Gary Edmonds – Self Storage Owner and Operator, founder of Pack It LLC and TheStorageManager, talks to Neil Henderson, the host of The Road to Family Freedom podcast. Gary Edmonds is an Illinois based self-storage owner, operator, and manager who bought his first facility back in 1999 while holding down a full-time job. Since then, he has acquired 14 facilities totaling 1800 units and over 280,000 square feet of storage space. And almost all of those facilities were acquired and run remotely while Gary had a career as a State Farm insurance agent. 

In this episode, we talk to Gary about buying that first facility, how a previous career in commercial lending helped prepare him for the storage business, how he has managed all of his facilities remotely without a manager on-site, and the mistakes he made acquiring his second facility.

Post-Interview Analysis 

• Key Lessons Learned. As an owner of any business, whether it be self-storage, or multifamily real estate, or short-term rentals, there is a mind-shift that needs to happen around your idea of the 40-hour workweek. As an entrepreneur, you are going to have more freedom, you are not going to be tied down to someone else telling you what to do and when to do it, but there is going to be a sacrifice, and you will probably be putting in more than 40 hours a week. But there will be a closer correlation between how much you work and the amount of money you make.
• How did they acquire their knowledge or what knowledge did they need to acquire? See above. 
• How much money did it take to get started? It took him about $42,000 cash to acquire his first facility.
• How much time does it take now? This is a tough one to nail down as Gary is an active entrepreneur who’s schedule varies greatly. Some weeks it’s 20 hours, other weeks it could be 80 hours.
• Could they do this strategy from anywhere in the world? Yes, Gary sets his facilities up to run remotely.

Episode Highlights: 

• Schedule a video chat with Neil Henderson at roadtofamilyfreedom.com/storage 
• How an earlier career in commercial and agricultural lending prepared him for buying commercial real estate assets like self-storage
• The details of buying his first self-storage facility back in 1999
• What it was the caused him to shift from residential real estate to commercial
• The hardest part about being a self-storage owner
• And much more…

Books and Resources Mentioned

• The Road to Family Freedom: roadtofamilyfreedom.com
• Website: Gary