Self Storage Income

How do you know if a self storage facility is a home-run deal or a ticking time bomb?

Right now, the self storage industry is ripe with opportunity. We’ve bought more self storage facilities in the last 12 months than we did in the previous three years combined, and these deals are some of the best we’ve seen in several years.

But not every distressed facility is a hidden gem. Some deals look great on paper but are actually traps—facilities that never fill up, attract low-paying tenants, and have little to no value-add potent...

People have self storage all wrong.

Today, we’re giving you the truth, and it flies in the face of how most view the asset:

Self storage investing is not passive.

That might sound like a drawback, but it’s actually one of self storage’s greatest advantages. It’s active because it’s a business. And if you treat it like one, you’ll find there are countless ways to increase revenue, cut expenses, and create real value.

Too many investors view self storage facilities like residential rental properties. Get a tenant in...

This could be the biggest change to self storage industry data in years. For the entirety of its existence, the self storage industry has relied on guesswork to estimate competitor and market cap rates, occupancy, rental rates, and demand. Most self storage data is tied directly to REIT-run facilities—the biggest, most expensive facilities in the U.S.

What about the small investor? Now, they have access to the data only the powerful players had for decades. 

Earlier this year, when we brought on Noah Starr from TractIQ to announce the bigge...

How much does a self storage facility cost, and how much can you make owning a storage facility? AJ has three recent real deals, all from Self Storage Income members, to show you the real cost, revenue, cash flow, and equity numbers that small investors are seeing in 2026. And even though these numbers look impressive, they’re not rarities.

Self storage is changing, and the deals are getting better, sometimes by the day. AJ has bought more storage in the past twelve months than the past few years combined. Why? Sellers are waking up to rea...

Buying a self storage facility is a major milestone, but closing the deal is only the beginning. The real work starts when you take over self storage operations.

When closing day finally arrives and you get the keys, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that suddenly lands on your plate. But in those first few weeks, one overlooked detail or mistake could set your self storage business back thousands of dollars.

We want to help you avoid exactly that. Today, we’re giving you the ultimate checklist—a full laundry list of things to do...

For months, we’ve been saying the same thing: The self storage industry has finally turned a corner. We’re now in a buyer’s market, and we’re seeing some of the best self storage deals in years.

But if that’s the case, where are these deals?

We’re answering this exact question on today’s episode. Of course, you can find self storage facilities the “normal” way—by building your buy box and giving it to your broker to pull properties already listed for sale. But some of the deepest discounts and greatest wealth crea...

By the end of this episode, you’ll have everything you need to buy storage facilities—not just any facility, but the facility that is best for you.

This is the exact pre-acquisition checklist Conner uses to get prepped to buy self storage investments. Not only can it help speed up your timeline to your first storage facility exponentially, but it will also make buying every facility after that even easier. If you wonder how Conner and AJ invest at scale and can move on deals so quickly, this is how it’s done.

Small self storage investors, you’ve got just two years to take advantage of one of the greatest wealth creation opportunities we’ll likely ever see.

We’ve officially reached the midway point of 2026, and things look a little different than most were predicting only 12 months ago. But one thing has happened as expected: self storage is approaching equilibrium again, and we’ve entered an exciting phase in the market cycle. With interest rates unlikely to fall, sellers are finally accepting reality and are coming to the table with deals.

And we’ve seen this shift play...

Self storage just entered a new era.

The industry isn’t shifting. The shift has already happened. Within eight days, we saw multiple instances of operator and data infrastructure consolidation. On the surface, these might look like normal acquisitions, but they signal seismic changes within the self storage industry that small operators can’t afford to ignore.

The top 100 operators already control over half of the nation’s rentable storage space, and the top five alone control a whopping 35%. That number is growing.

This is eerily similar to what we saw when online market...

Everyone keeps talking about AI. But how do you, a small self storage owner with one, two, or a handful of self storage investments, actually use it to grow your revenue, reduce your vacancy, keep customers for longer, and pick up a fraction of the phone calls? Today, we’re showing you how.

Alec Peeples from Storeganise is sharing the beginner-friendly AI “buckets” storage investors can use to easily (and surprisingly cheaply) automate their facilities and make more revenue with way less work. He’ll share the beginner framework that those brand new to AI can try...

You want your self storage portfolio to build your wealth, replace your income, and give you the freedom to run your business on your own terms. 

So, how do you get there? Or better yet, how do you get there (much) faster than we did? It took us nearly 20 years to go from a single facility to a self-running self storage portfolio and (many) millions in equity. Can you do it in half the time?

Today, AJ and Conner share how to pass through the three phases every self storage business experiences, from a lone i...

Most self storage investors focus on things like increasing revenue, maximizing occupancy, and mastering operations.

But not enough of them play defense.

Depreciation is a powerful tool that can save your self storage business thousands—potentially even hundreds of thousands—in taxes, but few are harnessing its full power. Brian Liles and Brian Broussard from CSSI have done it for over 65,000 facilities to date.

With a cost segregation study, you could accelerate depreciation on your self storage facility’s components, creating a massive paper loss this tax year that puts more of your hard-e...

AI has changed everything about self storage investing. Not just for the REITs, but for the “small” self storage investor, too—the operator who owns just one or two self storage facilities.

It’s so revolutionary that investors who dismiss it as the latest “tech trend” are at serious risk of becoming obsolete.

My self storage business saved $1,000,000 in the last year alone by deploying AI throughout our company. It helped us cut over 250 man hours per month and has prevented us from hiring any extra staff, despite scaling our portfolio by 30%. Today, I’m showing you ho...

You’re inches away from buying your first self storage facility. This is where 99% of new investors get stuck. They run the numbers, come up with an offer that works, and…freeze. They wait too long to send the offer, get too nervous, and weeks later see that same facility sold for even less than they were offering.

Get out of your own way—this is how you make an offer on your first self storage facility.

Conner and George have analyzed thousands of facilities and helped craft hundreds of offers. Today, they’re sharing the step...

The next three years will make or break self storage investors.

This isn’t hyperbole. The self storage industry is shifting, and the biggest players—like Public Storage and Extra Space Storage—are telling us exactly what’s about to happen. Their 2026 playbook is all about locking in fixed-rate debt, moving away from variable-rate debt, and lending to private operators in distress.

On the surface, it appears that they’re simply mitigating risk, but that’s not all. They’re also filling their deal funnel for when smaller operators start to crack.

Then there’s the bo...

There’s a massive lie floating around the self storage industry: that it’s passive.

It’s not. But it’s so worth it.

And self storage isn’t your average active investment either. It’s a full-fledged business with income, expenses, overhead, marketing, and more. Even self storage facilities that are remotely managed require boots on the ground, fine-tuned systems and processes, and the means to track crucial metrics.

If this is your first self storage facility, you may be wearing multiple hats—at least at first. But the beauty of this asset class is...

Self storage deals just keep getting better in 2026—or at least that’s what people keep saying.

We’re seeing a few major shifts throughout the self storage industry. First, transactions are up. Sellers are finally accepting reality, slashing prices, and taking lower offers. Frank DeSalvo, managing director of self storage investment sales at Franklin Street, is seeing self storage facilities sell for up to 50% off their list price.

At the same time, we’re seeing more signs of distress, which could ramp up in the coming months as interest rates remain high and debt comes du...

You want to buy a self storage facility, but you don’t know where to find one, or how to analyze one, or even where to begin.

You’re in luck because today, we’re showing you exactly how to analyze a self storage facility, step by step. We break down the entire process, from creating your buy box, finding listings, and reviewing offering memorandums (OMs) to evaluating markets and analyzing competitors.

We’ll even show you two real properties currently listed online, go over the numbers, comb through the photos, and tell you what we might...

People think you need millions to get started in self storage. You don’t.

You’re about to hear about someone who just bought a self storage facility for less than a single-family home. And not only that—they put just $5,000 down. Now, rather than dealing with tenants and toilets, they’re getting a 42-unit self storage business that provides immediate cash flow and offers serious value-add potential.

Today, we’re highlighting wins just like these, from “small” investors just like you. We’ll get into how smart investors are building out their capital “stacks,” structuring partners...

Self storage was never part of Tanner Herget’s plan.

He started as a customer, renting a unit for his restaurant equipment. A year later, he bought the self storage facility.

That property had 180 units. Today, it has 460.

And that was just his first deal. Since then, Tanner has tightened his buy box, refined his investing strategy, and scaled his self storage portfolio to 13 facilities and over 2,800 units—all managed remotely by just two office employees.

His playbook? Buying small self storage investments at a discount, then adding massive value through expa...

Self storage businesses beat most other investments, and it’s not even close.

Wherever you’re thinking about parking your money—whether it be rental properties, the stock market, or service-based businesses—the truth is, self storage has the edge over all of them.

Most investors look at other businesses and see low startup costs and flexibility, and they’re not wrong. But what they’re missing is what some of these businesses don’t have: hard assets, tax benefits, all kinds of financing options, and one massive benefit that often goes overlooked:

The dollar you...

The self storage industry has a glaring “blind spot,” and it’s much bigger than you think.

In fact, it represents over 19,000 self storage facilities spanning 98% of U.S. cities. The REITs? The larger players? They’re not doing anything about it. They can’t.

But for you, the new or “smaller” self storage investor? You are uniquely positioned to take advantage of massive opportunities, the likes of which we may never see again in our lifetime.

Despite how far technology has come in the last 10-15 years, there are still thousands of mom-and-pop fa...

We survived 2008, the pandemic, high interest rates, and now a wildly volatile economy—but it’s not the same for other self storage owners. I’ve been getting calls over the last 6 months from operators losing their facilities, trying to restructure, and get out. They’ll lose money, lose their properties, and most likely lose the relationships with their banks, lenders, or investors.

This is how to not be in that position. This is how to become “hard to kill” in self storage.

What most investors don’t realize is that to thrive, you n...

Your self storage business isn’t struggling because your vacancy rate has slowly crept up or because your rents are too high.

What’s actually going on? It’s simple: you have a self storage demand problem.

Everyone thinks demand is outside of their control—that it’s completely dependent on the market, competition, and rates. But it’s not.

The truth is, you have far more control over demand for your self storage units than you probably think. Not convinced? In this episode, we provide real case studies of developments, fill-up facilities, and stabiliz...

Want to increase not just your self storage revenue, but also your facility’s value? It has very little to do with luck, timing, or even the deal itself. It’s all about the levers you pull after closing.

With rental properties, stocks, and other investments, you have almost no control over what the market does. But with self storage investing? You’re in the driver’s seat. You have the ability to influence both how much your facility makes and what it’s ultimately worth.

How, exactly?

Conner and George break down the most i...

Before you buy your first self storage investment, you’ll need to figure out where to buy. But in a country with over 10,000 different cities, just picking wherever you find a deal won’t cut it.

Today, we’re showing you exactly how to find the best self storage market for you—and it may be closer than you think. This is the checklist we use when analyzing any area for self storage investing, along with the metrics that matter most when deciding whether or not to buy there. 

How much does popula...

There are three crucial things every self storage investor must pay attention to when building their portfolio. These are the things that helped me scale a $300M+ self storage business and grow through the Great Recession, the pandemic lockdowns, and every downturn and upturn in between. 

If you get these three things right, you will be successful in self storage. Even better news? There's a huge buying opportunity right now (with more on the way). 

I’ll outline everything from your self storage market, to the operations and tech you should use, t...

The biggest threat to your self storage revenue isn’t your market, customers, or the asset itself.

It’s you.

In the wake of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis, I developed a simple yet powerful framework for mastering operations, unlocking hidden revenue, and increasing valuation. And in today’s market cycle, it’s just as relevant as it was back then.

At its core, it all comes down to how you view your self storage facility. Too many operators view their facilities as real estate “assets,” where they rent out “units” to “tenants.”

But that mindset i...

The mistake you’re about to make could sink your self storage deal.

We’ve been there many times before. We’ve been too aggressive with our numbers, cut corners on due diligence, and lost money. Thankfully, you don’t have to make these same mistakes.

Conner and George are shining a light on the biggest red flags and pitfalls that catch self storage investors by surprise and, in some cases, leave them with a problematic asset that bleeds money. From environmental complications to “phantom” occupancy, we address the warning signs that should tell you to walk away...

This is how to start investing in self storage, right now. 

In under 25 minutes, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to go from no self storage investments to your first one. Everything from building your “buy box” to finding the deals with upside potential, financing, due diligence, increasing revenue, and repeating it to build an entire portfolio. 

None of the steps I’m sharing are difficult and a beginner can follow each of them, step by step, to get their first self storage facility this year. But you’ll need to be consistent...

Ever wonder how self storage investors get their hands on enough capital to purchase not just one, or two, but several self storage facilities? The truth is that many of them bring very little of their own cash to the table.

Why? Because self storage isn’t just another high-risk investment or business venture. It’s an opportunity. An opportunity to make steady (and passive) returns, allocate more capital to hard assets, and take advantage of massive tax benefits.

After making this crucial mindset shift, you’ll find that there’s always more than enough money ou...

This is how to run a storage business successfully if you’re starting from scratch. 

Closing on your first self storage investment is a big deal—but it comes with a lot of questions: What management software should I use? What types of locks are best? How do I track competitor prices? How do I handle the auction and lien process if someone doesn’t pay? 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and resort to handling everything yourself, which often leads not only to a bad storage business but also to severe burnout. It doesn’t have to be...

The self storage industry is often described as one of the safest asset classes in commercial real estate. Low default rates. Recession-proof demand. An industry that rarely goes out of business. Only a fraction of a percentage of owners ever get foreclosed on.

That story is a lie.

You’ve heard it before. You’ve probably said it to other investors, your friends, and family when they ask you why you own a self storage facility or why you want to own one. 

This is not reality—and today...

Is your self storage business bleeding money? Most facilities are.

For every investor who’s actually building wealth with self storage, there’s another investor down the road who checks in once a month or neglects their property entirely. And if you’re acquiring one of these facilities, you have a unique opportunity to improve it on day one.

Unlike investing in the stock market, where the business’s performance is beyond your control, self storage has dozens of levers you can pull to master operations, increase revenue, and ultimately, make more money.

In this...

An entire generation is disappearing, and it’s going to shake more than just the self storage industry.

For years, we’ve been hearing about a “silver tsunami,” when baby boomers leave the workforce and start passing on their assets to the next generation of investors. But there’s another layer to this that people aren’t talking about, and it’s going to create a ripple effect throughout the U.S. economy:

Baby boomers aren’t just retiring. They’re starting to pass away.

By 2035, we’ll have witnessed an unprecedented handover of not just resident...

Self storage is boring.

You rent out metal boxes, tenants pay you to use them, and hopefully, you make a profit. But today’s guest is turning it into one of the most exciting asset classes with technology that streamlines operations and improves the customer experience in ways that weren’t possible until now.

The best part? Investors are slashing their overhead costs by up to 10%, giving them a new competitive advantage when analyzing and buying self storage facilities.

Today, Conner and George sit down with Tyler Harper from Patchwork Labs to discuss how...

Self storage analysis is a guessing game. Or at least, it was. 

But everything has changed. In this episode, Noah Starr, CEO of TractIQ, returns with an announcement that fundamentally changes the way we find and buy self storage deals.

For years, an investor’s biggest advantage wasn’t having a ton of capital or mastering operations. It was information. And with everyone being overly protective of their data, the self storage industry was actively killing itself.

But not anymore.

TractIQ’s latest release puts verified occupancy and financial performance data in the...

There’s a strategy that smart investors use to take down multiple self storage deals in a relatively short amount of time, all while “recycling” the cash they initially put into that first deal. Tony McNickle and Dennis Pham used this exact blueprint to buy their first two deals, and it won’t be long before they’ll have built an entire portfolio of cash-flowing self storage facilities.

After connecting through our Inner Circle community just a few years ago, Tony and Dennis formed a partnership, combined their capital, and melded their expertise in small business and commercial...

2026 could be the biggest year for self storage investors since 2008. What happens starting in 2026, and going all the way through 2030, could change your life forever if you’re in the game.

Read any self storage industry news, and it says the same thing: “Oversupply! Low Demand! Rate Cuts!” But this surface-level story doesn’t show what’s really about to happen. The self storage market is about to undergo a reversal that most operators have never seen. An “explosion” in wealth that will make many owners rich, not only in cash flow but in equity. This isn’t just...

2025 was a pivotal year for the self storage industry—but 2026 is about to be even bigger. We could get opportunities we haven’t seen in 15 years, but the buying window won’t last long. We’re taking full advantage, and in today’s episode, we’re outlining our exact 2026 plan.

We’re ringing in the New Year by sharing what we bought, sold, refinanced, and decided to hold in 2025. In the middle of 2025, things started to change—quickly. We’ve been buying up self storage as fast as we possibly can, because if you knew what we do, you wou...