Storage Moguls

Is the 5% management fee in your broker's offering memorandum wrecking your underwriting? On a facility doing $100,000 a year, that line item works out to about $400 a month, and no credible operator will run your phones, pricing, collections, and marketing for that. 

Joe Downs pulls back the curtain on third-party management with Adam Wagner, President and Managing Partner of Anytime Storage Property Management. 

Following a merger with The Storage Manager, Adam's top 50 firm now runs more than 90 facilities 100% remotely, including three of Joe's boat and RV storage properties. 

Adam breaks down what 5% really covers, why lenders trust 3PM numbers more than owner figures, how AI sets weekly pricing with a human approving every move, and when a deal is simply too small to manage. 

Underwriting a deal right now? Listen before your money goes hard.

Listen For:

10:30 Is a 5% management fee really enough to run a storage facility? 

12:35 Does a 5% management fee cover your storage software and platforms? 

16:18 Do lenders lean harder on a 3PM's proforma than on yours? 

17:58 Can storage owners hire a 3PM and simply walk away? 

22:14 Should owners meet their storage management company every single month?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: ADAM WAGNER, PRESIDENT AND MANAGING PARTNER | ANYTIME STORAGE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Website | LinkedIn | Anytime Storage Property Management LinkedIn 

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

What if the deal you lost to another buyer becomes your very first storage facility?

Joe Downs sits down with Austin McLeod, who launched the self-storage division at Matthews in 2018, closed the firm's first storage deal, and has since closed roughly $850 million in self-storage transactions across 26 states. 

Austin pulls back the curtain on how brokers size up first-time buyers within seconds, why a lower offer backed by proof of funds and a clear underwriting story can beat the highest bid, and which offering memorandum details, from flood zones to property tax reassessments, catch new buyers off guard. 

With 2021 and 2022 bridge loans maturing at much higher rates in 2026, motivated sellers are surfacing now. 

This is the storage investing playbook for getting the broker's first call before a deal ever hits the market again.

Listen For:

3:32 Can a storage broker tell you're a first-time buyer in 30 seconds? 

10:22 Should you still send an LOI if the storage deal is under contract? 

14:38 Will a storage broker recommend a lower offer over the highest bid? 

24:24 Is asking about seller financing a red flag to storage brokers? 

28:21 Should you submit an offer that's $500K below the asking price?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: AUSTIN MCLEOD, SENIOR VP AND DIRECTOR OF SELF STORAGE

Website | LinkedIn | Email 

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

What if the worst website in town is attached to the best deal you'll see all year? 

Two Storage Moguls students bought a self-storage facility with no website and a phone nobody answered, then pushed it past 70% occupancy in under a year. 

Joe Downs sits down with Alex Keller, who leads the sales team at StoragePug, the self-storage website platform that has grown from roughly 250 to 2,500 locations during his nearly seven years there. 

Together they pull back the curtain on why 63 to 67 percent of storage rentals now happen on a phone, how AI search is rewriting local discovery, and how buyers can turn a seller's digital neglect into underwriting upside. 

For anyone pursuing storage acquisitions in 2026, these are proven storage investment strategies for finding revenue hiding in plain sight before the next buyer spots it.

Listen For:

3:25 Does your self-storage website fail the simple rent-a-unit test?

9:37 Is hiding your rates online costing your storage facility rentals?

13:37 Is ChatGPT replacing Google for tenants searching for storage units?

20:02 Can a seller's weak website signal hidden upside in a storage deal?

25:08 Is it fair to underwrite extra rentals after adding a storage website?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: ALEX KELLER, SALES TEAM LEAD | STORAGEPUG
Website | LinkedIn  

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Drop an offering memorandum into ChatGPT, ask "Is this a good deal?" and AI will almost always say yes. It never saw the rent roll, and it has no idea the facility down the street just cut rates. 

Live at Funnel Hacking Live in Las Vegas, host Joe Downs pulls back the curtain on StorageMoguls.ai with Peter Swain, CEO of Peter Swain Inc. and a 25-year digital veteran behind more than 1,400 projects for Apple, Microsoft, Google and the BBC. 

Together they unpack why roughly 85% of courses never get finished, how AI can "care at scale" for first-time self-storage investors buying $400K to $2M facilities, and why AI should never be the discernment layer on a storage deal. 

If AI is part of your storage investing strategy, hear this guardrail conversation before you send your next LOI.

Listen For:

3:11 Is renting a storage unit online really cheaper than walking in? 

11:40 Is a $50K storage course worth it if you never buy? 

18:59 Can AI really keep first-time storage investors from quitting their course? 

27:16 Can a local self-storage operator outrank national brands on Google search? 

36:47 Does Peter Swain think AI should ever approve a storage deal?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: PETER SWAIN, CEO OF PETER SWAIN INC. 

Website | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook 

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Are first-time self-storage investors killing deals they worked hard to get under contract… over things that don't actually matter?

Joe Downs sits down with Rod Blunk, retired U.S. Navy nuclear engineer, lead mentor at StorageMoguls.ai, and founder of Warriors to Wealth. 

Rod spent his career as a quality assurance officer on nuclear submarines, trained to find the valve that mattered before it became a catastrophe. 

Now he applies that same liability-first framework to on-site self-storage due diligence. 

This episode pulls back the curtain on the most expensive mistake first-time storage investors make: treating cosmetic wants like non-negotiable needs. 

With new self-storage supply deliveries projected to drop from 65.2 million square feet in 2024 to roughly 30 million by end of 2027, investors who can close cleanly on imperfect facilities will own the next cycle. 

Rod shows you exactly how.

Listen For:

4:49 How does a Navy nuclear engineer's liability framework change the way you evaluate a self-storage facility on site?

11:14 What does a real deal look like when a cosmetic want almost derails a legitimate storage acquisition?

15:04 What is the one thing Rod Blunk wishes every self-storage buyer evaluated before writing their offer?

20:05 How should first-time storage investors plan CapEx without budgeting themselves out of a deal?

25:31 How does competition in your market determine how much you actually need to spend on a self-storage facility?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: ROD BLUNK, FOUNDER, WARRIORS TO WEALTH | LEAD MENTOR, STORAGEMOGULS.AI 

Website | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Email | Facebook |

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Four problems. One deal. One closing. What does it actually take for a first-time self-storage buyer to push through a due diligence report that surfaces a setback encroachment, a title defect, a survey parcel issue, and an environmental flag. All on the same deal. 

Joe Downs sits down with Mike and Stephanie Vostenak, retired corporate HR executive turned self-storage owner-operator and his wife, who closed on Murrayville Self-Storage, a 110-unit facility in Wilmington, North Carolina, just one month before recording. 

They walk through the real-time decisions, the legal battles with county commissioners, and the team structure that got them to closing. Joe also shares current self-storage occupancy data, noting the national rate dipped to 82.2 percent as of September 2025, and explains why that gap from the stabilized 85 to 90 percent range signals an opportunity for investors ready to move now.

Listen For:

03:32 Has self-storage income actually beaten inflation for nearly two decades?

08:58 Are most storage operators already planning to automate in 2026?

15:38 Do you know what the average self-storage facility earns per square foot?

20:08 Is national self-storage occupancy where most investors think it is?

GUESTS: MICHAEL & STEPHANIE VOSTENAK

Reliable Self-Storage | Mike’s LinkedIn | Stephanie’s LinkedIn | 

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Is the next storage deal hiding in plain sight…one you'll only find if you leave your desk and drive? 

Joe Downs makes the case for what he calls one of the most under-utilized acquisition strategies in self-storage investing: driving for dollars. 

Joe draws on firsthand field experience, including a story about being gestured out of a seller's office and becoming that seller's first phone call nine months later, to illustrate why physically canvassing a market transforms cold calls into what he calls "power calls." 

With national average street rates sitting at $133/month and top REIT occupancy climbing back above 92%, Joe argues the window to build seller relationships in independent self-storage markets is wide open right now. 

Investors who move first win.

Listen For:

:45 Why is "driving for dollars" the most underused acquisition strategy in self-storage investing?

5:54 What does the 2026 state of self-storage market report reveal about national street rates and occupancy?

9:00 How did host Joe Downs turn the worst interaction he's ever had with a storage owner into a first-call pre-listing opportunity?

20:45 How should storage investors structure a driving-for-dollars trip to maximize relationship-building in a new market?

28:30 Why is a "power call" always more effective than a cold call when pursuing mom-and-pop storage acquisitions?

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

What if the most profitable square footage on your self-storage property is the part you're not charging for? Truck parking is emerging as one of the fastest-growing ancillary revenue plays in storage real estate and most facility owners are standing on top of it without knowing it. 

Joe Downs sits down with returning guest Sydnie Wilda, VP of Properties Self Storage at Truck Parking Club, the platform now operating across more than 6,500 locations nationwide. 

With nearly a decade of self-storage experience spanning onsite management, operations, and ownership, Wilda breaks down how storage investors can turn vacant lots, unused acreage, and fenced-off expansion pads into immediate revenue — with no construction, no major commitment, and full operator control. 

Two or three truck spots at $250 a month adds $43,000 to your facility's value at a seven cap. 

The opportunity is here now.

Listen For:

6:18 Is the truck parking shortage — one space for every 11 drivers — the ancillary revenue signal self-storage owners have been ignoring? 14:21 What does Sydnie Wilda look for when evaluating whether a self-storage property can support Truck Parking Club listings? 

22:27 How does Truck Parking Club underwrite a property when formal feasibility data is still thin for this emerging asset class? 

30:46 What are the minimum commitments — and the exit terms — if a self-storage owner wants to list with Truck Parking Club? 

41:43 What does every self-storage facility owner need to verify before listing truck parking spaces to stay legally protected? 

CONNECT WITH GUEST: SYDNIE WILDA, VICE PRESIDENT | TRUCK PARKING CLUB

LinkedIn | Instagram | Website  

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Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

What if the data separating a profitable self-storage acquisition from a costly mistake has been sitting inside public CMBS filings all along…and almost nobody in the industry was using it? 

Joe Downs sits down with Noah Starr, CEO and co-founder of TractIQ, the market intelligence platform tracking over 72,000 self-storage facilities nationwide and trusted by Brookfield, Public Storage, and Extra Space. 

Before building the data infrastructure the industry was missing, Noah personally acquired eleven self-storage facilities across four states through his company Star Equity, underwriting deals that gave him a front-row seat to the blind spots that cost investors real money. 

TractIQ now delivers historic occupancy, achieved rates, and full P&L data on more than $50 billion in self-storage assets… intelligence that used to be accessible only to REITs. 

If you're evaluating storage markets in 2026, this is the episode that changes how you underwrite.

Listen For:

6:20 Why did Noah Starr leave institutional real estate to buy his first self-storage facility?

10:22 How does TractIQ help investors find off-market self-storage deals in under 30 seconds?

14:38 Why is checking today's competitor rates a self-storage underwriting mistake from the past decade?

22:34 What deals did Noah Starr lose and regret winning because of bad or missing data?

28:19 How should investors use CMBS occupancy data to verify a self-storage market before buying?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: NOAH STARR, CEO OF TRACTIQ 

Website | LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.

Most self-storage investors have never actually verified they're properly insured... and the ones who find out they weren't usually discover it at the worst possible moment.

Joe Downs sits down with Terry Campbell; commercial insurance specialist at Johnson Insurance and a storage industry veteran who has built facilities, underwritten SBA loans at Live Oak Bank for seven years, served as CEO of Copper Storage Management, and personally owns eleven self-storage locations across the Southeast. 

Terry brings a perspective almost no insurance professional can: he sees coverage gaps through the eyes of an owner, an underwriter, and an operator simultaneously. 

From FEMA flood remaps that sent one facility's insurance from $11,000 to $84,000 overnight, to coinsurance penalties hiding in aging policies, to the specific coverages first-time buyers almost always skip, this episode is a direct challenge to every storage investor who has ever assumed they were properly covered… without actually checking.

Listen For:

4:58 Why should every self-storage buyer check the FEMA flood map before making an offer?

14:47 How do you know if your current self-storage facility is underinsured right now?

16:07 What replacement cost mistakes are self-storage owners still making after the COVID price spikes?

22:15 What coverages does Terry Campbell say every first-time self-storage owner must have at closing?

29:55 How does insuring a boat and RV facility or small bay flex space differ from traditional self-storage?

CONNECT WITH GUEST: TERRY CAMPBELL, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | SELF-STORAGE & FLEX SPACE 

Website | LinkedIn | Email

CONNECT WITH US

Joe Downs on LinkedIn

Belrose website | Belrose email | Belrose LinkedIn

Storage Moguls Live. Friday, October 16 in White Marsh, Maryland. One day with self storage owners. Walk through a real facility and learn how they find, finance, and close deals. Only 15 tickets. Register at https://go.storagemoguls.ai/white-marsh-md before Thursday.