Wendell Long – Serial Entrepreneur, Self-Storage Investor and owner of Mint Hill Self-Storage talks to Neil Henderson and Brittany Henderson, the hosts of The Road to Family Freedom podcast. Wendell got his start in the manufacturing equipment business and has been successfully operating that business for 20 plus years. In addition, he has over 30 years of experience in commercial and residential real estate, including rezoning and development. He has 5 current commercial development projects, including warehousing facilities, self-storage and parking, and commercial leasing. He opened his first self-storage facility in 2008 and is building and expanding his second and third facilities now.

In this episode, we talk to Wendell about how he built his first self-storage facility in phases with modular units, the tax and financing benefits of using modular units, the biggest mistake he sees aspiring self-storage investors make, and some of the ways he creatively finances his self-storage deals.

Post-Interview Analysis 

• Key Lessons Learned. This is a sales business. At the end of the day, you have got to figure out a way to fill your funnel with potential self-storage deals. 
• How did they acquire their knowledge or what knowledge did they need to acquire? He did a paid mentorship with Scott Meyers at Self Storage Insiders. He was also a serial entrepreneur before he got into storage so he came into the business with a lot of knowledge about operating a business. 
• How much money did it take to get started? Tough one to answer as he already owned the parcel of land and operated several businesses on it. He built his facility in phases using tractor-trailer parking and modular storage buildings. It cost him about $50,000 to bring in those first few units.
• How much time does it take now? Tough one to answer as Wendell has his hands in so many different businesses. 
• Could they do this strategy from anywhere in the world? They like to stick close to home. 

Episode Highlights: 

• Schedule a video chat with Neil Henderson at roadtofamilyfreedom.com/storage 
• Building his first self-storage facility in phases using modular units
• The tax and financing benefits of building out a self-storage facility in phases
• The biggest mistakes aspiring self-storage investors make when starting out
• Some of the various ways he creatively finances his self-storage deals
• And much more…

Books and Resources Mentioned

• The Road to Family Freedom: roadtofamilyfreedom.com