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233 Self-Storage: Lessons Learned So Far! | REI Show - Hard Money for Real Estate Investors
Manage episode 336818153 series 2789010
Bill Fairman
00:00:03
Greetings folks. So, you know, we love self storage. We love 'em so much. We ended up buying some. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about lessons learned right after this. Thank you for joining us on the real estate and investors show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management, private lenders for real estate professionals. So if you're looking for us to take a look at one of your projects, go to Carolina, hard money.com. Click on apply. Now, if you're a passive investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor tab, and don't forget to like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy is just a shadow of herself. Apparently our lights are not focused in properly, but Wendy does, excuse me, 30 minutes per person on Wednesdays. Anything you wanna talk about real estate. She donates her time to do this. So sign up on this link and we have one over in the chat, which by the way, we have a chat, it's either gonna be on the right side of your screen or underneath, depending on the platform that you're viewing us from. So if you wanna leave any comments, nasty or not can put 'em there,
Jonathan Davis
00:02:02
You know, bill, this is the most excited I've seen you in a lot. Yeah.
Bill Fairman
00:02:05
I'm getting ready to leave.
Wendy Sweet
00:02:06
Or I thought maybe it was cuz I was back. Yeah,
Bill Fairman
00:02:08
That
Wendy Sweet
00:02:08
Too. We had some great calls on Wednesday yesterday too. Wow. Five excellent, excellent calls. I just, I'm always amazed at the different topics and just really, really good stuff. Really good
Bill Fairman
00:02:23
Stuff. That would be a good way to take a couple of questions and then we can yeah. Do 'em here on the show and answer them. You don't have to say who asked them, but yeah, it might be good topics for,
Wendy Sweet
00:02:35
Well, I'm actually putting together a book from them that we'll talk about just all the different topics, cuz it's just so vast. It's, it's amazing all the, all the options in real estate. In fact, we talked about that yesterday. I, I don't remember which one I was talking to, but that, you know, you get into real estate and you think that it's, you know, fix and flip, right. You know, that's what you think it is. But my goodness, everything gets really broken down into a multitude of different options. And then when you choose that option, there's a multitude of different options for that. Right. You know, the layers are, are definitely, it just goes on and on doesn't it it's depending
Bill Fairman
00:03:14
On market timing, there's all kind of different ways to,
Wendy Sweet
00:03:18
And that's the key. My bro is figuring out what's going on. My green bro. That's and he is green today, but it's, it's, that's the key is really figuring out what's going on around you. And what can you do to go into that toolbox and use? What's gonna work for what's happening in that market.
Bill Fairman
00:03:41
Neat keeps real estate so interesting is exciting, constantly changing and evolving, but you know what? It's still the same. It's all that's right about the numbers. It's just different ways of tackling it based on different right
Wendy Sweet
00:03:54
Markets, basically the same, that's the
Jonathan Davis
00:03:56
Similar conversation that we, we had, I think at the last employee luncheon learn or whatever that we had talking about, you were saying the market is cyclical and you know, it's just all these things. And while that's true, the things that throw it, the occurrences that throw it back into that cyclical motion are never the same,
Wendy Sweet
00:04:18
Right? Like
Jonathan Davis
00:04:19
So good point. It, it keeps happening, but it's never the same thing that, that
Wendy Sweet
00:04:23
Pushes it over there. Trigger pushes
Jonathan Davis
00:04:24
It back. So that's the exciting part is we know it's cyclical, but we never know what will cause that cyclical motion.
Wendy Sweet
00:04:30
Yeah. Yeah. Great point.
Bill Fairman
00:04:32
That is true. But the, the majority of the time it's rate related,
Jonathan Davis
00:04:40
But what causes the, we had the same, but what causes the rate? It's never the same thing.
Bill Fairman
00:04:45
That's
Wendy Sweet
00:04:46
Right.
Jonathan Davis
00:04:46
We don't say the fed or the fed responding.
Bill Fairman
00:04:49
We, we know that the fed doesn't cons doesn't control
Wendy Sweet
00:04:52
Mortgage rates.
Bill Fairman
00:04:52
Yeah. The fed is always behind it's the market that controls rates.
Wendy Sweet
00:04:56
Yeah.
Bill Fairman
00:04:57
So
Wendy Sweet
00:04:58
Really good stuff. We do
Bill Fairman
00:04:59
Have a little bit of breaking news. Speaking of rates, breaking news, the average 30 year fixed rate mortgage dropped to 4.9, 9% for the week.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:21
Really? I don't know
Bill Fairman
00:05:22
That. Not from 5.3. Oh all the way down to 4 9, 9. Wow.
Jonathan Davis
00:05:27
And it was at five, five. What didn't they? Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:30
Brian Maddox said that would happen,
Bill Fairman
00:05:32
You know, excuse me. Keep in mind. It's still gonna fluctuate for a while, depending on slow downs and that type of thing. But a lot of people were pulling money back over in stocks and it worked out well. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:46
Yeah. That's, that's
Bill Fairman
00:05:47
Good. At least for some of those folks that have been kind of sitting on the fence and hoping that they wouldn't spend half their life paying their mortgage off. All right. So let's, let's get this show on the road. Yeah. So a while back we were fortunate enough to purchase some self storage. She hasn't told the story. So because it could be fortunate or unfortunate. I'm not sure yet because we, you know, we land in that space and we love the space, you know, why don't we own any yeah. You
Wendy Sweet
00:06:23
Know what I mean? Why don't we own
Bill Fairman
00:06:24
Everything? So we're, that was cause we couldn't afford it. We're we're dipping our toes always can and, and Wendy is taking the lead on
Wendy Sweet
00:06:31
This. Yeah. Taking the lead and the middle and the behind on it. But you know, that's what I said I would do. And that's what I'm doing because the team here is so awesome that I don't even really have to do anything in the loan on the loan side of life anymore, which is sad, but also very exciting. But it opened me up to be able to do this. And you know, our mom, she might not be online now, but she will watch this. And she has seen me all my life. I don't just bite things off to chew. I bite them off bigger than they really need. It's an elephant at every opportunity for me. And,
Bill Fairman
00:07:10
And we, we call that jumping in with both
Wendy Sweet
00:07:12
Feet. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I always ask myself, why in the world are you doing this? And, but I always land on my feet, thanks to God. And you know, the same thing has happened here. We didn't just buy one storage facility. We had to buy two. And, and I'm so glad that we did though, because they've really been very different in the approach. The reason why we bought them were for really two different things. You know, one, one was a little bit bigger. One was, you know, that one's located closer to us. One's located farther away. It just, it's amazing how the two have reacted differently to what we're doing. And I'm kind of doing the same due diligence for both. But one came out to be a whole lot easier to work with, which is the one we didn't think would be than the one that we thought would be the breeze has turned out to be extremely challenging. Let's
Bill Fairman
00:08:17
Let's, let's talk about two. One is more of a conventional way of looking at cell storage all in one
Wendy Sweet
00:08:24
Land. Yeah. That's the one in Crossville, Tennessee.
Bill Fairman
00:08:27
And then the other one in Mexico, Missouri.
Wendy Sweet
00:08:29
Yes. Always wanted to go to Mexico, but not in Missouri, but is,
Bill Fairman
00:08:33
Is several parcels,
Wendy Sweet
00:08:35
Several parcels. And it's in a downtown neighborhood like it's downtown, but it's split up into four different parcels that are all within a block or two of each other. It didn't have a fence around it. They were painted brown and we'd gone in and were camouflaging them. They were camouflaging 'em they're, you know, not, no good lighting the weeds growing up everywhere. And, and so we we've done the rehab side of that almost complete for, for the most part, you know, with the new gravel and drainage and gutters and painting it. And it, it looks like a completely different place and it's now a hundred percent full. So now we're getting in starting to raise the rates and cuz you don't really wanna be a hundred percent full. You wanna be in the mid nineties
Bill Fairman
00:09:33
When this is recorded, we'll leave a link through some before and after
Wendy Sweet
00:09:37
Photo shots. Yeah. I forgot to send Scott some pictures of that and
Jonathan Davis
00:09:41
You don't wanna be a hundred percent full because if you are, you're
Wendy Sweet
00:09:43
Not charging enough. That's exactly right. I'm competitive in the market. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's, I'm glad that I have my hospitality background being in the hotel business and of course have a short term rentals as well because there's things about self storage that are really similar to the hospitality industry. D a little different than your regular long term rental, but very much like your short term, you care about occupancy, you know, driving up the rates on a daily, weekly or monthly basis based on what your occupancy is and what your competitors are doing. When I was in the hotel business, we had one particular hotel in Montgomery, Alabama and comfort in quality in there was a Marriott courtyard and a, a Fairfield all on different corners. And each, each, you know, we were the first ones comfort on that corner. And as everybody built a new hotel, you know, our occupancy was going down.
Wendy Sweet
01:10:42
So we would send the other, we knew nights that that other people were gonna fill up first. So we started sending their front desk people pizzas and say, Hey, we have rooms. So I say that because it's important to understand your competition. Yeah. And what they're doing and be on a friendly basis with them because there are plenty of the newer self storage facilities out there that are full. They, or they don't have the sizes that people need and you want them to recommend, you know, us. Yep. You know, cuz I don't mind being number two. It's okay. You know, we can still number two yeah. Or walling in it. So, so that's been, it's been really unique to me in that it's so much like the hotel business and, and the automation from it is really exciting too, because self storage is exploding. So, so all of the vendors that have to do with self storage, you know, they too are exploding and growing and what they're doing, where, you know, you, you can book a unit on your phone and you're key to get in is on your phone. You tell
Jonathan Davis
01:11:52
Like you can buy, buy like automated drones that when someone like security drones, when someone's on the property, they will circle and go to that's. Right. Like it, it gets
Wendy Sweet
01:12:01
Pretty high tech that's right. It does. Now they're running about $32,000 a pop. So we probably won't be getting any of those anytime soon. Well, but some of the bigger storage, but if you're
Bill Fairman
01:12:10
Hanging out around our facility for no reason, you never know, we may have
Wendy Sweet
01:12:14
One, you hear that buzz above you. Yeah. That's what we're looking for. But it's, it's, it's just amazing how automated it is. And you know, and another thing too, in self storage, you definitely wanna do that. Cost segregation study and take advantage of the, the, you know, tax opportunities that you're gonna have to be able to do that. So, so it has, you know, sell storage has so many different real estate types that are related to other segments of real estate that you're in. And they kind of all come into this one spot, which is really, to me, it's really exciting. I think
Bill Fairman
01:12:53
It's neat. So if you're doing fix and flip and other things and you're having trouble finding contractors and supplies, is it the same for self storage?
Wendy Sweet
01:13:03
It's similar, but not as bad, you know, I'm looking for people who can install fences, I'm looking for a painter, I'm looking for masonry guy that can repair that roofers.
Jonathan Davis
01:13:16
The things that are really like backed up are windows lumber,
Wendy Sweet
01:13:20
Trusses appliance
Jonathan Davis
01:13:22
Appliances. Right.
Wendy Sweet
01:13:23
So I'm not feeling all that you
Jonathan Davis
01:13:26
Concrete slab block and metal
Wendy Sweet
01:13:27
That's right. That's exactly right. And even like, you know, our Crossville Tennessee property had T one 11 siding. I had
Bill Fairman
01:13:37
No
Wendy Sweet
01:13:37
Idea what that is. Well, it's like fake panel. It's like the paneling from the seventies, but it's for the outside of a building. So it's, it's on the, the, you know, where the Eves come to the end. So it's really just on the ends of the building and it's all rotten. It needs to be replaced. And my goal or thought pattern was just to replace it with the same thing. But you know, my roofer comes in and goes, you know, we can replace that siding with metal rather than T one 11. Well, heck yeah. I'd love to have it replaced in metal. It's custom cut. And it's actually a little bit cheaper for us to do it that way and it'll last a lot longer. So, so I'm really, really excited
Bill Fairman
01:14:17
By that. So they using the same materials they would use for a metal roof.
Wendy Sweet
01:14:19
That's exactly right. And we're getting roofs put on, on some of the
Bill Fairman
01:14:23
Building. So corrosion resistant.
Wendy Sweet
01:14:24
Exactly. Exactly. So it works. So, but you know, the first thing I did before we bought these is I immersed myself in first of all, the North Carolina self storage association, a dear friend of mine Wende long invited me to accompany him to go. And it was, you know, just one of the best things I ever did. I'm so grateful that he, he directed me to do do that. And then I went to a bigger self storage convention in Las Vegas. You know, my favorite town, everybody knows I hate Las Vegas, but it's called inside self storage. And that was, you know, really, really good with all of the, the classes, the seminars, the vendors, there were, I don't know, 3000, 4,000 people there. It was really big, but very, and it was interesting to see too, who, who, who, who the owners are, you know, who is it? 52% of the people that own self storage is mom and pop, you know, real, similar to single family, burnt out landlords, you know, and that's who you wanna buy your properties from. So
Bill Fairman
01:15:34
Smaller multifamily too.
Wendy Sweet
01:15:36
Exactly. Exactly. And then you've got, you know, a few co corporations that have, you know, hundreds of facilities and are just doing really, really well.
Bill Fairman
01:15:47
And, and a lot of those are now developing new versus trying buy old. Cause it's cheaper to develop than it's to purchase.
Wendy Sweet
01:15:54
That's exactly right. And what was, and it
Bill Fairman
01:15:57
Functions more like they want it to
Wendy Sweet
01:15:58
Function. That's right. And go ahead, Owen,
Jonathan Davis
01:16:01
To build on that, you know, looking for, you know, those old box stores where they, you know, I think when we were talking with Fernando angel Luci, you know, they to self storage exclusively, I think you said it saves almost six up to 60% of build costs. If you can just get one of those shells at a decent price and go inside there. So you've seen a lot of people do that.
Wendy Sweet
01:16:24
Well, and that's, what's another, you know, we
Bill Fairman
01:16:26
Say, so start looking for coals. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
01:16:29
Because they're going down. I'm just kidding. No, no, we love go.
Jonathan Davis
01:16:32
But I mean, like I swear, every Kmart is every old Kmart I think is
Wendy Sweet
01:16:36
Yeah. Self support. That's so true. That's, that's very true. And the other thing that, that we talked about when we first started this conversation, excuse me, was we talked about how like, its, if you go into fix and flip now, you know, it can be, get broken down into so many different types of things that you're gonna focus on. Well, self storage is the same way you're gonna have, you know, the self storage that doesn't have the fence around it. It's located kind of in a neighborhood it's, you know, low key a C class is what I would call it. Right. Then you've got your self storage that are a little more uppity. They have the fencing and they're really nice. And that kind of thing. Then you go to your, a class, which is your, you know, five, six story, temperature control, you know,
Bill Fairman
01:17:26
There's like an office building.
Wendy Sweet
01:17:28
Yeah. Yeah. So, so there's variations of that. One of the things that we're really pushing though at this inside cell storage, they really were just starting to talk about RV and boat parking. And you know how you can, if you have solar on the top of your RV cover, you know, if you're gonna build a cover for it, you get a 30% tax abatement for that, that if you're not putting walls on that building, it's not really an improvement.
Jonathan Davis
01:17:54
So it's not tax it doesn't add value to the assessment.
Wendy Sweet
01:17:58
So you don't, don't have to pay more taxes for that. So there's all kinds of little things that you can look for there. But one of the things that I have really learned when I'm looking at new properties is to really search for properties that have land or, or space a certain amount of space. And you need to understand what you need. Like you're gonna have to have 30 feet all around that space for turnaround and back in and that kind of thing. So you wanna make sure that you have space to be able to add our van boat parking and you don't have to have a cover on it. You just, you know, show 'em where they can park and, and you have no overhead for that, but
Bill Fairman
01:18:36
Gravel. Yeah. And that's one of the benefits of not having the big bucks, right. That you're doing or the new development, because they're paying a lot more for the land and they want to utilize it with we'll call it dwellings. Right. But if you're buying a, you know, a mom and pop that's out a little bit, the land was already cheaper. Right. And if they have land there, then you can either have portable units that you can put in there or you can turn it in the boat and RV and
Wendy Sweet
01:19:03
Yeah. And the cool thing about the portable units is portables are just that they're portable. So you can put those units in places where your local zoning won't allow you to do any kind of a permanent structure. So you're allowed to add additional space by having those portable units. But really when you sit back and look at the cost of the portable unit, why not turn it into just parking
Jonathan Davis
01:19:30
Spot? Yeah. The parking spot. I mean, yeah. It'd be beneficial if you have zoning that has like, you know, you know, offsets that are, you know, extreme, like, you know, like in some places it could be like 50 foot. Yeah. It's like, well, you know, 50 feet's a lot. Well, he can get a lot of portable units and 50
Wendy Sweet
01:19:45
Feet. Yeah. So
Jonathan Davis
01:19:46
That, but you know, that, that might be an
Bill Fairman
01:19:48
Opportunity gets back to work with what you have. Yeah. Based on the market conditions. That's
Jonathan Davis
01:19:55
Exactly right. I saw where some someone said we've seen a lot of seller financing for the smaller self storage facilities on the note side. I mean, yeah. I mean, makes sense. I mean, most of those on the smaller ones are, like you said, owned by mom and pop they're already paid for, they either built to themselves are paid it off or inherited it or whatever the case may be. Right. And they're just looking
Bill Fairman
02:20:15
And they're used to the cash flow.
Jonathan Davis
02:20:16
Why not continue cash flow?
Wendy Sweet
02:20:18
Well, and they're smart enough to know that if they, if they get all that money, they're gonna have to pay uncle Sam right off the back, you know, why not taking in increments? And if, you know, push comes to shove and they're not paying me, I just take the facility back.
Bill Fairman
02:20:33
If you go in and improve it and raise the rents. Yeah. And you're not paying, they they've got a place that's worth more money.
Wendy Sweet
02:20:39
Yeah. That wouldn't be mad. So, so some of the, the piles of number twos that I stepped in was, but this one turned out to be a good one was I didn't walk the property properly before we closed do that. How do you
Jonathan Davis
02:20:57
Walk it
Wendy Sweet
02:20:57
Properly? Well, you need to go inside units when you're there. And you should have a map of the units with you when you're doing that. And look for dead space. Like our prop, the property in Mexico, Missouri had 13 more units than we thought. You know, I always love when that,
Jonathan Davis
02:21:20
That that's a good, yeah,
Wendy Sweet
02:21:21
That's a benefit. They actually didn't have doors on 'em that it was just a building that was empty and it looked like it had doors, but it didn't. So, so that's a, that, that was a plus. But the other thing that it, that it hurt by not walking that property is, you know, when you're looking at a property you're looking for damages and things that you're gonna have to do to, to replace, but by not going into the units, I wasn't able to see the terrible job they did by putting a roof and a ceiling and how some of them were leaking. And there was a lot of masonry things on just the insides of the doors that I would not have noticed. I would've noticed had I opened up those doors and, and walked in. So, so
Jonathan Davis
02:22:07
Look at every single unit,
Wendy Sweet
02:22:09
I, I would do everything possible to get, get my eyes on every one of 'em. If I could,
Bill Fairman
02:22:14
Of course, that's hard to, do you have locks from the owners on those doors? You can't get in to see
Wendy Sweet
02:22:18
All yeah, that's true. I mean, it, it takes planning ahead to be able to do that, but plan to be there two or three times to be able to, to stick your head in there. And I know
Jonathan Davis
02:22:27
That I talk with Fernando. I mean, they usually, when they go look at a facility they're, it's like a one or two full
Wendy Sweet
02:22:34
Day. Yeah. They do a good job of due diligence, Fernando and Luci, their company does a great job, job title wealth. Yeah. They do a great job of due diligence. I, I just love what they're doing. The other thing that I can tell you was a real challenge and it still is. I don't quite have my arms around. It is the property in, in Missouri had a software program in place already called web storage, which isn't one that we stayed with. But the other one Crossville, Tennessee was run by the epitome of good old boy. And they literally kept everything on a sheet of paper. Like when somebody pay, they hand write, 'em a receipt, zero, zero software whatsoever. And it has, it has taken a long time to get all of that uploaded correctly. And they weren't even taking debit cards or, or any kind of credit card. They would take cash only. And I think a lot of that had to do with that under the table thing, but we kinda got that. It's amazing track.
Bill Fairman
02:23:44
They have multiple facilities. So if they're doing
Wendy Sweet
02:23:47
Multiple, yeah, yeah. That company that we, that would be hard, keep that we purchase that from actually has four other facilities in the area. And they're all being operated the same way. It blows my mind. It's a lot of work. Well somebody's making necessarily work.
Bill Fairman
02:24:01
I don't know, know if you don't have to
Wendy Sweet
02:24:02
Pay taxes on that gas? Well, when, when we closed on that, there were three people that were five years late or longer three that were, that still had stuff in there. Now we cleaned out a total of 33 units since we've had it. And just a few months of people that were were late, but you know, five years or longer, one guy owned owed $8,000 over $8,000 and, and had never been there. What was his monthly rate? I think he was sitting at 45, 40 $5,
Bill Fairman
02:24:34
Takes a while to get to 8,000 balance of
Wendy Sweet
02:24:37
$45. And the rates had not been increased in three years. And I mean, it's, it's, it's definitely work in progress. In fact, Alex is there now cleaning out three more units today. So we're working that one. It's it's coming along. So understanding the software and the books and that kind of thing. I mean, what, what I got was printed out on a sheet of paper, but it was all faults. It was just all fault. So that, that was a kind of a, a disappointment. And then the other thing that I've run into is the local government in Tennessee has not been very easy to work with in getting our corporation set up and, you know, so we can get our banking. You know, we bought it with one of our companies that has the word trust, cuz we bought it in a trust and they don't like that word trust.
Wendy Sweet
02:25:32
So we've really been going around for almost 45 days now, tell 'em we didn't make that word. I know it's for real. So try just trying to get them to respond to that and get it so we can actually deposit the thousands of dollars in payments that we have sitting on the desk waiting to be deposited is, is kind of frustrating. So those are kind of the, the good, bad and ugly items that I've been dealing with at this point. But I'll tell you, I, you know, I'm really excited about self storage. I'm looking forward to buying two more here real shortly.
Bill Fairman
02:26:07
Wait, wait minute. Before you do that, I want to give you an opportunity. Okay. To give the last word,
Wendy Sweet
02:26:14
Oh,
Bill Fairman
02:26:19
I have to use those graphics whenever I can go ahead.
Wendy Sweet
02:26:22
Okay. It's super istic. They SPOC.
Bill Fairman
02:26:28
So if you were gonna wrap it up with your last phrase yeah. Instead of the word, what would you do?
Wendy Sweet
02:26:33Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Bill Fairman
02:26:37
Says the person that jumps in with both feet. Well,
Wendy Sweet
02:26:40
And I'm still here. I'm still kicking. I've messed up more than most people have been successful, but you know what? You learn from everything that you do.
Bill Fairman
02:26:51
It's called earning why you learned. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
02:26:54
Right? Yeah. The, the thing is, is, you know, you definitely wanna do your homework, but don't let fear stop you. It's just a few more zeros. And I know everybody goes, whoa, but it it's it's it's well worth it. It's exciting. It's doable. Anybody can do this. Yeah. Anybody can do this. You just need to do your homework and hook up with the right people.
Bill Fairman
02:27:17
And it is very recession resistant.
Wendy Sweet
02:27:19
Yes. Yes.
Bill Fairman
02:27:20
It's low maintenance costs. Once you get everything in place and you can automate a whole lot of it, right?
Wendy Sweet
02:27:28
Yeah. Oh, this is funny. So I love this question. Where are you buying last? The last two? I don't know. We're looking and that's the other thing too, is we can doesn't really matter where it is.
Bill Fairman
02:27:38
We would prefer to be in the
Wendy Sweet
02:27:40
Southeast in the Southeast, cuz that's where we are, but it doesn't really matter. But this other question from Alva.
Jonathan Davis
02:27:46
Yeah. Elder, I was looking at a mom and pop storage unit in the market is close to one of the corporate storage companies. Should I be afraid?
Wendy Sweet
02:27:52
No, no. They've already done all the homework. They've
Jonathan Davis
02:27:55
Done the homework, but, and, and again, that's the, the microcosm of what self storage is. It's not a zip code. It's not a county, it's not a city. It is literally a one to three, three mile radius.
Wendy Sweet
02:28:07
And your customer is not the same customer that the big corporate storage company has
Bill Fairman
02:28:12
Keeping in mind, same customer, the, the big companies they're raising their rates every six months. And you're gonna get people that are saying, all right, I'm done with this. I'm moving to someplace. That's gonna be a little bit cheaper. It may not be as pretty as this one, but we bought just more sense.
Jonathan Davis
02:28:30
We bought probably the ugliest storage units. You could
Wendy Sweet
02:28:32
Totally the ugliest. That's not what brown on brown, what
Jonathan Davis
02:28:36
They look like. It's what's the potential for them.
Wendy Sweet
02:28:38
That's right.
Bill Fairman
02:28:39
That's
Wendy Sweet
02:28:40
Great
Bill Fairman
02:28:41
Question. Yeah, no, that, that is, that is a great question. All right, listen, we need to wrap this thing up because we've been
Jonathan Davis
02:28:50
Great advice
Bill Fairman
02:28:53
Going on and on about this, but we have a lot more, we're gonna do some updates on this as we go forward and let you know what Wendy has stepped in. Because again, she's doing all this for us. So
Jonathan Davis
02:29:04
What's the purpose of the last word. If you have it, no matter who gets to,
Bill Fairman
02:29:11
Okay. Jonathan is now being cut off, cuz I'm going to this camera. Now
Wendy Sweet
02:29:16
Let me get out of the shot.
Bill Fairman
02:29:17
Thank you so much for joining us on the real estate investor show. By the way we are speaking in the, at the quest, excuse me, expo in September. We have a link in the chat over there for a 30% discount firm in 30. So check that out once again. Thanks again for joining us on the real estate investor show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management. We are private lenders in the Southeast real estate professionals. If you'd like to like us to take a look at one of your projects, then click on, oh, first you have to go to Carolina, capital Carolina, hard money.com. Yes. What they said and click on the apply. Now, if you are a, what is it? An accredited investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor to have, I am sliding out quickly. He's already on the plane. Thank you. Don't forget the like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy. Have a great week and we'll talk to you later. Bye y'all.
142 episodes
233 Self-Storage: Lessons Learned So Far! | REI Show - Hard Money for Real Estate Investors
Passive Income, Active Wealth - Hard Money for Real Estate Investing
Manage episode 336818153 series 2789010
Bill Fairman
00:00:03
Greetings folks. So, you know, we love self storage. We love 'em so much. We ended up buying some. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about lessons learned right after this. Thank you for joining us on the real estate and investors show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management, private lenders for real estate professionals. So if you're looking for us to take a look at one of your projects, go to Carolina, hard money.com. Click on apply. Now, if you're a passive investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor tab, and don't forget to like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy is just a shadow of herself. Apparently our lights are not focused in properly, but Wendy does, excuse me, 30 minutes per person on Wednesdays. Anything you wanna talk about real estate. She donates her time to do this. So sign up on this link and we have one over in the chat, which by the way, we have a chat, it's either gonna be on the right side of your screen or underneath, depending on the platform that you're viewing us from. So if you wanna leave any comments, nasty or not can put 'em there,
Jonathan Davis
00:02:02
You know, bill, this is the most excited I've seen you in a lot. Yeah.
Bill Fairman
00:02:05
I'm getting ready to leave.
Wendy Sweet
00:02:06
Or I thought maybe it was cuz I was back. Yeah,
Bill Fairman
00:02:08
That
Wendy Sweet
00:02:08
Too. We had some great calls on Wednesday yesterday too. Wow. Five excellent, excellent calls. I just, I'm always amazed at the different topics and just really, really good stuff. Really good
Bill Fairman
00:02:23
Stuff. That would be a good way to take a couple of questions and then we can yeah. Do 'em here on the show and answer them. You don't have to say who asked them, but yeah, it might be good topics for,
Wendy Sweet
00:02:35
Well, I'm actually putting together a book from them that we'll talk about just all the different topics, cuz it's just so vast. It's, it's amazing all the, all the options in real estate. In fact, we talked about that yesterday. I, I don't remember which one I was talking to, but that, you know, you get into real estate and you think that it's, you know, fix and flip, right. You know, that's what you think it is. But my goodness, everything gets really broken down into a multitude of different options. And then when you choose that option, there's a multitude of different options for that. Right. You know, the layers are, are definitely, it just goes on and on doesn't it it's depending
Bill Fairman
00:03:14
On market timing, there's all kind of different ways to,
Wendy Sweet
00:03:18
And that's the key. My bro is figuring out what's going on. My green bro. That's and he is green today, but it's, it's, that's the key is really figuring out what's going on around you. And what can you do to go into that toolbox and use? What's gonna work for what's happening in that market.
Bill Fairman
00:03:41
Neat keeps real estate so interesting is exciting, constantly changing and evolving, but you know what? It's still the same. It's all that's right about the numbers. It's just different ways of tackling it based on different right
Wendy Sweet
00:03:54
Markets, basically the same, that's the
Jonathan Davis
00:03:56
Similar conversation that we, we had, I think at the last employee luncheon learn or whatever that we had talking about, you were saying the market is cyclical and you know, it's just all these things. And while that's true, the things that throw it, the occurrences that throw it back into that cyclical motion are never the same,
Wendy Sweet
00:04:18
Right? Like
Jonathan Davis
00:04:19
So good point. It, it keeps happening, but it's never the same thing that, that
Wendy Sweet
00:04:23
Pushes it over there. Trigger pushes
Jonathan Davis
00:04:24
It back. So that's the exciting part is we know it's cyclical, but we never know what will cause that cyclical motion.
Wendy Sweet
00:04:30
Yeah. Yeah. Great point.
Bill Fairman
00:04:32
That is true. But the, the majority of the time it's rate related,
Jonathan Davis
00:04:40
But what causes the, we had the same, but what causes the rate? It's never the same thing.
Bill Fairman
00:04:45
That's
Wendy Sweet
00:04:46
Right.
Jonathan Davis
00:04:46
We don't say the fed or the fed responding.
Bill Fairman
00:04:49
We, we know that the fed doesn't cons doesn't control
Wendy Sweet
00:04:52
Mortgage rates.
Bill Fairman
00:04:52
Yeah. The fed is always behind it's the market that controls rates.
Wendy Sweet
00:04:56
Yeah.
Bill Fairman
00:04:57
So
Wendy Sweet
00:04:58
Really good stuff. We do
Bill Fairman
00:04:59
Have a little bit of breaking news. Speaking of rates, breaking news, the average 30 year fixed rate mortgage dropped to 4.9, 9% for the week.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:21
Really? I don't know
Bill Fairman
00:05:22
That. Not from 5.3. Oh all the way down to 4 9, 9. Wow.
Jonathan Davis
00:05:27
And it was at five, five. What didn't they? Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:30
Brian Maddox said that would happen,
Bill Fairman
00:05:32
You know, excuse me. Keep in mind. It's still gonna fluctuate for a while, depending on slow downs and that type of thing. But a lot of people were pulling money back over in stocks and it worked out well. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
00:05:46
Yeah. That's, that's
Bill Fairman
00:05:47
Good. At least for some of those folks that have been kind of sitting on the fence and hoping that they wouldn't spend half their life paying their mortgage off. All right. So let's, let's get this show on the road. Yeah. So a while back we were fortunate enough to purchase some self storage. She hasn't told the story. So because it could be fortunate or unfortunate. I'm not sure yet because we, you know, we land in that space and we love the space, you know, why don't we own any yeah. You
Wendy Sweet
00:06:23
Know what I mean? Why don't we own
Bill Fairman
00:06:24
Everything? So we're, that was cause we couldn't afford it. We're we're dipping our toes always can and, and Wendy is taking the lead on
Wendy Sweet
00:06:31
This. Yeah. Taking the lead and the middle and the behind on it. But you know, that's what I said I would do. And that's what I'm doing because the team here is so awesome that I don't even really have to do anything in the loan on the loan side of life anymore, which is sad, but also very exciting. But it opened me up to be able to do this. And you know, our mom, she might not be online now, but she will watch this. And she has seen me all my life. I don't just bite things off to chew. I bite them off bigger than they really need. It's an elephant at every opportunity for me. And,
Bill Fairman
00:07:10
And we, we call that jumping in with both
Wendy Sweet
00:07:12
Feet. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I always ask myself, why in the world are you doing this? And, but I always land on my feet, thanks to God. And you know, the same thing has happened here. We didn't just buy one storage facility. We had to buy two. And, and I'm so glad that we did though, because they've really been very different in the approach. The reason why we bought them were for really two different things. You know, one, one was a little bit bigger. One was, you know, that one's located closer to us. One's located farther away. It just, it's amazing how the two have reacted differently to what we're doing. And I'm kind of doing the same due diligence for both. But one came out to be a whole lot easier to work with, which is the one we didn't think would be than the one that we thought would be the breeze has turned out to be extremely challenging. Let's
Bill Fairman
00:08:17
Let's, let's talk about two. One is more of a conventional way of looking at cell storage all in one
Wendy Sweet
00:08:24
Land. Yeah. That's the one in Crossville, Tennessee.
Bill Fairman
00:08:27
And then the other one in Mexico, Missouri.
Wendy Sweet
00:08:29
Yes. Always wanted to go to Mexico, but not in Missouri, but is,
Bill Fairman
00:08:33
Is several parcels,
Wendy Sweet
00:08:35
Several parcels. And it's in a downtown neighborhood like it's downtown, but it's split up into four different parcels that are all within a block or two of each other. It didn't have a fence around it. They were painted brown and we'd gone in and were camouflaging them. They were camouflaging 'em they're, you know, not, no good lighting the weeds growing up everywhere. And, and so we we've done the rehab side of that almost complete for, for the most part, you know, with the new gravel and drainage and gutters and painting it. And it, it looks like a completely different place and it's now a hundred percent full. So now we're getting in starting to raise the rates and cuz you don't really wanna be a hundred percent full. You wanna be in the mid nineties
Bill Fairman
00:09:33
When this is recorded, we'll leave a link through some before and after
Wendy Sweet
00:09:37
Photo shots. Yeah. I forgot to send Scott some pictures of that and
Jonathan Davis
00:09:41
You don't wanna be a hundred percent full because if you are, you're
Wendy Sweet
00:09:43
Not charging enough. That's exactly right. I'm competitive in the market. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's, I'm glad that I have my hospitality background being in the hotel business and of course have a short term rentals as well because there's things about self storage that are really similar to the hospitality industry. D a little different than your regular long term rental, but very much like your short term, you care about occupancy, you know, driving up the rates on a daily, weekly or monthly basis based on what your occupancy is and what your competitors are doing. When I was in the hotel business, we had one particular hotel in Montgomery, Alabama and comfort in quality in there was a Marriott courtyard and a, a Fairfield all on different corners. And each, each, you know, we were the first ones comfort on that corner. And as everybody built a new hotel, you know, our occupancy was going down.
Wendy Sweet
01:10:42
So we would send the other, we knew nights that that other people were gonna fill up first. So we started sending their front desk people pizzas and say, Hey, we have rooms. So I say that because it's important to understand your competition. Yeah. And what they're doing and be on a friendly basis with them because there are plenty of the newer self storage facilities out there that are full. They, or they don't have the sizes that people need and you want them to recommend, you know, us. Yep. You know, cuz I don't mind being number two. It's okay. You know, we can still number two yeah. Or walling in it. So, so that's been, it's been really unique to me in that it's so much like the hotel business and, and the automation from it is really exciting too, because self storage is exploding. So, so all of the vendors that have to do with self storage, you know, they too are exploding and growing and what they're doing, where, you know, you, you can book a unit on your phone and you're key to get in is on your phone. You tell
Jonathan Davis
01:11:52
Like you can buy, buy like automated drones that when someone like security drones, when someone's on the property, they will circle and go to that's. Right. Like it, it gets
Wendy Sweet
01:12:01
Pretty high tech that's right. It does. Now they're running about $32,000 a pop. So we probably won't be getting any of those anytime soon. Well, but some of the bigger storage, but if you're
Bill Fairman
01:12:10
Hanging out around our facility for no reason, you never know, we may have
Wendy Sweet
01:12:14
One, you hear that buzz above you. Yeah. That's what we're looking for. But it's, it's, it's just amazing how automated it is. And you know, and another thing too, in self storage, you definitely wanna do that. Cost segregation study and take advantage of the, the, you know, tax opportunities that you're gonna have to be able to do that. So, so it has, you know, sell storage has so many different real estate types that are related to other segments of real estate that you're in. And they kind of all come into this one spot, which is really, to me, it's really exciting. I think
Bill Fairman
01:12:53
It's neat. So if you're doing fix and flip and other things and you're having trouble finding contractors and supplies, is it the same for self storage?
Wendy Sweet
01:13:03
It's similar, but not as bad, you know, I'm looking for people who can install fences, I'm looking for a painter, I'm looking for masonry guy that can repair that roofers.
Jonathan Davis
01:13:16
The things that are really like backed up are windows lumber,
Wendy Sweet
01:13:20
Trusses appliance
Jonathan Davis
01:13:22
Appliances. Right.
Wendy Sweet
01:13:23
So I'm not feeling all that you
Jonathan Davis
01:13:26
Concrete slab block and metal
Wendy Sweet
01:13:27
That's right. That's exactly right. And even like, you know, our Crossville Tennessee property had T one 11 siding. I had
Bill Fairman
01:13:37
No
Wendy Sweet
01:13:37
Idea what that is. Well, it's like fake panel. It's like the paneling from the seventies, but it's for the outside of a building. So it's, it's on the, the, you know, where the Eves come to the end. So it's really just on the ends of the building and it's all rotten. It needs to be replaced. And my goal or thought pattern was just to replace it with the same thing. But you know, my roofer comes in and goes, you know, we can replace that siding with metal rather than T one 11. Well, heck yeah. I'd love to have it replaced in metal. It's custom cut. And it's actually a little bit cheaper for us to do it that way and it'll last a lot longer. So, so I'm really, really excited
Bill Fairman
01:14:17
By that. So they using the same materials they would use for a metal roof.
Wendy Sweet
01:14:19
That's exactly right. And we're getting roofs put on, on some of the
Bill Fairman
01:14:23
Building. So corrosion resistant.
Wendy Sweet
01:14:24
Exactly. Exactly. So it works. So, but you know, the first thing I did before we bought these is I immersed myself in first of all, the North Carolina self storage association, a dear friend of mine Wende long invited me to accompany him to go. And it was, you know, just one of the best things I ever did. I'm so grateful that he, he directed me to do do that. And then I went to a bigger self storage convention in Las Vegas. You know, my favorite town, everybody knows I hate Las Vegas, but it's called inside self storage. And that was, you know, really, really good with all of the, the classes, the seminars, the vendors, there were, I don't know, 3000, 4,000 people there. It was really big, but very, and it was interesting to see too, who, who, who, who the owners are, you know, who is it? 52% of the people that own self storage is mom and pop, you know, real, similar to single family, burnt out landlords, you know, and that's who you wanna buy your properties from. So
Bill Fairman
01:15:34
Smaller multifamily too.
Wendy Sweet
01:15:36
Exactly. Exactly. And then you've got, you know, a few co corporations that have, you know, hundreds of facilities and are just doing really, really well.
Bill Fairman
01:15:47
And, and a lot of those are now developing new versus trying buy old. Cause it's cheaper to develop than it's to purchase.
Wendy Sweet
01:15:54
That's exactly right. And what was, and it
Bill Fairman
01:15:57
Functions more like they want it to
Wendy Sweet
01:15:58
Function. That's right. And go ahead, Owen,
Jonathan Davis
01:16:01
To build on that, you know, looking for, you know, those old box stores where they, you know, I think when we were talking with Fernando angel Luci, you know, they to self storage exclusively, I think you said it saves almost six up to 60% of build costs. If you can just get one of those shells at a decent price and go inside there. So you've seen a lot of people do that.
Wendy Sweet
01:16:24
Well, and that's, what's another, you know, we
Bill Fairman
01:16:26
Say, so start looking for coals. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
01:16:29
Because they're going down. I'm just kidding. No, no, we love go.
Jonathan Davis
01:16:32
But I mean, like I swear, every Kmart is every old Kmart I think is
Wendy Sweet
01:16:36
Yeah. Self support. That's so true. That's, that's very true. And the other thing that, that we talked about when we first started this conversation, excuse me, was we talked about how like, its, if you go into fix and flip now, you know, it can be, get broken down into so many different types of things that you're gonna focus on. Well, self storage is the same way you're gonna have, you know, the self storage that doesn't have the fence around it. It's located kind of in a neighborhood it's, you know, low key a C class is what I would call it. Right. Then you've got your self storage that are a little more uppity. They have the fencing and they're really nice. And that kind of thing. Then you go to your, a class, which is your, you know, five, six story, temperature control, you know,
Bill Fairman
01:17:26
There's like an office building.
Wendy Sweet
01:17:28
Yeah. Yeah. So, so there's variations of that. One of the things that we're really pushing though at this inside cell storage, they really were just starting to talk about RV and boat parking. And you know how you can, if you have solar on the top of your RV cover, you know, if you're gonna build a cover for it, you get a 30% tax abatement for that, that if you're not putting walls on that building, it's not really an improvement.
Jonathan Davis
01:17:54
So it's not tax it doesn't add value to the assessment.
Wendy Sweet
01:17:58
So you don't, don't have to pay more taxes for that. So there's all kinds of little things that you can look for there. But one of the things that I have really learned when I'm looking at new properties is to really search for properties that have land or, or space a certain amount of space. And you need to understand what you need. Like you're gonna have to have 30 feet all around that space for turnaround and back in and that kind of thing. So you wanna make sure that you have space to be able to add our van boat parking and you don't have to have a cover on it. You just, you know, show 'em where they can park and, and you have no overhead for that, but
Bill Fairman
01:18:36
Gravel. Yeah. And that's one of the benefits of not having the big bucks, right. That you're doing or the new development, because they're paying a lot more for the land and they want to utilize it with we'll call it dwellings. Right. But if you're buying a, you know, a mom and pop that's out a little bit, the land was already cheaper. Right. And if they have land there, then you can either have portable units that you can put in there or you can turn it in the boat and RV and
Wendy Sweet
01:19:03
Yeah. And the cool thing about the portable units is portables are just that they're portable. So you can put those units in places where your local zoning won't allow you to do any kind of a permanent structure. So you're allowed to add additional space by having those portable units. But really when you sit back and look at the cost of the portable unit, why not turn it into just parking
Jonathan Davis
01:19:30
Spot? Yeah. The parking spot. I mean, yeah. It'd be beneficial if you have zoning that has like, you know, you know, offsets that are, you know, extreme, like, you know, like in some places it could be like 50 foot. Yeah. It's like, well, you know, 50 feet's a lot. Well, he can get a lot of portable units and 50
Wendy Sweet
01:19:45
Feet. Yeah. So
Jonathan Davis
01:19:46
That, but you know, that, that might be an
Bill Fairman
01:19:48
Opportunity gets back to work with what you have. Yeah. Based on the market conditions. That's
Jonathan Davis
01:19:55
Exactly right. I saw where some someone said we've seen a lot of seller financing for the smaller self storage facilities on the note side. I mean, yeah. I mean, makes sense. I mean, most of those on the smaller ones are, like you said, owned by mom and pop they're already paid for, they either built to themselves are paid it off or inherited it or whatever the case may be. Right. And they're just looking
Bill Fairman
02:20:15
And they're used to the cash flow.
Jonathan Davis
02:20:16
Why not continue cash flow?
Wendy Sweet
02:20:18
Well, and they're smart enough to know that if they, if they get all that money, they're gonna have to pay uncle Sam right off the back, you know, why not taking in increments? And if, you know, push comes to shove and they're not paying me, I just take the facility back.
Bill Fairman
02:20:33
If you go in and improve it and raise the rents. Yeah. And you're not paying, they they've got a place that's worth more money.
Wendy Sweet
02:20:39
Yeah. That wouldn't be mad. So, so some of the, the piles of number twos that I stepped in was, but this one turned out to be a good one was I didn't walk the property properly before we closed do that. How do you
Jonathan Davis
02:20:57
Walk it
Wendy Sweet
02:20:57
Properly? Well, you need to go inside units when you're there. And you should have a map of the units with you when you're doing that. And look for dead space. Like our prop, the property in Mexico, Missouri had 13 more units than we thought. You know, I always love when that,
Jonathan Davis
02:21:20
That that's a good, yeah,
Wendy Sweet
02:21:21
That's a benefit. They actually didn't have doors on 'em that it was just a building that was empty and it looked like it had doors, but it didn't. So, so that's a, that, that was a plus. But the other thing that it, that it hurt by not walking that property is, you know, when you're looking at a property you're looking for damages and things that you're gonna have to do to, to replace, but by not going into the units, I wasn't able to see the terrible job they did by putting a roof and a ceiling and how some of them were leaking. And there was a lot of masonry things on just the insides of the doors that I would not have noticed. I would've noticed had I opened up those doors and, and walked in. So, so
Jonathan Davis
02:22:07
Look at every single unit,
Wendy Sweet
02:22:09
I, I would do everything possible to get, get my eyes on every one of 'em. If I could,
Bill Fairman
02:22:14
Of course, that's hard to, do you have locks from the owners on those doors? You can't get in to see
Wendy Sweet
02:22:18
All yeah, that's true. I mean, it, it takes planning ahead to be able to do that, but plan to be there two or three times to be able to, to stick your head in there. And I know
Jonathan Davis
02:22:27
That I talk with Fernando. I mean, they usually, when they go look at a facility they're, it's like a one or two full
Wendy Sweet
02:22:34
Day. Yeah. They do a good job of due diligence, Fernando and Luci, their company does a great job, job title wealth. Yeah. They do a great job of due diligence. I, I just love what they're doing. The other thing that I can tell you was a real challenge and it still is. I don't quite have my arms around. It is the property in, in Missouri had a software program in place already called web storage, which isn't one that we stayed with. But the other one Crossville, Tennessee was run by the epitome of good old boy. And they literally kept everything on a sheet of paper. Like when somebody pay, they hand write, 'em a receipt, zero, zero software whatsoever. And it has, it has taken a long time to get all of that uploaded correctly. And they weren't even taking debit cards or, or any kind of credit card. They would take cash only. And I think a lot of that had to do with that under the table thing, but we kinda got that. It's amazing track.
Bill Fairman
02:23:44
They have multiple facilities. So if they're doing
Wendy Sweet
02:23:47
Multiple, yeah, yeah. That company that we, that would be hard, keep that we purchase that from actually has four other facilities in the area. And they're all being operated the same way. It blows my mind. It's a lot of work. Well somebody's making necessarily work.
Bill Fairman
02:24:01
I don't know, know if you don't have to
Wendy Sweet
02:24:02
Pay taxes on that gas? Well, when, when we closed on that, there were three people that were five years late or longer three that were, that still had stuff in there. Now we cleaned out a total of 33 units since we've had it. And just a few months of people that were were late, but you know, five years or longer, one guy owned owed $8,000 over $8,000 and, and had never been there. What was his monthly rate? I think he was sitting at 45, 40 $5,
Bill Fairman
02:24:34
Takes a while to get to 8,000 balance of
Wendy Sweet
02:24:37
$45. And the rates had not been increased in three years. And I mean, it's, it's, it's definitely work in progress. In fact, Alex is there now cleaning out three more units today. So we're working that one. It's it's coming along. So understanding the software and the books and that kind of thing. I mean, what, what I got was printed out on a sheet of paper, but it was all faults. It was just all fault. So that, that was a kind of a, a disappointment. And then the other thing that I've run into is the local government in Tennessee has not been very easy to work with in getting our corporation set up and, you know, so we can get our banking. You know, we bought it with one of our companies that has the word trust, cuz we bought it in a trust and they don't like that word trust.
Wendy Sweet
02:25:32
So we've really been going around for almost 45 days now, tell 'em we didn't make that word. I know it's for real. So try just trying to get them to respond to that and get it so we can actually deposit the thousands of dollars in payments that we have sitting on the desk waiting to be deposited is, is kind of frustrating. So those are kind of the, the good, bad and ugly items that I've been dealing with at this point. But I'll tell you, I, you know, I'm really excited about self storage. I'm looking forward to buying two more here real shortly.
Bill Fairman
02:26:07
Wait, wait minute. Before you do that, I want to give you an opportunity. Okay. To give the last word,
Wendy Sweet
02:26:14
Oh,
Bill Fairman
02:26:19
I have to use those graphics whenever I can go ahead.
Wendy Sweet
02:26:22
Okay. It's super istic. They SPOC.
Bill Fairman
02:26:28
So if you were gonna wrap it up with your last phrase yeah. Instead of the word, what would you do?
Wendy Sweet
02:26:33Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Bill Fairman
02:26:37
Says the person that jumps in with both feet. Well,
Wendy Sweet
02:26:40
And I'm still here. I'm still kicking. I've messed up more than most people have been successful, but you know what? You learn from everything that you do.
Bill Fairman
02:26:51
It's called earning why you learned. Yeah.
Wendy Sweet
02:26:54
Right? Yeah. The, the thing is, is, you know, you definitely wanna do your homework, but don't let fear stop you. It's just a few more zeros. And I know everybody goes, whoa, but it it's it's it's well worth it. It's exciting. It's doable. Anybody can do this. Yeah. Anybody can do this. You just need to do your homework and hook up with the right people.
Bill Fairman
02:27:17
And it is very recession resistant.
Wendy Sweet
02:27:19
Yes. Yes.
Bill Fairman
02:27:20
It's low maintenance costs. Once you get everything in place and you can automate a whole lot of it, right?
Wendy Sweet
02:27:28
Yeah. Oh, this is funny. So I love this question. Where are you buying last? The last two? I don't know. We're looking and that's the other thing too, is we can doesn't really matter where it is.
Bill Fairman
02:27:38
We would prefer to be in the
Wendy Sweet
02:27:40
Southeast in the Southeast, cuz that's where we are, but it doesn't really matter. But this other question from Alva.
Jonathan Davis
02:27:46
Yeah. Elder, I was looking at a mom and pop storage unit in the market is close to one of the corporate storage companies. Should I be afraid?
Wendy Sweet
02:27:52
No, no. They've already done all the homework. They've
Jonathan Davis
02:27:55
Done the homework, but, and, and again, that's the, the microcosm of what self storage is. It's not a zip code. It's not a county, it's not a city. It is literally a one to three, three mile radius.
Wendy Sweet
02:28:07
And your customer is not the same customer that the big corporate storage company has
Bill Fairman
02:28:12
Keeping in mind, same customer, the, the big companies they're raising their rates every six months. And you're gonna get people that are saying, all right, I'm done with this. I'm moving to someplace. That's gonna be a little bit cheaper. It may not be as pretty as this one, but we bought just more sense.
Jonathan Davis
02:28:30
We bought probably the ugliest storage units. You could
Wendy Sweet
02:28:32
Totally the ugliest. That's not what brown on brown, what
Jonathan Davis
02:28:36
They look like. It's what's the potential for them.
Wendy Sweet
02:28:38
That's right.
Bill Fairman
02:28:39
That's
Wendy Sweet
02:28:40
Great
Bill Fairman
02:28:41
Question. Yeah, no, that, that is, that is a great question. All right, listen, we need to wrap this thing up because we've been
Jonathan Davis
02:28:50
Great advice
Bill Fairman
02:28:53
Going on and on about this, but we have a lot more, we're gonna do some updates on this as we go forward and let you know what Wendy has stepped in. Because again, she's doing all this for us. So
Jonathan Davis
02:29:04
What's the purpose of the last word. If you have it, no matter who gets to,
Bill Fairman
02:29:11
Okay. Jonathan is now being cut off, cuz I'm going to this camera. Now
Wendy Sweet
02:29:16
Let me get out of the shot.
Bill Fairman
02:29:17
Thank you so much for joining us on the real estate investor show. By the way we are speaking in the, at the quest, excuse me, expo in September. We have a link in the chat over there for a 30% discount firm in 30. So check that out once again. Thanks again for joining us on the real estate investor show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management. We are private lenders in the Southeast real estate professionals. If you'd like to like us to take a look at one of your projects, then click on, oh, first you have to go to Carolina, capital Carolina, hard money.com. Yes. What they said and click on the apply. Now, if you are a, what is it? An accredited investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor to have, I am sliding out quickly. He's already on the plane. Thank you. Don't forget the like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy. Have a great week and we'll talk to you later. Bye y'all.
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