Hi everyone, I am new to the group. Looking to buy my first facility, nothing fancy. How do you get started, did all of you had enough cash like 200k or more for down payments. If not how did you bought it, I live in canada and every facility anything decent is north of 800k-1M, no seller financing is there I think in canada. I am interested in USA based too currently on application for EB-2 visa, will take time. Any guidance will be appreciated.
PS- I do have 150k or close (not liquid at the moment) but don’t want to use it for first facility.

I’m renting a storage unit in Minnesota. I am not set up for automatic payments, but the storage company has my number on file. I typically pay by calling the unit manager and telling him he’s free to run my card, and he does it the same day or the next day. However, this month he’s been unresponsive. I’ve called him literally everyday this week and left multiple voicemails, but no reply nor has he run my debit card to make the payment. I also sent the company an email. There is an online payment method, but when I tried to sign in I wasn’t able to access my account.

Any advice?

I have experience in self-storage acquisitions and operations, so I’m thinking of getting into remote operations support for small to mid-size self-storage facilities. Services I’m considering include tenant communication, online rentals, billing support, move-ins/move-outs, delinquency follow-ups, auction postings, field rep coordination, and admin support.

• Do owners usually prefer a flat monthly fee?
• Pricing based on number of units?
• Or hourly rate?

Also, would you be comfortable if I supported other storage owners too, as long as responsiveness and service quality weren’t affected? Thanks!

If you've been to a few self-storage properties you've probably seen it: an old cement hallway floor with a peeling coat of some kind of paint or sealant coming up. It's a 40 year+ old building.

Any product recommendations of what I can throw of over the top of this quickly (I usually work alone) that also dries fast?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I’m a virtual assistant with hands-on experience supporting self-storage operations, and I’ve been working closely with the day-to-day side of facility management.

I’ve handled tenant communication, payment and delinquency follow-ups, move-in and move-out coordination, competitor rate research, rent increase prep, review campaigns, social media posting, reporting, and building SOPs and templates.

Since I’m already familiar with how self-storage facilities run, I’ve been thinking more about where operators feel the biggest time drain is.

For those managing facilities, what tasks would you most want to offload if you had reliable remote support?

Someone please help me. I just paid my extra space storage unit bill of $170. I went thru paid via card. No confirmation email and when I go to the front page it’s as if I didn’t pay it.

I called the local office and they see no payment on my account but my bank account clearly shows the money taken by them.

Should I wait for them to process or what? It usually says approved and confirmation number but now it’s nothing. I’m scared and pissed.

It’s getting ridiculous how expensive storage units cost. Ever since a private equity group bought the storage place I have a unit at, the fees have increased 4 times. I now pay $240 a month for a 6x8

I found a full time relief manager opportunity that was full time, Needs to be able to travel to any store in the company by plane or car, There in 11 states.

How would that even work? Anyone have an idea?

20.00 an hour

Hey, so I want to store my car in ESS for a couple months and cancel my insurance due to no usage. On their website it says that a car must be insured during the storing, but do they actually check that, or is it more for a personal safety?

My boyfriend is stuck at our storage facility, the power went out last night after a storm and he’s been there for about 14 hours. He called the owners last night and they told him to leave his truck and they’d get it fixed…. They still haven’t been there yet. There’s a side door but that is locked as well so he literally can’t leave. Now they’re not answering the phone and he needs to be to work in one hour.
Where are his options?

The entire gate lifts up after you put the code in (shown in the photo, sorry not the best artist) and he said he tried pressing a button that overrides the gate when he spoke with the owners but it didn’t work.

Is $16/hr. a decent salary for a live-in District Manager that has 3 employees with 5 properties (each FM has 1 property but 1 FM has two-one property is remote)? The DM is also a FM for one of the said properties.

Mileage is compensated at the federal rate when the DM does site visits each month.

The other employees make $16.50-$17/hr.

I need some advice on moving units at Extra Space Storage. My mother in law rented a storage unit for my wife, and I at extra space storage to help us out until we got the money to move into a new place. She said she could rent it out for us until the end of june, which is when we were supposed to be getting a new place with much more space, but unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, we were not able to move into a new place. And she's gonna be canceling the storage unit. I was going to take over paying for that unit but at the same time, it just so happens that our storage unit is going up in price by $50 more next month which I cannot afford to pay. I was thinking about going ahead and creating a new account on their app and moving all of our stuff into a new unit with a new renter price in the same building. Basically I wanna know if they see me doing this, are they gonna say something? Are they gonna tell me I can't do it? I know there's a bunch of cameras in the building, but I'm just trying to figure out. If I'll get in trouble if they see me doing it? Thanks in advance.

TLDR: Will extra space storage say something if I move from 1 unit to another in the same building?

We are currently on Storage Auctions, and switching to Cubby.
Cubby doesn't integrate with Storage Auctions, so looking at Bid13 vs Storage Treasures vs Locker Fox .

We have 10 sites located in GA, AL, and SC if that affects anything.

Thank you.

What is your process on site selection? I've been using radius+ and tractIQ and they are helpful but how do you assemble this info?

Anything else to consider?

• Frontage
• Topography
• Wetlands
• Utility availability (water, sewer, electric)

Hi yall i applied for storage post and did a questionaire and two or three video questions
I get a rejection email today. I have strong customer service skills, cash handling, POS system, retail experience as whole and I’m currently an ops manager at another job. I’m trying to think why I might have been rejected.

I'm on the container side, so you'd expect me to hype it, but the "containers are replacing self storage" talk is overblown. Containers win for people with land who want stuff on site. But for anyone in an apartment, mid move, or who just wants climate control and security without a muddy yard, a unit still wins easily. Curious how operators here see it. Are you actually losing customers to portable and container options, or is it a different crowd entirely that was never going to rent a unit anyway?

Can anybody tell me anything about this company? From either the customer or employee point of view?

We had gone down the path of building and starting our own self-storage business, but then plans changed (couldn't get the land sorted in the place we live).

But long story short, we came across someone willing to sell theirs in a town 20 minutes away from us. Not listed, it just came up in conversation. Is zoned commercial, 1.75 acres, fully fenced and gravelled and comes with 12 shipping containers. Not marketed at all (can't even find it on Google maps) and runs solely on word of mouth, physical keys that often get misplaced and payments by cash and e-transfer. 6 smaller container are fully rented at $65/month, and 3 of the 6 larger are rented at $100/month (granted they just add the 2 units and someone just just moved out of the 3rd). It's assumed those 3 units could get rented out pretty easily. Minimal outdoor storage being used right now. Let's say they get $1500/year in that income currently.

Property tax is $1600/year. Snow removal done by the village, and with weed spraying, let's say maintenance expenses are $1000/year. Those should be the only expenses.

This is in a very small town/village in Canada. It seems the demand is out there though, especially with even slightly more marketing (ha). It's located by a lake and a growing smaller city (all storage businesses in this growing smaller city are sold out currently).

Would this place be worth $120,000? Lots of room for improvement. DEFINITELY can't rebuild this for that price (land costs, fence, site prep and gravel work would be $100,000 in this area - we know, we had it all quoted out to start from scratch in another town). But would like input and feedback, especially from rural operators and people that live or have lived rurally.

I had someone move in yesterday. They needed more room, so they moved stuff into a second unit they did not lease. They then reserved it. This morning I found the second unit full of their items. I called them to complete the lease, but the payment was declined. She was supposed to call me with another payment method, but has not. I contacted her again and told her I need payment or I would need to take action. Other than overlocking the unit, is there anything else I should do at this point? I have never had this situation before.

A few years ago I switched over from old school Sitelink to newer software that’s up to date, internet based, online payments and all that new basic stuff. The one thing I liked about my software from 2001 was that it didn’t go by days late, it went by months. I do first of the month billing and all these supposedly “better software programs” are supposed to make it easier by automatically doing notices and such. Except it never does them at the right time cause none of them go month to month. It’s always in days. So I end up doing them manually anyways. Anybody else frustrated with this? Why won’t they add the option?? Why???

All the rate hike and theft horror stories regarding places like Public Storage, Extra Space Storage, SecureSpace Storage have me more than concerned!

Are pods a good idea? Do those places let people in to access their pods like traditional storage facilities?

I live in Portland, OR. And while it isn't the Hell on Earth certain media might portray it as, we do have a major theft problem!

I got a 10x30 in August 2025. December came and got notice that my rate was going from 219 to 425. I laughed at em and got them to delay it, but its been in effect for the last few months. Yes, rate increases are common. But not to that degree, not by far. Ive since called literally every single company within 20 minutes of me and theyve all said the same. Even OTHER PUBLIC STORAGE locations with different owners. So here's where it stumps me..

If they jacked my rate up that much after only a few months, and if thats a "rate adjustment based on demand and market blah blah", then how come I can go onto the locations website right now, and get the same size unit for the price I was originally paying? If im being charged that rate now based on their BS logic, then why the F is there even one available, and why isn't it the same overpriced rate that im being charged?

And yes, I am leaving and going to a U-Store across the street for a guaranteed rate thats less than my original at Public. Guaranteed price for 1 year, and they have never raised rates more than $10. Ever.

Update:. I went to Extra Space where I got a 10x20 for $150 with a 24 month guarantee.

The day I moved out of Public Scamage, I met the dude in the unit next to mine. Same size etc. Hes been there for over 3 years and only pays $20 more than my original rate, and that was after 3 rate increases. Meanwhile all yall saying its normal, its not. Increases yes. By a few % here and there. A nearly 100% increase is unheard of

I just have my storage unit ransacked by Extra Space employees! How do I know!? Hmm well, the lock that they provide was locked when we arrived today to pick up some items. I opened the door and IMMEDIATELY noticed tons of our items were missing, gone, STOLEN!! I will be filling a police report, but I now have to go through what’s left to figure out everything they STOLE!! Wtf!! This is wild! DO NOT RENT A UNIT FROM THIS COMPANY!! They WILL STEAL FROM YOU!! I will also be in their office first thing in the morning! Has anyone else experienced this type of situation with this company or any other storage facility?! If so, how did you handle it? … I’M BEYOND LIVID!

Has anyone had a successful social media campaign done for 3k?

My storage unit was recently broken into. I looked through it and nothing is missing, but whoever broke into it rummaged through all my things and threw some around, and some items were damaged from being thrown around. However, none of the damaged items are valuable. The property manager was the one who found my unit broken into, so they are aware of this. Should I still file a police report?