Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast 

Is self storage in trouble? Not exactly, but we need to adapt to avoid suffering the same fate as the hotel industry. Today’s guest has had his finger on the pulse of the self storage industry since the 1980s, and he’s going to share where we’re at and where we’re headed!

We had the opportunity to chat with Steve Mirabito, who is not only the founder and president of StoragePRO but also a board member for Storelocal, the largest self storage co-op in the world. In this episode, he winds the clock back nearly 40 years and shares about his journey into self storage and the challenges he faced early on. You’ll learn all about the birth of the industry, the role Steve played in popularizing this asset class, and how self storage has evolved since. 

Most importantly, where does the industry stand today, and what can investors expect going forward? Steve will share his unique perspective on some of the biggest opportunities and threats in self storage, the lessons investors can learn from the rise and fall of the hotel industry, and the number one thing you need to prepare for in 2025 and the years ahead!

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

StoragePRO: https://www.storagepro.com

StoragePRO Management: https://www.storagepromanagement.com 

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

Mentioned article: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/blog/the-self-storage-industry-a-brief-overview 

📑 Our Self-Storage Feasibility Studies will help you speed up the process in understanding markets, potential risks, and analyzing the facility itself. https://cedar.cc/feasibility-studies/

🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the Self Storage Income podcast? You can now apply here! https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207

📖 Get AJ's book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage ! https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq

📉 Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest 

Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast 

Most people don’t realize it, but self storage facility insurance can kill your deal. Fires, tornados, hurricanes, and winter storms are making it more and more costly to protect your facility, and rising prices could eat into the profit margin you worked so hard to create. How do you keep your insurance prices reasonable while still protecting your property? Are insurance premiums about to skyrocket again, or is 2025 the year they finally “level off”? 

We own a lot of self storage, but we aren’t insurance specialists, so we brought one on to help YOU get the most coverage at the lowest cost. 

Terry Campbell is the expert in self storage. He’s done everything from building to lending, operating, and educating on self storage investing, but now, he’s tackling a bigger beast: self storage insurance. 

If you’re new to self storage investing, this is an episode you MUST listen to before buying your first property. If you’ve been investing in storage for a while, you already know how pricey premiums have gotten, and Terry’s tips can help you save some serious cash when it’s time for renewal. 

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

Johnson Insurance: https://gojohnsoninsurance.com/ 

Email Terry: [email protected] 

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/ 

📑 Our Self-Storage Feasibility Studies will help you speed up the process in understanding markets, potential risks, and analyzing the facility itself.  https://cedar.cc/feasibility-studies/ 

📉 Our current investment opportunities: https://cedar.cc/invest

Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast 

In this episode of Self Storage Income, Conner breaks down the key strategies for maximizing self-storage profits through seasonality management, smart marketing, and operational efficiency. Learn how to adjust your approach throughout the year to maintain high occupancy rates, reduce costs, and boost revenue.

What You’ll Discover:

Whether you're new to self-storage investing or managing multiple facilities, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you succeed in any market condition.

🎧 Tune in now to unlock your facility’s full potential!

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

📑 Our Self-Storage Feasibility Studies will help you speed up the process in understanding markets, potential risks, and analyzing the facility itself. https://cedar.cc/feasibility-studies/

🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the SSI or AJ Osborne podcasts? You can now apply here! https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207

📖 Get AJ's new book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq 

Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast

Ready to achieve financial freedom? In this episode of Self Storage Income, we share real-life case studies of people building wealth through self-storage investing. Discover how beginners used creative strategies like seller financing, SBA loans, and partnerships to secure deals and grow their income.

We break down key topics, including:

This episode is packed with actionable insights to help you succeed. Don’t miss out—listen now and start your journey to financial freedom!

Listen to Charles tell his story: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/podcasts/self-storage-income-2/episodes/2148881990 

Links:

📌 Tenant Inc. - Streamline your property management with cutting-edge tools. https://www.tenantinc.com/

🌳 Live Oak Bank – Our trusted go-to for self-storage financing, including SBA loans. https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/

💻 Our Private Facebook Community Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/selfstorageincome/

📖 Grab the book for more insights into structuring deals and building wealth through self-storage! https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq 

Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast 

The last few years have been difficult for real estate, self storage included. Is there finally light at the end of the tunnel? Today, we’re giving you our high-level, self storage industry outlook for 2025. Whether you’re a long-time investor or brand new to the industry, you’re about to learn why NOW is the time to invest in self storage!

After a three-year down period, we are finally turning the corner and entering a new cycle. If you’re an investor, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about where self storage is headed. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, there’s no better time to get into the game than right now. And this isn’t just false optimism. We’re so bullish that we’re buying and developing our own facilities in 2025!

In this episode, we’re reflecting on 2024, diving into the data, and giving you an investing roadmap for the next 12 months and beyond. Tune in to learn which markets offer the most opportunity for small investors and how YOU can take advantage of an enormous transfer of facilities that will occur by 2030.

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

🌳 Work with someone experienced in self storage loans at Live Oak Bank! We seriously love them. https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/ 

🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the SSI or AJ Osborne podcasts? You can now apply here! https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207

📖 Get AJ's new book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq

📉 Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest 

Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast 

What does it take to buy your first self storage facility? Just ask Ben Kall, whose first investment was a $1.5M facility after having ZERO experience in the industry. Sounds like a big jump, doesn’t it? Thankfully, Ben is going to show you how to do the same today, explaining how to buy a storage facility (even with no previous experience in investing), work with banks, and manage a business. But don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds!

Ben has a handful of do’s and don’ts he’s sharing with us in this episode, and we go through everything! From structuring your loan with the bank to why you should treat your self storage facility like a hotel, seller financing and creative financing terms that are working for Ben, and building your buy box so you can achieve financial freedom!

Ben has grown quickly, going from zero self storage to 125,000 net rentable square feet in under a decade. He’s been able to take home six figures in cash flow (seriously!) and has amassed a sizable portfolio in a very short amount of time. This is a masterclass in buying your first facility and scaling up!  

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

📷 Ben’s Businesses and Instagram:

https://www.mn-storage.com/

https://www.waukeestorage.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ben_kall_/ 

Links: 

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

📑 Our Self-Storage Feasibility Studies will help you speed up the process in understanding markets, potential risks, and analyzing the facility itself.  https://cedar.cc/feasibility-studies/ 

🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the SSI or AJ Osborne podcasts? You can now apply here! 

https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207 

📖 Get AJ's book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq 

📉 Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: 

https://cedar.cc/invest

Want to buy a storage facility? Then you’ll need self storage financing—and you’ll want to know where to go BEFORE you find your first (or next) self storage investment. So, today, I brought on one of my favorite lenders, Live Oak Bank, to teach you how to finance a storage facility, no matter how much experience you have or how many facilities you’ve bought. They’ll reveal exactly what they need to see from you to lend, the biggest beginner mistakes that stop you from closing, and their outlook for 2025.

Anna Taylor and Bishesh Shrestha have worked with self storage investors for over a decade. At Live Oak, they lend to self storage investors just like you and even own some self storage investments themselves. But Live Oak isn’t like any other bank—they focus on self storage, SBA loans, and making your life WAY easier when buying a storage facility.

I went to their Wilmington, North Carolina headquarters to record the most value-packed episode on self storage financing around. Today, we’re talking about SBA loans, why they often wrongly get a bad rap, how to use them to buy your first or next facility, and why you should NOT get them from any regular lender. We talk about why Live Oak actually loves seller financing in a deal, how long they take to close, what down payment you’ll most likely need, and what to know in 2025 as interest rates and lending requirements have changed. 

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

🌳 Work with someone experienced in self storage loans at Live Oak Bank! https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/ 

The self storage industry will change in 2025, and it could make you (and many others) very wealthy. In this episode, we’re giving our 2025 self-storage industry outlook, breaking down our predictions for 2025, what self-storage investors can expect, and why this could be one of the greatest years yet for self-storage investing. 

We’ve just come out of a market-defining cycle. The “easy investing” ended in 2022, and since then, self storage operators have suffered. Discounted rates, low occupancy, endless supply, and deal-breaking interest rates have plagued us. Thankfully, that just booted a ton of your competition out of the market. 

We believe 2025 could be one of the most critical years in self storage, and we’re making BIG moves. If you want to hear exactly what we’re doing to ensure we grow our portfolio in 2025, what we’re looking to buy, and how we’re finding deals, stick around. These are our 2025 self storage predictions; if you miss them, you could miss out on an opportunity that might not resurface for decades. 

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

_____________

🌳 Work with someone experienced in self storage loans at Live Oak Bank! https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

Inner Circle: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/inner-circle

📖 Get AJ's new book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq 

The self storage industry is about to see a major shift in 2025. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines or waiting out market turbulence, now’s the time to get in the game. We’re entering a new cycle with plenty of opportunities for new investors, but if you blink, you’ll miss out!

In today’s episode, AJ and Conner are reflecting on 2024 and offering a high-level view of what’s to come in 2025. Along the way, we’ll be answering your questions! Tune in to learn how YOU can take advantage of huge investing opportunities in the coming year. We cover some of the best ways to find and fund self storage deals, where to find your “boots on the ground” when investing remotely, how to leverage your retirement accounts to invest, and much more.

Want to know how to analyze a new market and where to set rent rates? We’ll show you how! But that’s not all. We’ll also share the tools, software, and systems WE use to manage our investments and keep our facilities secure. Worried that your customers will get left behind as you implement new technology? Not to fear—use our strategy to bring them along!

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

Live Oak Bank: https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/

Hummingbird: https://www.tenantinc.com/products/hummingbird

UniFi: https://ui.com/camera-security

Radius: https://www.radiusplus.com/

ESRI: https://www.esri.com/

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

Buying vs. building storage units: which is the better choice, especially for beginners? Is buying a pre-fab (kit) facility better than building one from scratch? Or does buying a run-down self storage facility with value-add potential outperform building due to lower costs? We brought back an all-time favorite episode with investor Matt Wallace to get you some answers.

Matt has done both—buying and building storage units. He’s taken run-down facilities and made them top performers, as well as taking a plot of land and turning it into a 100% occupied self storage facility. Which one does HE think is the better investment? And would he advise a beginner to start with self storage new builds? 

In this episode, Matt gives a masterclass on the pros and cons of building storage units, who should (and shouldn’t) be doing it, what you MUST know before you start building, and how he “makes” phenomenal self storage deals that most other investors miss. 

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

—

Connect with Matt: https://wealthfit.com/expert/matt-wallace/ 

Connect with Ben, Cedar Creek’s Debt Expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-benditson-291a6010/ 

—

📌 Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/

🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the SSI or AJ Osborne podcasts? You can now apply here! https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207

📖 Get AJ's new book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq

📉 Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest