A Self-Storage Broker's Warning to First-Time Buyers

Is the self-storage brokerage relationship the most misunderstood edge in storage investing? And are first-time buyers quietly destroying their own deal flow without knowing it? 

Joe Downs sits down with David Perlleshi, Managing Director of Self-Storage at Franklin Street, one of the nation's leading self-storage brokerage firms. 

David leads a national team with a buyer list of 10,000–15,000 active prospects and is currently on the front lines of a wave of COVID-era vintage loans from 2019–2022 coming due into a dramatically higher-rate environment. 

He and Joe dismantle the fear-based myths holding first-time storage investors back, from lowball offer anxiety to blacklist paranoia, and reveal what actually gets a buyer frozen out. 

With more than $1 trillion in commercial real estate loans maturing in the next two years, the storage investing window is opening. 

The investors who understand how to work with brokers right now will be first in line.

Listen For:

4:12 Is self-storage really one of the most recession-proof asset classes lenders track?

11:50 Did compressed cap rates in 2021 create the underwater loan crisis hitting storage owners right now?

23:53 Why does a broker's commission structure make them just as motivated to find you a deal as close one?

25:43 Are $1 trillion in maturing CRE loans about to flood the self-storage market with new inventory?

26:43 What expansion opportunities are first-time storage investors missing on listings?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: DAVID PERLLESHI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SELF STORAGE INVESTMENT SALES | FRANKLIN STREET 

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

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Transcript

Joe Downs (00:00):

Brokers are not the enemy, but they are the ones who will decide whether or not you see another deal from them. David, before I even tell people who you are, I want to ask you something. What is the single biggest mistake first time buyers make when dealing with a broker for the first time?

David Perlleshi (00:23):

Submitting low ball offers without any rhyme or reason.

Joe Downs (00:28):

That's a good one. What does that actually feel like on your end when somebody low balls you with no, you said no rhyme or reason, but I'm assuming you mean no backup, no comps, no logic to back that up.

David Perlleshi (00:40):

So we have to deliver a story to our client, just like we have to deliver stories to buyers. So in order to really tell that story, we have to understand why the buyer came in at the price they came in at. So if they're not backing it up with sold comparables, they're not backing it up with how the facility is currently performing, they're not backing it up with financing metrics of any sort, it makes it really difficult for us to have a compelling story for why the buyer's coming in with a low ball offer. Now, if they're able to come in information and say, "Hey, based on the market rates, based on where we're seeing the current street rates for all the facilities in a certain area, we don't think that we're going to get up to what you're projecting as far as rates." That's a reason for why an offer might came in so low.

(01:33):

If banks are coming in for financing at call it a 7% interest rate and they're not able to obtain 70% LTV on a deal, they can only get 60% LTV on a deal, that also makes sense for why a deal doesn't pencil or why it's coming in so low. So we need the reason and the rationale for why that offer is coming in so low so we can have the story to tell our client.

Joe Downs (02:00):

All right folks, you might want to listen to the rest of this episode then. I'm Joe Downs. Welcome to the Storage Mobiles podcast. My company's acquired over 20 self-storage facilities. We've either bought or developed over 70 million in assets across multiple storage niches with a few more under contract right now. We've got two pro storage facilities in development, and we've seen this business from every angle, educated hundreds of students, learned firsthand who succeeds and why. And that's actually what drove me and my partners to build storagemoguls.ai, which is, yeah, it's an AI-powered community. That's certainly part of it. But in that community, we've got the structure, the guardrails to teach people how to buy storage facilities. It's like bowling with bumper rails. Check it out, storagemoguls.ai. And by the way, that's why we started this podcast is to bring you the operators, the lenders, the brokers like David, and actual first time buyers, people who've bought real deals so you can hear their stories and learn this business from the folks living it every day.

(03:08):

And I'm very excited about today's conversation with David, and you should be too after what you just heard already. David, who, full disclosure, I have known for a few years now and know him personally. He's a managing director of self-storage at Franklin Street, one of the nation's leading self-storage brokerage companies. And he leads one of the teams there with his partner, Frank. He represents sellers on listings across the country, works on buyer lists of 10 to 15,000 active prospects. And right now he's on the front lines of a wave of COVID era loans, I would imagine, from 2019 to 2022 at Vintage where he had compressed cap breaks coming due into a market with much higher cost of debt. We're going to get into that. So he sees both sides of that conversation every single day as well. David, welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast.

David Perlleshi (04:05):

Thank you for having me on, Joe. Appreciate the opportunity here and looking forward to this discussion.

Joe Downs (04:12):

Before we get into it, David, as you know, I do it a couple true or false throughout the episode. Why? Because they're fun, but also because it's my way of, in a fun way, helping the listener learn a little tidbit here and there about self-storage. So David, true or false. Self-storage has posted one of the lowest loan default rates of any major commercial real estate sector for over two decades running from 2008 through 2020.

David Perlleshi (04:39):

That's 100% true.

Joe Downs (04:42):

That is true, even though we just kind of set up a scenario that's going to be interesting to talk about. Yeah, folks, if you pull the latest CMBS delinquency comparison across property types, you will find that self-storage is one of the most resilient asset classes that lenders track, which is exactly why brokers like David still see steady deal flow even when credit gets tight everywhere else. All right. I always like to start with where somebody actually comes from.

David Perlleshi (05:15):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (05:16):

Because it usually explains everything about how they operate today. David, before you were brokering storage deals nationally, you were somebody else entirely, and I didn't even know this about you until recently. You played college baseball, you were a competitive team first environment, and somewhere between that and today, you helped build Franklin Street's self-storage practice into a national platform. So what did baseball teach you that applies directly to how you run a brokerage team today?

David Perlleshi (05:45):

When baseball ended, I had to figure out what was next. So I got into commercial real estate. I realized pretty quickly that this business rewards a lot of the same things that sports do. It's not about having one incredible day. It's about showing up every single day, making the calls, following up, learning from your losses, staying disciplined when nobody's watching. And I think people overestimate talent and underestimate consistency. And it's the one thing I always talk about, Joe, just with my team, is motivation is for amateurs. Consistency is where the killers live. And that's where people are going every single day and just dominating. And I think the best brokers I've met in this industry are usually the people that everyone's talking about that have the most volume, the most market share, are always in your face, always there. And it's not because they're always the smartest people in the room.

(06:45):

They're just the ones that refuse to quit. So that's how I try to run our team. That's how I try and run our brokerage.

Joe Downs (06:51):

I love that. And I love the quote you threw at us as well. The best baseball players, the best batting average in baseball is still a majority failure rate.

David Perlleshi (07:07):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (07:08):

Overwhelmingly failure, right? 70% failure. I'm going with the 300 batting average in baseball is pretty damn successful, is it not?

David Perlleshi (07:17):

Yes.

Joe Downs (07:18):

Which means you're failing 70% of the time.

David Perlleshi (07:21):

Correct.

Joe Downs (07:22):

So is that the mentality that you took from baseball to building a national self-storage brokerage practice? I mean, that's got to be, right? That's got to be the mentality you bring every day.

David Perlleshi (07:39):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (07:39):

Because you bring that to the plate. You bring to the plate the knowledge that you're going to fail more often than you succeed.

David Perlleshi (07:45):

Absolutely. I mean, baseball I think is the greatest sport in terms of the transition required to get into brokerage. Because like you said, Joe, you're a hall of famer if you're batting 300 and you're failing seven out of 10 times in the sport of baseball, you're a very successful athlete. The same thing in baseball, just growing up and playing baseball. If you're succeeding 30% of the time, you're a star on the team. We're probably succeeding about 10% of the time for every time we do a valuation. We get one listing and those listings, 50% of the time sells. I would say for every single time we do a BOV, we're probably succeeding 5% of the time is our success rate.

Joe Downs (08:29):

It's so refreshing to hear you say as a broker, a seasoned broker, that your batting average and getting a listing is maybe 10 to 15% of the time, right?

David Perlleshi (08:43):

Well, Joe, to make it even worse, there's so much work that goes into that that's not being paid off. So I would say 95% of the work that we do day-to-day isn't even being translated into actual dollars until a deal closes. So when I show up to the office, 95% of the work that I put in isn't being translated into real dollars.

Joe Downs (09:06):

Man, think about that. So I'm so glad we're talking about this because I'm hoping, and I know our storage moguls members listen to this, and I hope they're hearing you, not just hearing you, but really hearing you, that this is work. But that's, I think, the mentality you have to take this. And I'm sure the same is true in brokerage.

David Perlleshi (09:25):

Absolutely.

Joe Downs (09:26):

Just trying to get listings.

David Perlleshi (09:27):

Absolutely.

Joe Downs (09:28):

David, as a broker, you're mostly listing deals on behalf of sellers. I'm sure you don't have a lot of clients hire you to be the buyer's rep, right?

David Perlleshi (09:41):

No.

Joe Downs (09:42):

Was there a specific moment though that you realized you had to serve the buyers too in a transaction, not just the sellers?

David Perlleshi (09:49):

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think whenever you're listing an opportunity, Joe, you're contractually and legally representing the seller. Your fiduciary is your seller. And I think that's a little bit of a misconception or really the biggest misconceptions is we're only representing the seller, we're only on their side. But practically speaking, we want great buyers. If you're serious, professional, transparent, I absolutely want to help you buy deals because hopefully we do 10 transactions together over the next decade. And at the end of the day, buyers don't get blacklisted for asking questions. You should be asking questions. As brokers, it's literally our job to answer the questions you have about a deal. The first question should be, what's the story? Why is the seller selling? But buyers don't get blacklisted for asking questions or making low offers. They get blacklisted for wasting people's time. If you're calling me, Joe, and then we have dialogue for a week and you're hammering me with a bunch of questions over email, over text, over the phone, I'm answering them, and then you disappear.

(11:06):

I'm like, what the heck happened to Joe? If buyers constantly retrade on opportunities, if buyers tie up deal. I mean, this happened just before I got on the call. There's a buyer that's an SBA buyer. He tied up a second deal in the East Coast of Florida and he dropped it. And his lender has no idea what he's doing. And I sent an email, I said, "Please don't look at our deals going forward.You've done this twice in the last two months and you've wasted our time and waste our client's time." That's when brokers remember that. When you disappear constantly retrade or you tie up deals with no execution, that's the stuff that gets you blacklisted and that's the stuff that brokers remember. But reaching out, engaging, having conversation, asking questions, trying to be as informed as possible for the opportunity that does not get you blacklisted.

Joe Downs (11:50):

Love it. All right, David, true or false, self-storage cap rates compressed to record lows in 2021. Then rose again once the Fed started hiking rates in 22 and 23. That is true. Cheap debt and heavy investor demand push storage cap rates to historic lows in 21. Then as rates climb, cap rates decompress, which is exactly why so many 2019 to 2022 vintage loans are underwater against today's refi environment, which brings us to the thing nobody says out loud on one of these calls. Let's name the thing everybody's actually thinking on one of these calls, but nobody says out loud. Here it is. The broker works for the seller, not me. They don't actually care about my deal. And if I say the wrong thing on this call, I'll never see another listing from them again. That's the fear. David, is that a fair read of what's going on in a first-timer's head?

David Perlleshi (13:00):

I think so. I don't think there's anything wrong you can actually do when talking to a broker or reaching out to a broker. I think what you can do to get blacklisted from a broker is stuff along the process later on. If you're asking a bunch of questions and then all of a sudden you disappear or you don't tell the broker why you're not going to submit an offer or why you're no longer interested in the deal by ghosting them. I think that hurts them. I think if you're under contract and then you're constantly making the process of trying to buy the deal very difficult, I think that hurts you as a buyer.

Joe Downs (13:43):

Can you think of a specific buyer who got this completely wrong, like a scenario, and then one who got it right? No names needed, especially if it's our name.

David Perlleshi (13:53):

Well, there's a specific buyer right now that tied up two deals and he wants to go through SBA financing. And he said he was prepared to go through SBA financing and he has a lender and he's tied up two of our deals in the last two months. And during the first two weeks of due diligence, after we've sent him everything on two separate deals, his SBA lender didn't know how to underwrite the deal properly and therefore didn't call it financeable. Meanwhile, these are stabilized opportunities that are great and they've got them at great prices. So that's a situation there where he's tied up two deals of ours. He's wasted a lot of our time, wasted our client's time putting together all the due diligence documents that takes hours and days to put together and just has failed to execute. And then Joe, as far as another example, I mean, we're putting out four to six new listings a month as brokers.

(14:49):

So we're having hundreds of inquiries on deals that we list. And then we do a really good job of following up with those buyer leads weekly. But most of the time what ends up happening is throughout that process, there's daily dialogue that goes on. And with that being said, when buyers aren't following up with reasons for why they're passing on the deal, that makes it really difficult to stay engaged with them on future opportunities because you know that they constantly do the same thing where they reach out, they ask for a bunch of questions, you answer them, and then they just go away and they just never respond.

Joe Downs (15:24):

Can I tell you what happens in our community storage mobiles?

David Perlleshi (15:27):

Yes.

Joe Downs (15:28):

And I would love your feedback on this. So it's very natural. We'll have a one-on-one call with a student who's got a deal, and maybe it's one of your list of deals. And they say, "Look, I've gone through the underwriting. I just can't get to the number you guys have listed for two million." And all they can get to, they're at 1.7 for argument's sake. And they say, "I can't send that offer to the broker because it'll be offensive and they won't call me back or they'll think I don't know what I'm doing." And so they'll go on their litany of reasons why they can't send that offer. And what I try to employ with them to do is send the offer. And there's a number of reasons why I tell them to send it. But the response, the pushback we get is usually, "Yeah, but then they're going to want to ask me why." And I go, "Okay, tell them." Or, and I'd love your comment, your feedback on this, is to say, "Look, brokers are people too, and they'll help you." So if you call them and say, "Look, my underwriting and the assumptions I'm using in my underwriting only got me to 1.7 and you have it listed for two, what am I missing?" David, is that a fair approach for someone to take?

David Perlleshi (16:58):

I mean, Joe, yes. Submit the offer no matter what. To answer it very simply, submit the offer always.

Joe Downs (17:06):

Can we break that down? Why submit the offer? Why are you adamant

David Perlleshi (17:11):

About that? I presented offers that were 20% below asking. I presented offer 30% below asking, 40% below asking, 50% off of ask it. That's literally my job, Joe. We're specifically told, "Don't send me an offer below this range." That's the only time we don't send a client an offer. So it's literally our drop. Sellers don't hire me to decide what they should hear. They hire me to bring them the market. And if that's where the market is, that's where we're going to present them. So what might be worth two million to me might be three million to you, might be four million to Jack. So the market will speak. Where buyers mess up in making an offer, and I would say I would even call it an emotional offer versus an educated one, is they don't tell me why. They say, "Well, that's just what I want to pay and that's it.

(18:06):

And I need to know why, right, Joe? I need to know why. I need to know what's going on as far as occupancy, deferred maintenance, market rents, upcoming CapEx. The roofs haven't been replaced in 50 years. They haven't been replaced in 50 years. They're going to need work. Give me something I can actually bring back to the seller." So I need to know why that offer's coming in lower, and don't be afraid to submit it because I have to submit it no matter what. So I like to always tell clients a good offer, sorry, a low offer with good reasoning has much better chance than the average offer with no credibility. Also, doing deals, there's psychology behind it, Joe. We've been running this issue lately with buyers submitting offers and my client will send them a counter offer. And then the buyers are like, "Well, we're comfortable with where we submit it initially." Just like psychologically, they just won't take it at that point because now they feel like they haven't won.

(19:06):

So I always tell people, "Hey, don't give me your best and final first. This is a negotiation. There is a little bit of psychology involved with these deals and some emotions involved. But at the same time, there needs to be credibility behind the offers. There needs to be a strategy and consult the broker. Ask how you should approach it. We want to be able to try and get a deal done regardless.

Joe Downs (19:26):

So there's an emotional component on the seller side too. That's so interesting.

David Perlleshi (19:32):

Correct.

Joe Downs (19:33):

I mean, it's something that we do teach. It's interesting to hear it confirmed by a broker.

David Perlleshi (19:40):

Absolutely. I always tell people, Joe, just come in a little bit less than you're anticipating. Let's see where the counter offer's going to come in at. And oftentimes we're surprised. You list a deal and we always tell our clients a range of where we think the deal will transact. We don't give them just a number, we give them a list number. And then from there, we give them a high, middle, and low. I'm not sure how other brokerage shops do it. However, a client will always give us guidance from there. They'll say, "Hey, I like that list price. I'd sell out the high number." And that might be 3% off the list price. So we already know going in, there's probably a little room for negotiation and we're artificially listing it a little bit higher just to give us that room to negotiate. But sometimes they come in a lot lower than they initially postured.

(20:31):

If it's a $2 million deal and we're not getting any offers on the deal, we get an offer submitted at 1.4. Our client may counter at 1.7 and we're like, "Whoa, where did that come from?" He said, "I'm not selling for a dollar less than two million." And all of a sudden now they're coming off 300,000. And there's clear motivation there.

Joe Downs (20:53):

And let me give another reason to send it because one of my taglines, in fact, I end the show with send the offer is one of the things I say because I say it every time I'm teaching students is just send the offer. Did you send the offer? If you did the work, send the offer.

(21:05):

Another reason for that is, David, what you just said, that could be six months later. And while I do tell people it's self-storage, it's commercial, but it's the closest thing I've seen to residential because it's their baby. There is from a seller standpoint, a lot of times there is an emotional attachment. So I get why the buyer doesn't want to offend with a low-ball offer. But if you don't risk the offense with not a low-ball offer, I don't want to put the adjective in front of the offer. I'd rather put it behind it, meaning a legitimate offer that happens to be lower than the listing price, even if it's significantly lower.

David Perlleshi (21:55):

Joe, we don't say low-ball offer. We say market offer because it's a market offer.

Joe Downs (22:02):

That's a better way to put it. That's a better way to put it. But for the new buyer that's listening, I'm trying to make the distinction between low ball and legit. And that legit offer is market, to your point. It just happens to be lower and there's nothing wrong with that.

David Perlleshi (22:21):

Absolutely. And I think Joe, it's something as simple as having a conversation with the broker as well and just giving them a call and just saying, "Hey, David, I know this deal's listed at two million. We love this opportunity. We're shaking out at 1.2. Is it worth my time to submit the offer?" And that broker may say, I may say, "Joe, you're wasting your time. I already have six offers at one six. I already have seven offers above one, five. Don't even bother." At that point, then you've established credibility. You've shown that you haven't wasted their time. And at the very least, you've told them where the range is at that point. And because the market's changing so fast, Joe, we don't really know where the market is at times. I might do a valuation for a client six months ago when things are going really well economically, but now the market may have shifted so much to where maybe that deal gets done.

(23:15):

Just submit the offer or at the very least, give the broker a call or send them an email as far as where it's penciling and whether it's a waste of everybody's time or not.

Joe Downs (23:23):

I love it. So folks, you don't have to worry about getting frozen out because you submitted a quote unquote low ball offer because it's not a low ball offer if you really did the work and you call the broker and you have a conversation. The relationship is the asset here. It's not the deal in front of you. It's the next 10 deals. And the way you can build and develop that is by doing honest work, submitting honest offers, and having honest conversations with brokers. That's how you're going to get ahead in this game.

David Perlleshi (23:53):

Yeah.

Joe Downs (23:53):

All right. David, true or false? A commercial real estate broker typically only gets paid if a deal actually closes.

David Perlleshi (24:00):

True.

Joe Downs (24:03):

I would hope you would get that one right. And you did. Folks, brokers work almost entirely on commission at close. So no closing, no paycheck. That's exactly why a broker's real instead of us finding buyers who actually follow through, not just buyers who make noise. David, if a first-time buyer is picking up the phone to call a broker for the first time, what do they actually need to know before the call?

David Perlleshi (24:29):

Yeah, I mean, be as practical as possible, Joe. Let us know who you are. You don't need to know everything about storage, but you need to know your buying criteria.

Joe Downs (24:43):

Should I be afraid? Let me just be the voice

David Perlleshi (24:45):

Of the person. No, no, absolutely not.

Joe Downs (24:47):

Should I hide the fact that it's my first deal?

David Perlleshi (24:49):

No, no. You should be transparent. I mean -

Joe Downs (24:52):

Why don't you look down on me for my first deal?

David Perlleshi (24:54):

Because we're dealing with a lot of first-time buyers every single day. Sometimes first-time buyers are the best buyers for that deal, and we want to work with them.

Joe Downs (25:02):

So is that part of the conversation you're having with them? You're getting a feel for who they are as a buyer so that you can make sure they're seeing other deals that you have that are closer to that. Is that true?

David Perlleshi (25:13):

Absolutely. Absolutely. Through all that communication, through the discussions, through the questions, I am now starting to develop their criteria and what they're looking for. So I'm almost being educated by the buyer as far as what they're looking for. So the one thing is just don't disappear. Tell me why you're passing. And the commercial real estate world is tiny, so good communication really goes a long way.

Joe Downs (25:43):

Love it. All right. True or false, more than $1 trillion in US commercial real estate loans are scheduled to mature in the next two years. A large share of it originated during the low rate 2019 to 2020 window.

David Perlleshi (26:02):

True.

Joe Downs (26:04):

That is true. That's exactly why so many owners are being forced to sell right now instead of refinancing, which means more real opportunity in the market for buyers who are ready to move. And that opportunity, I think, shows up in places first time buyers don't usually think to look. So I want to shift into something first-timers almost never think to look for, David. And that's the upside that I think that's hiding in plain sight. So what's an expansion opportunity? Truck parking, boat and RV, outdoor storage, you've seen a buyer completely miss on a listing.

David Perlleshi (26:43):

I mean, if there's a land attached to the listing and that property is over 90% occupied or 85% occupied, there's probably demand for more storage in that given market. So people are always just looking at the physical real estate. And one thing I want to throw out there, this is actually Scott Levy over at Highline, said this to me three months ago, and I love it. It's don't buy spreadsheets, buy real estate. You're buying the real estate. So don't look at what the spreadsheet is saying because when you go out there on site, it could tell a completely different story than what you're seeing on paper. So when you go out there, see the facility, get a feel for the market, see what's going on, see what the facilities in the given market are renting for, how their operations are being run, it gives you a lot of info on that market.

(27:35):

But one thing newer buyers tend to do is underwrite exactly what's sitting in front of them and the experienced buyers underwrite what the property could become. So sometimes the best part of it isn't the property or isn't the storage. It's the dirt sitting right next to it as far as that expansion opportunity.

Joe Downs (27:55):

Love that. David, on the debt coming due question. Yeah. What does your crystal ball tell you? What are we going to see?

David Perlleshi (28:05):

We're seeing a ton of debt maturities coming up and we've seen increased volume, increased interest from the seller pool with people looking to get out. So some people are performing very well. It's time for them to sell. Some people aren't performing very well and they just want to get out. So my crystal ball tells me we're going to have a lot more opportunities in the market over the next year, 16, 18 months for deals to come due. I mean, I know a lot of owners out there are performing well, but there's also a lot of owners out there that are not performing well and they just need to get out of those deals and those opportunities.

Joe Downs (28:39):

Do you think that'll push cap rates up?

David Perlleshi (28:42):

Yes, absolutely. Because we're going to have more available inventory and there's going to be less. Artificially, there's going to be less buyers out there to buy those deals.

Joe Downs (28:53):

So we're going to see a flood of deals to the market.

David Perlleshi (28:56):

Correct.

Joe Downs (28:56):

Is that fair to say?

David Perlleshi (28:57):

Yes.

Joe Downs (28:58):

And if interest rates hold where they are, the volume of deals in the market should push cap rates up. It should become a fairly healthy buyer's market, should it

David Perlleshi (29:11):

Not? It's a supply and demand, Joe. I mean, you're going to have so much supply out there available. Buyers are more discerning than ever, and they're being even more selective. So you're going to have where certain opportunities have five, 10, 12 bidders, you may only have one or two qualified buyers for a certain opportunity and certain deal. So there's going to be wonderful deals out there.

Joe Downs (29:31):

Folks, there's never been a better time.

David Perlleshi (29:32):

Absolutely.

Joe Downs (29:33):

Never been a better time to get

David Perlleshi (29:34):

A sales story. Absolutely.

Joe Downs (29:35):

I'm so excited for the next couple of years. David, before I get to my closing question, where can our listeners find you, reach you, get to know you?

David Perlleshi (29:44):

Anywhere. Just on LinkedIn, David Perlleshi. It's two Ls. Instagram, DavidPerlleshi_CRE. I'm also on Facebook. And then recently I've been on TikTok as. As well. So David Perlleshi on TikTok as well. And then if you want to reach me, call me directly, text me. My direct cell phone number is 914-365-0752. And then my email is david.perlleshi@franklinst.com. So it's franklinstshort for street.com. So feel free to reach out to me if there's anything to do. If you want to just talk storage opportunities, happy to chat at any time. If you want to email, that's even better. I'm very responsive. I'm one of those people where my email inbox goes down to zero every day.

Joe Downs (30:41):

By the way, the best way to reach David is with an offer on one of his deals.

David Perlleshi (30:45):

Exactly. Yeah. Full price offer. I always love those when people reach out. Full price offer,

Joe Downs (30:50):

He'll get his attention right

David Perlleshi (30:52):

Away. Yep, absolutely.

Joe Downs (30:53):

All right. Last question. Who is David Perlleshi in five years? What is he doing? Where is he? What is his life like? And what are you doing today to make sure if you got in that time machine, that's what you would see?

David Perlleshi (31:08):

Yeah, no, that's a great question. I mean, five years from now, I see a brokerage business that's become bigger than me. We have a national team. We've helped develop young brokers who are now incredibly successful in their own right. That's something I'm passionate about because somebody gave me opportunities early in my career and I want to do the same for others. So I love developing people that gives me a tremendous amount of fulfillment. I also hope, I've been doing this in the side a little bit, but I also have my interview series with successful entrepreneurs continues to grow. That started as a passion project, but it's become something bigger. I realize success becomes a lot more believable when you can actually see and hear the people behind it. If one young person watches those interviews and thinks maybe I can do that too, then for me it's all worth it because I think just nowadays the only people that we see on social media or on the media in general are Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

(32:11):

There's a lot of successful people kind of in that middle ground that are doing pretty darn well for themselves. And then on a personal level, I hope to have a great family, strong friendships, even stronger faith in a business that I'm proud of. So at the end of the day, I don't think anyone remembers how many listings I had or how much commissions I made. They remember the people you helped build, and that's the legacy I'm chasing.

Joe Downs (32:39):

I love that. Where can folks find your entrepreneurial series?

David Perlleshi (32:43):

Just on Instagram. Yeah, on Instagram. Yeah. DavidPerlleshi_CRE. It's also, I put the stuff on LinkedIn, but LinkedIn's kind of jumbled up with a lot more listings and stuff of that information and also on TikTok as well.

Joe Downs (33:01):

Oh, that's great. I love it. Well, thank you. Folks, here's the whole thing with this conversation, and it should have made it very clear. Brokers aren't the gate you have to sneak past, especially not brokers like David. They're a relationship you build the same way you'd build any other one with honesty. You heard it right out of his mouth with preparation and with patience and curiosity. I'm going to add curiosity to that. Do that and you become the buyer who gets the call before the listing ever hits the market. Every week on storage mobiles, we're trying to cover the full storage vertical, I should say. You're going to hear about self-storage obviously, but we'll also get into boat and RV storage, pro storage, industrial outdoor storage, which is iOS truck parking, small bay flex, light industrial. All those episodes are coming. Please like, subscribe and share.

(33:50):

And here's why the sharing matters. It's not for me as much as it is for you because when you share this episode, you're telling everyone in your network that you're in this business. And believe it or not, that signal will go a long way, especially when you're doing your first deal or your second or third deal, and you might need to raise some money from friends and family or whoever. They're going to see that you've been in this business for a long time. So like I said, is it help me if you share the episode? Of course it helps us, but it helps you even more. And we did all the work. Folks, there's a seller out there right now who's ready. So stop watching, start moving, drive for dollars, send the LOI. We'll see you next week.