What’s the most important thing for a new self storage investor or developer?

Apr 28, 2025
2 min read

By Marc Goodin

I have been in this industry since the mid-80s when I designed my first self-storage, and I have noticed 2 things that make a difference:

#1 Having Grit: Grit is an unwavering commitment to do the work day in and day out.

Too many people fail because they think the real estate agent will find them land or an existing facility to buy. It takes work to build a multi-million-dollar business.

A person is climbing a mountain to reach their goals. — Would you like an experienced team and mentor on day 1?

#2 Don’t guess or assume what it takes to be successful. Know your personal investment goals and understand the effort, time period, and money required to reach them.

Effort: 8 hours a week

Time Period: - If your goal is to invest 1.5M, build a 65,000 sf facility, and make $400K/year profit and have a several million dollar nest egg, it could be a 5-year plan.

If you have $300K and want to get started in self storage, by buying a small facility. It could be a 1 year plan.

Money: To many people, think self storage is no no-money-down down opportunity. Even with a 15% down SBA loan, it can take $1.5 Million of your own money to build an 80,000 SF facility.

As CEO of Storage Authority Franchising, Marc Goodin shares his passion, expertise, and unconventional wisdom with busy professionals to help them develop their own self storage while they continue their careers. He owns 3 self-storage he designed, built, and manages. He can be reached at marc@StorageAuthority.com or directly at 860-830-6764 to answer your franchising, development, marketing, sales and operations questions. His best-selling self-storage books are available at Amazon.

3 Comments

Rat Mans

2 days ago

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