Taking the next step in growing your self storage business should be done after careful consideration. It's dangerously easy to see that the industry as a whole is doing well and then land yourself in a bad market. So, what signs should you look out for and what research should you do to determine if the time is right to buy or expand?
In this spotlight, Jane Sauls and Alan Lindsey dive into how to recognize opportunity in a given market.
Question: "How do you know when the market is right to buy or expand?"
Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:
In this Gabfocus Session: Growing & Expanding, we spoke with Alan Lindsey and Jane Sauls about what it means to grow your self storage business. They explored everything from how to know when it's time, how to make your new expansion competitive, and the ways your business itself changes as it grows.
Check out the full Session to dive deeper!
Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what Alan and Jane had to say:
So a lot of what we look at is square foot per capita, or saturation of the market.
So you'd be looking at within your one, three, five-mile radius, or whatever is appropriate for your market, right? If it's a more rural town, you may have a larger drive radius, or if it's more of a city center, it may be a little bit more condensed.
We would look at saying, okay, how much square footage per people in the market or people in this area that you have. If it's a lower saturation? Like, for example, if you have, like, four square foot per capita in three or five miles, you might say, well, I think we can do some more storage in this area. I think there's more room.
On the other hand, if you have, let's say 12 or 13 or 14 square foot per capita, far above the national average, you may say, wait a second. There's already enough self storage in this area. Maybe I should look at some other area, and maybe Jane can kind of expand a little bit on that."
- Alan Lindsey
"You know, I think it's really good that we're going to get our first glimpse of the census and the population count and all of those numbers be updated. So, Alan is absolutely spot on. That's exactly what we like to do.
Sometimes that paper has not caught up with the actual population. And so because all of that has been forecasted and it has not taken the splendid last year and kind of our migration and move about into consideration. So sometimes from that perspective, which was kind of a tried and true way for us up until it kind of all went awry on us.
You know, now, sometimes it's not just about the actual square footage and population and all of that as much or more so as those rental rates, you know, because the square foot number may look one way or the other, but the population count is just all off.
The telltale to me is when I just look at what the local competition is actually getting in rent. And then that kind of, like, tells me, is that worth a visit?"
- Jane Sauls
