a demo?

James Breunig (30:03):

You can go right to the website, storetrack.com or you can reach out directly to me, james@storetrack.com. You can send me an email. Typically, I get back to people within an hour and I'll send over a link and we can set up a Zoom call and just see what kind of questions you have or I just have a quick phone call just to see if we can answer some basic stuff for you right away.

Joe Downs (30:32):

What is your tip or trick to help people remember that there's no E in StoreTrack, S-T-O-R-T-R-A-C-K.com?

James Breunig (30:39):

There's no E in Store

Joe Downs (30:41):

Track. You just say there's no E in Store Track.

James Breunig (30:43):

Yep.

Joe Downs (30:43):

Okay.

James Breunig (30:44):

Yeah, that's fine.

Joe Downs (30:45):

There's no IN Team and there's no E in

James Breunig (30:47):

Storage. There you go. I'd like it.

Joe Downs (30:49):

Every week on Storage Moguls, we're covering the full storage vertical, self-storage, boat, RV storage, pro storage, industrial outdoor storage, truck parking, Small Bay Flex, light industrial, all of it all for you. So please like, subscribe and share and share based on something specific that hit you today. And go check out storagemoguls.ai. Storage 100 is free. It's on YouTube at The StorageMoguls 106 episodes, the full foundation for buying your first facility. Start there and join us at storagemoguls.ai. We'll see you next week.