Most Americans have more stuff than they know what to do with. As a result, they need extra space to store their stuff in. This basic need is the back-bone of the self-storage industry. But just because the demand is there doesn’t mean that making money filling that void is simple and guaranteed. The self-storage industry is more complicated than it looks, and there are many important issues to understand and address.
The Right Type of Facility
There have been a number of different types of self-storage facilities built over the last four decades. However, the profitable ones are among the first variety – they are called “Generation One” or “Generation Two”. The important component is that they have all rentable units located on the ground floor, and in a manner that a car can drive right up to the roll-up door. Why is this? Studies have found that self-storage tenants want to be able to drive right up to their self-storage unit door, roll it up, throw their stuff into it (or pull it out of the it), close the door and drive off. What’s not in demand are units that are located on a second floor or higher, or that you can only reach on foot. Nobody wants to have to take an elevator to their unit, or walk down a hallway with their stuff in tow. There never really was a demand for these type of facilities – it was more a fabrication by self-storage developers trying to rationalize building facilities on more expensive land, which required a greater number of units on that “footprint”.