Too Young, Too Inexperienced? This Storage Deal Says Otherwise

Is self-storage investing quietly within reach for buyers everyone assumes are "too young" or "too inexperienced”?

Joe Downs sits down with brothers Aidan and Liam Brennan, the youngest buyers he's ever mentored, who just closed on Highway 119 North, a 136-unit, 12,800-square-foot self-storage facility in Pembroke, Georgia. 

With no prior real estate experience, they negotiated an $800,000 ask down to an effective $680,000 then navigated a landlocked easement nightmare when the neighboring property owner died mid-deal. 

This episode pulls back the curtain on SBA financing, underwriting, delinquency cleanup, and self-management for first-time storage investors. 

If you've been waiting until you're "older" or "more ready," this storage investing story dismantles every excuse.

Listen For:

4:09 Is the average first-time self-storage buyer really over 45 in America?

14:13 Can first-time buyers with no experience actually qualify for SBA financing?

15:45 How did a property-line encroachment nearly kill Aidan and Liam's first deal?

32:48 Why is self-storage delinquency almost always worse than the seller discloses?

39:40 Should first-time storage owners self-manage or hire third-party management?

CONNECT WITH GUESTS: 

The Storage Brothers Instagram | Brennan Asset Group Website

AIDAN BRENNAN, SELF-STORAGE INVESTOR & OPERATOR | ACQUISITIONS & ASSET MANAGEMENT

LinkedIn | Instagram| Email

LIAM BRENNAN, WILDLIFE RESEARCHER AND PHOTOGRAPHER

LinkedIn | Instagram | Email

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Transcript

Joe Downs (00:00):

The seller wanted 800,000. Two brothers in their 20s, they offered 650. They settled at 700 and then retraded another 20,000 off of that. Effective price, $680,000. During the due diligence process, they found a property line encroachment on a neighboring lot. The seller said it was an easy fix. Their attorneys said, "Make it a condition of closing anyway." Good thing they listened to their attorney because the seller died before they closed. If that encroachment hadn't been a condition of closing, they would have inherited a legal problem with no one left to fix it. Instead, they got to close. They now own it and they're already looking for their second deal. Aidan is 25, Liam is 22 and this is their story.

(01:01):

I'm Joe Downs and welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast. My company's acquired and built over 20 storage facilities worth over 75 million in assets across multiple storage niches. I've seen this business from a lot of angles, educated hundreds of students and learned firsthand who succeeds and why. And that's why we built storagemugals.ai, an AI powered community with the tools, the structure, and the guardrails to teach people how to buy their very first self-storage facility. And that's exactly why we launched this podcast to bring you the stories and the experiences from the first time buyers like Aidan and Liam here, the lenders, the brokers, and other industry professionals who live in this business every day. I am fired up about today's conversation because you guys, I'm going to introduce them a second. These two guys impress me so much and they are by far the youngest buyers we have ever mentored, coached, educated, whatever you want to label you want to put on it.

(01:59):

And it's kind of like having two sons at this point, even though they have a fantastic father, I've gotten to know him as well. Aidan and Liam Brennan are brothers from Long Island. As I said, 25 and 22, no prior real estate experience, no massive capital base, just two guys who decided to figure this out and they did. They recently closed on Highway 119 North, which is a self-storage in Pembroke Georgia. Pembroke, Georgia. Yeah. 136 units, 12,800 square feet and a deal story that is going to make every person watching or listening to this episode rethink all of their excuses. Aidan and Liam, welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast.

Aidan Brennan (02:44):

Thanks for having us on.

Joe Downs (02:46):

Guys, I am excited about not only just your story and sharing your story with our audience and the listener who's sitting there wondering if they can do this because you guys are ... I'm going to probably harp too much on your age, but you're 25 and 22. I'm going to harpen your age because when I was 25 and 22, I was not thinking about buying storage facilities. I can guarantee you that. I had a job. In fact, I had two jobs, but I'm not even going to sure I want to divulge where my head was. It was probably where's the next happy hours if I had to guess. Guys, before we get into your story, I don't think I prepped you for this, but I'm going to ask you a series of true or false questions throughout the show here today. You can take turns or both answer or you can collaborate.

(03:40):

I don't care, but I'm going to be looking for the trivial pursuit final answer. All right? So collaborate if you want or answer separately. All right. True or false the average age of a first time self-storage buyer in the United States is over 45.

Aidan Brennan (04:03):

True. True.

Joe Downs (04:05):

Is that your final answer?

Aidan Brennan (04:07):

Yes.You

Joe Downs (04:09):

Would be correct, but the gap, thanks to you guys, is closing fast. Historically, self-storage investing is skewed towards experienced real estate investors in their 40s and 50s with the existing equity to deploy, but that's shifting. Younger buyers with access to education, community and the SBA financing are entering the market earlier than ever. The asset class doesn't care how old you are, guys. As you know, it cares whether your numbers work and whether you can operate and you guys are certainly evidence of that. All right. Before we get into the deal itself that you guys bought, because I know that's very interesting. I want to unpack that. Excuse me. I want to understand and I want the listener to understand who you guys are because context matters. Knowing where someone started tells you everything about what it actually took to get where you are today. So Aidan and Liam from Long Island to South Carolina to Florida, you're still figuring out where to land geographically, it sounds like.

(05:09):

Or maybe you have, I don't know. Both just out of college or recently out of college. Walk me back to the moment self-storage got on your radar and what made you stop talking about it and actually doing something about it?

Aidan Brennan (05:25):

Yeah. So I mean, I'll start when I was young. My dad gave me the book, Rich Dad Poor

Joe Downs (05:31):

Dad. When you were young.

Aidan Brennan (05:32):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (05:33):

As if you're not young right now. Go ahead. Enlighten us to the generations ago when you were just a young lad.

Aidan Brennan (05:40):

16, 17 years old, my father gave my brother and I a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad and he said, "I ask one thing from you guys and this is to please read it maybe once every summer." And so I read it every summer for about three years and that opened my eyes to the world of investing and financial intelligence and all that stuf. So yeah, when I was young, I knew I wanted to get into real estate. I didn't know how. I went to college, College of Charleston for two years and then I dropped out because I felt like I wasn't learning enough. It honestly felt like a waste of money. And my father introduced us to self-storage May of 2025. He brought us to Scott Meyers Self-Storage Investing Academy in Indianapolis. And that was my first introduction to self-storage and real estate investing.

Joe Downs (06:31):

I remember I thought your dad had brought his high school kids there and here you guys were in your 20s.

Aidan Brennan (06:38):

Yep.

Joe Downs (06:41):

Liam?

Liam Brennan (06:42):

Yeah. So I unfortunately went to all four years of college of Charleston.

Joe Downs (06:47):

Yeah. The ROI is tough on college unless you specialize.

Liam Brennan (06:51):

Yeah. So unfortunately I went to College of Charleston for all four years, graduated. And in retrospect, I kind of wish I hadn't. I didn't really learn much. I kind of thought just being in college was what you were supposed to do. But in retrospect, unless I feel like you're specializing in something very specific like medicine or law, there really wasn't no point. There was really no point for me to be there, but I thought I was doing the right thing. I ended up with an insurance job and was valeting on the side for some extra money. And I knew while I was doing it, that wasn't a career for me, that this isn't what I wasn't going to do for the rest of my life. I really but didn't know where I was going to go. I didn't know what my next step was going to be.

(07:36):

And yeah, my dad invited us to the self-storage conference in May of 2025 and he's like, "Why don't you guys just come for the weekend, just check this out, see if you're interested." And I had no idea what that one weekend would then change my life.

Joe Downs (07:57):

It's incredible. So first of all, we need to give major props to your dad. He handed you guys the Rich Dad Poor Dad book at the right age and implored you to read it. And kudos to you guys for doing it. So I'm patting you on the back here as well, but I'm a father myself. I'm trying to do very similar things with my sons. They're younger than you guys, but the fact that he handed you that book, huge, huge advantage in life that you were able to ... You have a dad that's investing in you that way. And then he brings you to the self-storage conference and you're right, it did change your life because you were opened up to, you were exposed to a different way of looking at things. And we say this all the time, you were at a self-storage conference academy, whatever.

(08:49):

Self-storage is just a vehicle, right? You could have been at a multifamily event. Look, we'll make the case self-storage is the best vehicle, of course, but at the end of the day, it's still just a vehicle. The fact that your dad took you to an event about an alternative investment class like real estate, in this case, self-storage. And then you got to meet and talk to people there who are other entrepreneurs who are trying to change their lives and who have been exposed as well to the fact that the old playbook of go to college, get a job, your dad and my dad were told that the pension was what you were going to have a pension in social security and that's your retirement when you're 60 something years old and you're going to live a happy life reading your newspaper on your front porch.

(09:45):

And that's just a lie. Self-storage doesn't care how old you are. It doesn't. And especially not when we have the SBA to help young aspire ... It doesn't matter how old you are, I shouldn't say young, but in this case, young, aspiring future business owners and entrepreneurs. And we can use SBA in storage because it's a business. It's commercial real estate with a business on it and that's one of the beauties of it. So Aidan, two years of college, was it right college done, right into self-storage? Was that the path?

Aidan Brennan (10:20):

Yeah. So it was, let's see, April of 2025. So just before the self-storage conference, I was sitting in college classes and I was like, wow, I'll rewind a little bit. Actually, senior year of high school, my economic teacher made me do a project on if I could afford college, how would I do it? How would I pay off the loans and everything like that? And so I'm thankful enough for my parents, they saved up money for my college tuition, so I didn't have to worry about paying student loans or anything, but I was the first one to present in our class and I went up there and said, "Me personally, if I had to pay for college, I would not go. Here's why, this is what I would do.

Joe Downs (11:00):

" So you had Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you now have done an exercise in a class. And by the way, this podcast is not about don't go to college folks, but it is interesting that these series of events have all lined up to lead you to where you are today. And again, I don't want to give everyone else the credit, not you guys. Kudos to both of you guys for recognizing and Aidan in particular to drop out of college is a stigma on that. I'm sure you heard about it or even maybe some of your parents' friends were like, "Oh, he dropped out of college. Oh, I must not be doing well." But you just said, "Screw that stigma. I don't care. It's not worth it. I'm going to go build a life for myself." And you know what? You'll get the last laugh, trust me.

(11:46):

Guys, it's amazing.

(11:49):

I'm so jealous as a 52 year old because I can clearly look back in life and wish that I did what you were doing at the age you were doing it and I didn't. So that's where the jealousy's coming from. So I'm proud. I'm super excited for you. I'm jealous at the same time. Those are all my human emotions and I can't wait to have you guys on future podcasts and watch you grow. And I know you're going to be incredible members of Storage Mogul's community and just excited to see this, just watch this story unfold. I'm excited to be a part of it.

(12:32):

And here's what I want people to take away from this is these aren't two guys that had some unfair advantage, right? Dad didn't strike the check for the facility, did he? No. No. Right. So they're not trust fund kids. They're not real estate veterans, obviously. They're just two guys in their 20s who decided the information was available. The tools were there and the only thing standing between them and their first deal was whether they were willing to do the work. And I know they were because I hosted a lot of the calls that these guys were on every week and really didn't miss them. And they put in the work and they were making the calls. And I remember one call we were on where I think there might have been a light bulb that went off Aidan, I think it was you, was on one of those calls and within a week or two, you had this deal under contract.

(13:24):

Is that right? Is how you remember it?

Aidan Brennan (13:26):

Yeah. I mean, I attended every single call that there was. I loved joining the calls and just getting as much information about self storage as I could. I got a little bit of OCD. So when I like something, I get obsessed with it and this is a pretty good obsession to have although-

Joe Downs (13:42):

This is a great obsession to have because all you were obsessed with was learning and immersing yourself into the industry that you're about to build an empire in. So it's a fantastic obsession. And folks, all they did was do the work. That's the story and it's anyone's story if you want to write it for yourself. True or false, SBA loans are available to first-time buyers with no prior real estate experience.

Liam Brennan (14:12):

True.

Joe Downs (14:13):

That is true. SBA 7A and 504 loan programs do not require prior real estate ownership. They require a viable business plan, adequate personal credit and sufficient collateral, which in storage acquisition is typically the property itself. So first time buyers with W2 income and/or not and reasonable credit scores have successfully used SBA financing to close their first storage deal. Folks, this happens all the time. It's one of the most successful financing tools available to buyers who don't have an existing real estate portfolio to leverage. So it's a critical part of what we teach and talk about, where it makes sense and obviously it's just a fantastic tool for people to get into their first deal. All right I want to talk about the part of this deal that you guys bought. What was the name again?

Aidan Brennan (15:07):

Highway 119 storage.

Joe Downs (15:09):

Highway 119, sorry. Highway 119. I want to talk about the part of this deal that most people would have walked away from. And I want to be specific here because the vague fear is useless. Specific fear is something you can actually deal with. Here's what I know about this deal. During due diligence, you found a property line encroachment on a neighboring lot. Is that right. And the seller told you it was an easy fix, yes? And your attorney told you to make it a condition of the closing anyway, true?

Aidan Brennan (15:45):

Correct.

Joe Downs (15:46):

Okay. That's a fork in the road. You can trust the seller and keep things moving, or you can listen to your attorney and risk the deal dying because the seller won't agree to the condition. Walk me through that moment because what happened next is the whole point. But was there a contentious scenario there where you had to decide or was there pushback from the seller? What happened there?

Aidan Brennan (16:11):

Yeah, so we actually learned about that the day before due diligence expired. So

Joe Downs (16:18):

You even had time crunch on it.

Aidan Brennan (16:20):

Yeah. I was in the gym working out and I was just excited, ready for the next step, ready to close on our first facility. And I get a phone call from the broker letting me know saying, "Hey, there's a little bit of an easement agreement. We're trying to get the neighboring property to sign off. I believe they should be able to sign off by tomorrow." The sellers were driving over to their property and they're going to sign, so no worries about that. And no hate to the broker or anything. He was just trying to make the situation not seem as important as it was, but thankfully I had the tools at my hand. I believe I might've called you, Joe, or you were with Rod and Kristen at a conference and I was panicking. The way the attorney explained it to me, he was like, "Look, you're basically buying a landlocked asset.

(17:07):

You do not have access to this property unless you go on the neighboring property." So I started panicking instantly. I'm like, "We went 45 days through due diligence. We're ready to close. We got the funding and everything and now it's not going to come through because the sellers couldn't hold up on a condition of closing." So I got on the phone with Jason Mandel, our attorney at the time, big shout out to him. He really helped us out. But he was like, "Look, we're going to make this condition of closing. We'll extend due diligence 15 days for them to get this signed and then we'll go from there." So yeah, when I first got that phone call, it was instant panic, but I had a good network behind me to help me get through that hurdle.

Joe Downs (17:52):

Tell me about the panic, because it was a specific situation. So what was the specific fear? Were you afraid of losing the deal? Were you afraid of being forced to buy the deal? Not that you would be forced to, but you know what I mean? Were you afraid if you bought the deal without resolving it that it might go unresolved? What was going through your

Aidan Brennan (18:13):

Head? Yeah, I mean, I definitely wouldn't have bought the deal if it didn't get resolved because the way the attorneys explained it to me, they're like, "Look, you're buying a landlocked asset. The neighbors could cut off access to your property at any time they please without the proper paperwork involved." So I knew we wouldn't have closed if that never got signed. And the panic really came from the amount of money that was spent, legal fees, property condition assessment. I was like, "We're just going to lose all this money, hopefully." In the PSA, we had sellers would have to cover the expenses already if they didn't come through on the deal. So yeah, it was mostly just panicked that it was going to be a waste of money. I knew there was other deals out there. I could have moved on, but I did really like this deal.

Joe Downs (18:57):

So your fear was we've already invested X amount of dollars into this deal. If we can't get this done, we're losing that money and that sucks. And I know painfully I know that feeling far too many times. It's part of the business, but you hope it's not.

Liam Brennan (19:14):

We also a little trapped because basically the sellers were trying to explain to us, "Hey, we've had this agreement with them for five years. They let us use that access. It's never been a problem." The previous owners before we got it, it was the same. It's been like this for 20 something years where it's been no problem. It shouldn't be any problem. And they were trying to convince us that it wasn't as big of a deal as it was and it would be the status quo. I'm really glad we got it figured out because we both looked at each other and were like, "You never know what can happen in life. And if this person decides one day they don't want people using their part of their property, they can block us out. We couldn't do it. " And luckily we took that very seriously because the person who owns that land actually ended up passing away very recently.

Joe Downs (20:08):

So walk me through what happened there. This would be the morbid part of the call here or show here, but what happened with the seller? So you got it resolved.What's the sequence, the timing of the saw? Yo extended it. When did it get resolved? When did the seller pass away and how? Was he or she dying or was it just totally out of the blue?

Aidan Brennan (20:35):

Yeah. So due diligence was expiring that day. I forget which day exactly it was. It was sometime in January and we were set to close February 12th. So we spoke with our attorney, he spoke with the seller's attorney and we both agreed to extend due diligence to get the easement agreement signed. The broker was contacting us saying, "Yeah, no worries. This is going to get signed. I'm really not stressing about this. They have a great relationship with the neighbor, so we're still set to close on February 12th." So we actually got ready. We flew to the property February 10th and February 11th at 10 o'clock at night, I get a phone call from the broker saying, "Hey, it still hasn't gotten signed. We haven't been able to contact the neighbor. Would you still like to close?" And I'm like, "I'm here at the facility right now.

(21:31):

I'm expecting to close, but it's contingent to closing that we get this agreement signed. So as of now, I'm going to speak with my attorney. I'll get back to you on that, but it looks like we're going to have to extend closing to a future date." So that's when the next day, February 12th, we found out that the neighbor who owns the property passed away and he left two heirs to the property. One of the heirs signed the easement agreement, but the other heir decided not to. We don't know why. And it took about two weeks of the seller and the seller's attorney asking them to sign it. I don't know if there was money involved on the seller's side, but-

Joe Downs (22:10):

Okay. So the seller didn't die. The property owner that you were looking for the easement from died.

Aidan Brennan (22:18):

Yes.

Joe Downs (22:18):

Gotcha. Okay. I had that part backwards. So that's interesting because I was going to interrupt you earlier and say, "Yeah, it's a situation you don't want to be involved in without the easement because what if the guy that owns that property dies? He was going to say that thinking your seller died, but that's actually what happened. That's crazy. Was there a discussion about prescriptive easement at all?

Aidan Brennan (22:43):

No. I

Joe Downs (22:44):

Mean- Because you described, Liam, you described a situation that had been going on for 20 something years, right?

Aidan Brennan (22:52):

It was basically just a firm handshake, I believe, because this is a very tertiary market in Georgia. Small population, it's growing, but I believe it was just good relationship and they're like, yeah, we've had no problems with this. We don't have anything written set in stone, but yeah, you'll be fine. And my attorney kept on telling us, he's like, look, legally this is not safe. You need to get something signed in writing, especially when you're selling it in the future. If we do sell it in the future, then this is a huge piece that needs to huge piece of the people.

Joe Downs (23:25):

That's usually the argument we make. Who knows what the situation is with situations like this or ones like it pop up and that's usually what you get. "Oh, we've been doing it this way. Nobody cares. Yeah, but I can't sell it in the future because these I's aren't dotted and these T's aren't crossed. And that's usually the argument we make with every ... But that's part of the value add, right? We're not just cleaning up the opposite management of facilities. We're cleaning up in a lot of cases the legal boundaries or legal definitions or in this case an easement and stuff like that because we are taking this industry, it's so interesting because it was so mom and pop for so long in a way I would call Wild, Wild West that it's only now in the last 10 years, 15 years becoming more sophisticated and modernized and technologies being introduced left and right into storage.

(24:24):

And this is the opportunity out there. This is what we're doing. This is part of what we do. It's part of what makes it fun too.

(24:33):

So you had this easement situation, right? Didn't expect that right out of the gates, right? Your heads were probably elsewhere like, " How am I going to manage this thing? Or what's it going to be like to operate it? "And boom, right out of the gates you get hit with, " Oh, by the way, before you even own this, you're going to make some big boy decisions here. "What was that like getting not the specific, can we solve this specific problem? Were you like, " What have we gotten ourselves into here? We haven't even closed yet when we're dealing with stuff. "What was going through your head at that point?

Aidan Brennan (25:10):

It was almost like if I could compare it to playing a video game so when my age, I met the final boss. I was just going through due diligence and I was like, " All right, things are going good. This looks like a good deal. "And I got to say, I was learning this whole time. It's our first deal. It's our first introduction to real estate. I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely did not expect this to happen the day before due diligence expired, but it was just a whole lot of emotions. It was a little bit of confusion. I'm like, " How does this happen? Why didn't I ... I learned about this earlier. Thankfully we got a survey done and the attorneys were looking at the survey and they said, "The access isn't on your property. It's on the neighboring property." I don't even think the sellers would've mentioned that when they were closing.

(25:58):

They might've not even known.

Joe Downs (26:01):

This is what we teach. It's not their job to.

Aidan Brennan (26:04):

You got to

Joe Downs (26:05):

Cross all the

Aidan Brennan (26:06):

Ease and

Joe Downs (26:06):

Dot all your

Aidan Brennan (26:07):

Out.

Joe Downs (26:07):

It's your job to know all that. That's why you build the right team around you. You had JC Mandel. I'm not sure you did your financing, but that's all part of the team. You obviously had us to help you through it. Were there moments ever at any point, I'm not going to lead the witness here. I'm going to let you answer. Were there moments where either the seller or the broker or a lender to the best of your, or in your opinion, did they ever treat you, did it feel like they treated you differently because of your age?

Aidan Brennan (26:43):

100%. Absolutely. Yeah.

Joe Downs (26:45):

Really? I don't even have to lead you. Okay. Tell me why. What's an example?

Aidan Brennan (26:49):

There's a few different examples. I mean, there was one where we were negotiating on the PSA for at least three months and the broker knew our age. He knew it was our first introduction to real estate and self-storage. So he might've been telling the sellers this a little bit. I don't really know. I actually never spoke with the sellers. It was just me speaking with the broker. The sellers did not want to speak to me. And there was one instance they called me and they did not agree on something in the PSA. I think it was about the holdback. And Jason actually jumped on the call and it got into a screaming argument over the phone because Jason personally got offended because he felt the sellers, their attorney and the broker were trying to finagle us because we were a little bit younger. So it shows the power of having a good attorney on your side.

Joe Downs (27:42):

Yeah. Who understands this business? And that's certainly Jason. He's actually been the attorney on every single deal we've ever bought.

Aidan Brennan (27:50):

Even when I got the phone call about the easement issue, the brokers were just trying to tell me like, "Look, this is nothing to worry about. It's a firm handshake. It'll be all good." And then Jason-

Joe Downs (28:03):

Nothing to worry about. We should just sign the easement then.

Aidan Brennan (28:05):

No

Joe Downs (28:06):

Big deal.

Aidan Brennan (28:07):

Jason started screaming at me. He's like, "Dude, you cannot go through with this. We need to make this a condition of closing. You're buying a landlock asset if you don't."

Joe Downs (28:19):

So based on that, it's a shame that you experienced that, but also good that you experienced that. You didn't get pushed around and you're not going to let the next person push you on. What would you tell a 23-year-old right now who thinks they're too young or don't know enough?

Aidan Brennan (28:36):

I would say one, you're not too young. It's better to get started sooner than later. And two, get the right information, get the right network around you and you're good to go. That's basically what I did. It was an overload of information. I felt like a fire hose of information when I first started learning about self-storage, but I just jumped into it. I just jumped into the water and started doing it. I started underwriting. I started calling brokers, just familiarizing myself with communicating with them. Yeah, I would say it's just the network you have around you.

Joe Downs (29:13):

And you're right. Oh, go ahead, Liam.

Liam Brennan (29:15):

Going to the Storage Academy, I kind of sat there and I was obviously nervous at first at the first conference I went to and I'm like, "Gosh, I'm so young." But I kind of just sat there and I was listening to people who had been in storage and I'm listening to how they changed their life around and they were working in a job that they didn't love. I heard one person talk about how they were insurance just like I was and how storage has changed their life over the last couple years. And this person got in when they were 50 years old and they had never been in real estate either. And I'm just sitting there and I'm like, "What does this person have that I don't?" If they went through this academy, they changed their life from a job they didn't love and now there's a Successful after starting at 50.

(30:02):

If I started, I was 24 at the time and I just make this my passion, my point in life, then I know I can do a lot with my life. So anyone

Joe Downs (30:14):

Who's

Liam Brennan (30:14):

23, the sooner you start, the bigger rewards you'll reap.

Joe Downs (30:19):

Yeah. What that person didn't have is 26 more years that you do have to build a storage empire. Exactly. And you're both right. It's a lot of information at first.That's what we say. It's drinking from a fire hose, but it's not insurmountable. It's not even that hard. It's just new. And Aidan, you cut right through all that, both of you did, by attending as many calls as you could and immersing yourself with it. And that's literally why the way we built storagemoguls.ai is so that we could help people immerse themselves even faster in the education and the community of self-storage because that's actually what it takes. If I can do it, if you can do it and I'll self deprecate myself and unfortunately I'm going to take you down with me, but I don't think either one of us is a rocket scientist. So if we can do it, anyone can do it if you just apply yourself and it's not even like if you apply yourself, you'll figure out the calculus eventually.

(31:27):

There's no calculus. It's straight up math. It's easy math. It's just knowledge that you have to obtain and learn. And part of it comes through osmosis and part of it comes through just the part of the grind and the grit. And it's not even a hard grinding grit. It's just you got to be ever present in it. And if you are, you're going to be successful just like these two young gentlemen here. And that's really the takeaway is the encroachment wasn't bad luck. It was a test. And the way you pass the test is by having the right people around you to your point, Aidan, and being willing to listen to them and even when it's inconvenient and putting in the work. And you guys listen to your attorney and it's saved the deal and that's not actually, that doesn't mean you're brilliant. It means you were disciplined and discipline is something you can choose.

(32:26):

It doesn't mean you're dumb. It means you were smart enough to listen to your attorney, but really it came down to the discipline. And hats off to you guys for that. True or false, delinquency at a self-storage facility is almost always worse than what the seller discloses. True,

Aidan Brennan (32:48):

True.

Joe Downs (32:48):

And experience ... Okay, I might finish, but you're right. Our

Aidan Brennan (32:51):

Own experience. It's very true.

Joe Downs (32:53):

And experienced buyers, I was going to finish it, price it in before they make the offer. And you're right, it is true. Look, I'm not going to say it's their job to lie, but it's certainly their job to put their best foot forward. So sellers routinely under report delinquency. Maybe some are doing it deliberately. I don't know. Sometimes because their own records are a mess, frankly. But experienced buyers treat reported delinquency as a floor, not a ceiling. And we build cleanup costs and collections into the underwriting. A facility showing 85% occupancy with a delinquency problem is not an 85% occupied facility. It's lower than that. And the numbers that matter is who's actually paying what it's actually doing. The good news is delinquency is one of the most recoverable problems in self-storage because you can control access to the units. Here's the part nobody talks about enough and I want to get into it with you guys.

(33:55):

What happens after you close? The wire's cleared. You now own 136 units in Pembroke, Georgia, and you are an overnight operator. Yesterday you weren't. Today you are. What does that actually look like? Walk me through the first 30 days of ownership. Not the theory of it, but the reality. What was the first fire you had to put out after you closed? You already put one out before you closed. What surprised you most about running this thing once it was actually yours?

Aidan Brennan (34:28):

Yeah. So first I'll start off with the emotion part of things. It was a big accomplishment for both of us. I've always wanted to be in business with my brother and the fact that it actually came to life, it was huge. We celebrated the night of closing, went to a cigar bar with our parents and stuff and we treated it like it was a graduation from college. It felt like it was.

Joe Downs (34:53):

Probably better and certainly a better ROI.

Aidan Brennan (34:55):

Oh yeah. The next day it was go time. We went to the facility and we started transitioning everything and big shout out to Rod and Kristen Blunk. They helped us out with the transition services and I couldn't be more thankful and grateful for everything they did for us. So Rod actually came to the site with us because he's a very experienced storage operator. He knows exactly what to do, what to fix, how to fix it. So for three days we spent at least 12 hours a day on site just cleaning out units, picking up trash, fixing latches, wanting to put it to the standards that we thought it should be at. And we didn't do any major changes the first day, just little minor things. But we were meeting some of the tenants that were coming through. It just felt surreal to be honest. It was like, wow, we're actually doing this.

(35:50):

And I like to think of the analogy of you're climbing a mountain, you think you're hitting the peak, but right at closing, there's another peak you got to get over. But once you hit the final peak, it's kind of just like, all right, where's the next facility? It kind of runs itself.

Joe Downs (36:08):

I love as this story's unfolding, you're revealing more and more elements of your team. We kept talking about putting a strong team around you. So you had the education and then you're the attorney and I'm sure the lender helped you in there as well. And now you're at the Rod and Kristen Blanc with the site visit and the knowledge of how to manage this thing and the transition from seller to owner. How about Liam, anything strike you as interesting or wow, I wasn't expecting that day one, week one, month one?

Liam Brennan (36:49):

Yeah. I mean, I guess just as a general concept, the negotiating was so back and forth and it was so taxing, especially right up to the last day, we weren't sure if this was going to go through. And so in our head when it went through, it'd be like, "All right, yes, we got it. " And it was like, I don't know, I guess to me I somehow thought that was over, but now we start operating, which is a whole new ballpark. We've been learning and really focusing on underwriting because that's obviously what we had to do to get the deal in the first place. Obviously we were learning a little bit about operations, but it just went from everything about underwriting to, "All right, now you got to do operations." And it just totally changed what we were learning. But I guess it was also just a surreal feeling like actually going there and being like, "Wow, okay, this is mine now." And Ro was super helpful because I assume me and Aidan could have figured out what we were supposed to do to give the place just an immediate facelift in the few days that we were there, but Rod just knew exactly what to do and streamlined that operation to where we could get so much done so quickly, so efficiently in the first three days of us being there that it really helped smooth things along.

Aidan Brennan (38:04):

I got to add, Joe, to that. Another instance that Rod really helped us out, it was our first day being owners and we were actually driving to another facility in the area to go check it out and we get a phone call, the first phone call and it was a lady that the previous sellers auctioned off three units and she called us hysterically crying saying, "I just got a letter that my stuff was sold. What did you guys do to it? I was in the hospital. My father just died and she just started venting to us." And I'm on speaker with Liam and Rod in the car and I'm just like, "I don't know what to say. I've never dealt with something like this.

Joe Downs (38:45):

" This is day one?

Aidan Brennan (38:47):

Day one.

Joe Downs (38:48):

Welcome to storage ownership.

Aidan Brennan (38:51):

Rod was sitting right next to me and he kind of took over and assured the lady, he was like, "Look, there's new management, there's new owners. We're managers at the facility. The previous sellers auctioned off your units. I'm very sorry to inform you, " but he was able to handle that conversation that I could say I was not ready for on day one.

Joe Downs (39:13):

Wow. Yeah, that's a punch in the face right on day one. But look, it sounds like, again, you had the right team around you at that critical point. I'm sure you know how to handle that call yourself today because you're self-managing, right? You guys are still self-managing. How did you guys decide to self-manage versus third party? What was that decision process like?

Aidan Brennan (39:40):

Well, we knew we wanted to self-manage because we plan on growing a portfolio. We want this to be our career and we figured no better way to learn management than just doing it ourselves. And we're young. We're working part-time jobs, working at bars and lifeguarding and stuff. We have the time to manage it and it's really not that big of a management load from what I've learned. You're just answering phone calls calling late tenants and we have a very good reliable boots on the ground who lives in the area. He visits the property three times a week and he handles everything in person that we need to get done. But the biggest two reasons why we chose to self-manage it is one, we wanted to learn it. We wanted to know how to operate a self-storage facility and two, the underwriting aspects, that takes a big chunk of NOI out of your income.

(40:33):

So knowing that we could just cut that cost and manage it ourselves and learn from it too, it was kind of a no-brainer for us. I recommend every first time owner if they have the time to self-manage the first facility, because then when you're looking for a third party management team, you know exactly what you need, you know what you're looking for and you're confident with them

Joe Downs (40:56):

For someone listening who's afraid they won't know how to run it, what's your honest answer to that fear based on what you've lived so far?

Aidan Brennan (41:06):

Yeah, I mean, it's a valid fear. You're running a business, especially, I don't know how old this person would be, but at our age, knowing that you're running a business, you have 136 tenants that basically rely on you. It's a little bit overwhelming, but like we said before, information and network is everything. So there's no better way to learn than actually doing it. If you have the right team behind you, you have the right information at your fingertips, you could see everything you need to do and the software, the management software basically does it all yourself. We use Storable for our management software and it's very easy to look at, so it's really not difficult at all.

Liam Brennan (41:49):

Yeah. And especially for getting into your first deal, just definitely put a good team around you. There's probably cheaper lawyers out there than Jason, but we wanted the guy that we can trust that is reliable because say we get some half-assed guy, we could lose a lot of money on something that we didn't catch and we wanted to play it safe and we wanted to invest in a very good team that we know that we're confident in so that not only they can save us from a massive loss, but we can learn a lot for our future deals and be able to do ourselves later.

Joe Downs (42:24):

It's a good point. We tell people all the time, you don't want to use your cousin's brother who's, I don't know, an ambulance chaser attorney or whatever, not trying to make fun of attorneys, but you want someone who understands self-storage. And Jason's probably done 30, 40 deals at least in self-storage. He's probably one of the most seasoned attorneys out there and dealing with self-storage and closings and contracts. So yeah, no, for sure that attorney matters. And folks, operations are learnable. Every single part of running a storage facility, the collections, the tenant management, rate setting, maintenance, all of this is skills you can acquire just like Aidan and Liam have. They didn't know any of it or at least a lot of it going in and nobody does in deal one. And I mean, what you guys did was ask for help, put systems in place and kind of figure it out as you went and that's the whole playbook right there.

(43:25):

But I don't even like the way I just said that because it sounds like it's willy-nilly. It's not. The whole structure is there. We have it all at storagebuggles.ai and we've got the team, the context, the resources, it's all available to you. You just kind of have to plug and play. All right guys, last thing and I always say this, but I mean it, and I want one thing from this segment that somebody can actually do today, not be inspired to do. So you were the person sitting on the fence six months ago, you were the one watching, researching, wondering if you were ready. Now you've closed the deal. I shouldn't say you were sitting on the fence, you guys were taking action, but you hadn't closed the deal yet. You're operating it and you're looking for the next one. What do you tell that version of yourself?

(44:14):

The one who's trying to figure it out and in particular, I don't know that you were sitting on the fence, but what do you say to someone who is sitting on the fence now that you own one?

Aidan Brennan (44:24):

I would say just do it. I mean, jump in and just start doing it. Say, "Hey, I'm going to sit down today and learn how to underwrite." And don't be scared to ask questions or to reach out to people in your network or people that you know, because nine times out of 10, they'll be happy to help you and guide you through the process of what might be confusing you. I mean, that's what I did. I was sitting on the fence saying, "This stuff is way too confusing for me. I'm way too young. I don't think I'll ever be able to do this. " And then one day I woke up and I said, "I'm just going to go. I'm just going to do it. " And I started reaching out to people. I started watching videos doing research and next thing you know, six months later, I'm sitting here on a podcast talking about owning a facility, which I never thought would happen.

(45:10):

It's

Joe Downs (45:10):

A little surreal, isn't it?

Aidan Brennan (45:12):

Just do it.

Liam Brennan (45:13):

Yeah. I mean, I would say especially a kid my age, a lot of them would just say, "Oh, I don't know anything about storage." And it's like, okay, we didn't either. So especially a kid my age, you see their Instagram screen time. They probably spend three hours a day just scrolling on Instagram. Take one of those hours and just put it into reading a book, watching a YouTube video, learning something about storage and then come back to me in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and tell me how much you know about storage now. And once you just get those basic principles, you'll start to ... Wait, I actually kind of know a little bit about this industry and you can take more steps from there. But you really can never get into it unless you take that first step in that initiative like, okay, I'm going to take an hour or two every day out of my day to learn just a little bit about this.

(46:03):

And of course, your first couple days you're going to go, wow, this is really overwhelming. This is a lot. But then you'll start to learn more and more and eventually you'll know it like the back of your hands. And we're still learning more every single day.

Joe Downs (46:16):

I'm still learning more every day. That's great insight, guys. It really is. By the way, Liam, it doesn't have to be someone your age. It's any age, just an hour a day. You're so right. And there's tons of information out there. Lord knows I've put a bunch out on the Storage Muggles YouTube channel, but there's tons of information you can find out there. And with AI, no one has information excuses anymore. The information's everywhere and it's mostly for free. What you do with it, that's where you want the community, the mentorship, the guardrails, the bumper rails. That's what I tell people all the time when they say, "Well, why do people come to you? " They're like, "Well, some people like to bowl with bumper rails and some people like to buy storage facilities with bumper rails." So that's hopefully what we're providing for them.

(46:58):

So great insights guys. Really appreciate having you. I have one more question for you, which is not really about storage, but you can make it about storage. Five years from now, what are you doing? Well, not what do you hope you're doing? I want you to tell me definitively five years from now, we own X facilities or number of units or whatever, and then what are you doing today to make sure you reach that goal, that you actually will own those in five years? Or I don't know, you could say five years from now I'm a doctor like my dad, whatever Better get to work if that's the case, but where are you five years from today? If you want to talk about your portfolio, that's great, but what are you doing today to make sure that happens?

Aidan Brennan (47:48):

Yeah. So I mean five years from today we will have 25 facilities.

Joe Downs (47:56):

Woo.

Aidan Brennan (47:57):

Yeah, that's a goal that I have. I have

Joe Downs (48:00):

A goal. I

Aidan Brennan (48:00):

Love it. My longtime goal is building a portfolio worth a hundred million dollars. That's what I'm aiming for.

Joe Downs (48:08):

All right, five years, 25 facilities. What are you doing today? Got 24 more to go. What are you doing today to make sure five years from now when we revisit this podcast, I'm talking to a guy who owns 25 storage facilities.

Aidan Brennan (48:23):

Yeah. So phone calls, a lot of phone calls, calling brokers, owners, and potential partners, people who have been in the game, people who want to stay in the industry, people who want to get into the industry, just getting a group of people around me that see my vision, my goal, and want to take action. I want to compete with public storage, extra space, the top competitors. That's a goal of mine. So we're

Joe Downs (48:50):

Going to be buying five a year roughly. All right. Liam.

Liam Brennan (48:56):

Yeah. I mean, I'm obviously partners with my brother, so I want the same thing, but where I will be in five years is I know that I can walk out of my job and just quit on the spot if I decided I wanted to. I mean, I still want to obviously just make as much money when I'm young so I can reinvest it into my storage, but I would like to know that if I just didn't feel like doing this anymore, the day jobs that I work, then I can just leave. I can just walk out of the office and I'm good. I never need to come back here again.

Joe Downs (49:31):

How many facilities do you need to own so that you don't have to work the W2 anymore? You may still, so you don't have to.

Liam Brennan (49:38):

Yeah, I'd say realistically somewhere between five and 10 That would be depending on obviously the market size, what kind of facility it is, but somewhere between five to 10 facilities. I

Joe Downs (49:52):

Might suggest a shorter term goal to get you out of a W2 first. So is it five? Is it 10? Make that a two year goal, a three year goal. If you're going to hit 25, you're going to need to hit those numbers in two to three years anyway.

Aidan Brennan (50:08):

Yeah. It's

Joe Downs (50:09):

About

Aidan Brennan (50:10):

Closing five a year, you got to do something every day to move that needle.

Joe Downs (50:14):

And that's the point. So you need to start acting today like you own 25. So if you owned 25, what would you be doing today?

Aidan Brennan (50:24):

Today if I own 25 facilities, honestly, I would probably still be sleeping because I would be sitting courtside at the Knicks last night, but realistically I would be just checking on the facilities. I'd have third party management teams running off them, but I would just be overseeing all the operations.

Joe Downs (50:45):

So that right there, you'd have third party management teams, right? So that means you probably need third party management in place sooner than five years

(50:57):

And putting third party management in place would free up how much time. I don't know. Right. So these are the types of things, this is the Mr. Beast way of thinking. I need to act like a guy who owns 25 today, even though I don't own 25. If I own 25, this is how I'd be operating so that I would have all this time to go find and source and negotiate and raise money or however you're going to do it so that I can buy those. So that's the point of the exercise. That's why I love it so much and that's why I ask every guest. All right guys, fantastic Adam and Liam, I'll say this. The fact that you two are sitting here having already done this, that the thing that most people who are still talking about doing at 25 and 22 is incredible.

(51:44):

You should tell every person watching or listening exactly what's possible. You didn't have an unfair advantage, by the way. You had a plan, a community, I'm going to go back to your dad. You had a dad that programmed you, instilled this in you and a mom, obviously. I'm sure she was part of that and I know how proud she is if you I've met her as well, but you had a plan and a community and the willingness to send the offer even when you weren't sure how it would turn out. So if you're watching or listening and even waiting until you're older or more experienced or more ready, these two young guys just showed you what ready actually looks like. So go to storagemongles.ai, that's where you start every week on storage moguls. I'm trying to bring you full storage coverage, every vertical, boat and RV, self-storage, industrial outdoor storage, but really the stories from the operators like these two guys or the brokers or the lenders or the industry pros that live and touch this business every day.

(52:52):

Please like, subscribe and share and share based on something specific that hit you today. If you're under 30, then share this one. It's for you. Folks, there's a seller out there right now who's ready. Stop watching, start moving, drive for dollars, send the LOI. We'll see you next week.