Anyone also own a self storage business?

[Ric]

I have excess land at my carwash and for years have thought it would be a good place for a self storage building. I know just enough about the self storage business to be dangerous. I am looking for some advice from veteran operators. I see the ISS (Inside Self Storage) has a convention in Nashville next month. Anyone familiar with it? Is it worth attending?
Bill, I know there is a self storage spot on the forum that may be more suited for this question but its activity is low and I'd like to hear from some carwash/self storage operators as to how the mix of the two works out for them.

 

[johnny]

go,its better than car washes

 

[Louise]

Yes, I own both - a self serve carwash 3/2 and a 40K' mini storage facility. However, they are not on adjoining properties. The mini storage is about 4 miles away. Been open about 18 months.

PM me if you want to talk about it.

Louise

 

[MEP001]

I've been considering the same thing on some unused and otherwise useless property behind our wash, but local restrictions would make it almost impossible to make profitable unless I could keep it at least 98% leased.

 

[JimmyJaffa]

Self storage is a great easy business. Steve Wilson in Tampa used to build self service and self storage together. As I understand, he has demolished the car washes, and build more self storage. We have been in the self storage business for over 20 years. Different than a car wash, it is very easy to get into and run. Few employees, and little maintenance. The problem is that it is so easy to get into, there is often over building. They can and often are built next to each other. So where a car wash there most often is several miles separation, if you are doing good, someone will build a self storage right next door (sounds like the express wash business).
In the past 2 years over 300,000 sq ft have been built surrounding each of the 2 self storages that we are involved in. Occupancy dropped 15 to 20 %. It is easy to over build, build too expensive and too much. There is a new 4 story project that has just recently been built near one of my washes, great idea, but too crowded. it will be hard to access the multi-story building. I figure is a year, it will be for sale cheap!

Good luck, do your homework

 

[raymondhall]

Self-storage is a good business. Self-Storage facilities are becoming very popular now days. The storage services are useful for everyone.

 

[mrfixit]

We have storage behind our wash. Its working well. Once you build it people copy cat the heck out of you.

Since we built, another company put some right across the street from us. And another just down the road.. And other side of small town, and another and another.

Anyone with money jumps on it when they see your successful.

If you build it, build it full out maximum units for your area that budget allows, so there's less room for others to cop on the business. Actually this is one area I would say go over budget to lock the occupancy #s..

When other investors see the market saturated they will shy away.

We should have put up 4 times more than we started with!!

 

[msalvatore]

I am looking into building a SS storage facility on my carwash property. Any suggestions for where to buy the storage building's?

Thanks'
Marc

 

[mrfixit]

Are you looking for good cheap buildings or great expensive buildings. I have both.

Both have their pluses and minuses. You get what you pay for.. But only one pays itself off faster..

 

[midlandboatrvstorage]

We have our storage facilities in 9712 10th Ave. E Tacoma WA 98445. I can say storage facility is a good business but you need to market also and invest time and effort to brand your business.

 

[Ben Stokes]

The self-storage business is very beneficial as it is very easy to use and install. Self-storage businesses are becoming very popular these days. You can easily make storage space with the help of industrial curtains.

Industrial curtains can be the best option if you want to open a temporary self-storage business. This will help you to cut down the labor and maintenance charges annually. I have recently started with this business and yes I am getting good revenue out of it.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I have recently started with this business and yes I am getting good revenue out of it.

Did you start a self-storage business using these curtains, or a business of selling curtains?

 

[washallday]

I looked into doing this. Very expensive and just like the car wash business as soon as you put one in everyone else does the same thing and over builds. I went the way of storage for RV and campers. Low cost to start with stone lot, no fence. Put 3x12 banner up and listed in craiglist. Boom got lots of calls filled up area I started with and made a second lot. You will find that you can no longer park your RV in the yard in most new subdivisions. You need to do some research first but I found this to be a low cost low over head and minimal time employee wise.

 

[Msaxonii]

Have looked at mobilecontainersales.com They ship flat and you assemble them on site. Can stack 3 high and possibly can be movable with a basic tow truck. Haven't got quite that far yet.

I think the problem with this is competing with Pods and Uhaul for longhaul. Unless we're able to make an independent national network to provide collection and return or trade of containers, if they decide to move out of your area, you'd need to charge them for the container.

 

[mjwalsh]

Just a "heads up" my large facility interior design neighbor (the balance of the total city block) had to eventually remove their mobile storage units because supposedly the city got a bunch of complaints from a few vocal citizens about the so-called eyesore factor. Not sure if that even comes close to applying in other localities though.