So, you've decided it might be time to look into upgrading the security at your self storage facility.
Great! Security is a worthwhile investment. It can help keep your tenants' property secure, keep tenants safe when they visit your storage facility, and even be used to market your facility better!
But where should you start? Which security amenities are the best to target with your initial upgrades, especially on a budget?
Aaron Harwell of SpiderDoor had a chat with Tommy and Melissa about when security amenities are the best to upgrade!
Question: "What’s the best storage facility security upgrade?"
Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:
In this Gabfocus Session: The Good, Better, & Best in Storage Security, Aaron Harwell of SpiderDoor sat down with Tommy and Melissa to talk about self storage security. They spoke on topics ranging from the best security amenities to thoughts on 24/7 access.
Check out the full Session to dive deeper!
Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what Aaron had to say:
I've got two sides here.
As far as an investment, like, we're investing in something, and we want a return off of that. We're like, we spent 50 grand or we spent whatever. How am I making a monetary value back on that?
It's definitely the individual alarms in the units because you can upsell the fire out of that.
You can upsell that. You can do that.
But now, the biggest return on your investment, if you don't have a gate, and you don't have keypads, you're protecting your current investment by adding that. Because that value, you're going to find out that people are going to understand that they want a gate around the place where they're storing their stuff.
So you're going to get more rentals. I truly believe that. A place that doesn't have gate access, and I got one right next to it that does, and it may be $10 or $15 more expensive, they're going to the one with the gate.
They just are.
Our brains think like that. We want the best. Whatever we've got. We want to get the best bang for our buck. And from an investment standpoint, you know, that's the deal.
But most people have gates, what, 90% of all storage has got gates around it.
Your alarms. And yes, we'd love to sell them, but there's some great providers out there that have alarms, and you can upsell that. And that never dawned on me until two years ago that they upsell it like insurance.
Jim Mooney, which a lot of you probably know, is a great friend of mine, a great mentor. I've learned tons from him. And he's the one that, remember I told you all, "Don't listen to me on running a facility." Don't. Don't do that. But he's like, why do you not sell insurance?
Why do you not sell insurance?
Why do you not sell insurance?
Over and over. And up till 2015, I never sold insurance. And I did and then increased my revenue on one site, like, I was bringing like $3,800 instantly in one month more than I did the month before. And I'm like, you know, it just made sense to do that.
And that's the same thing with alarms."
—Aaron Harwell
