Student Success Stories
Self-Storage Investing Reviews
Brian Thorn & Kim Pilcher
Kingsland Storage Center
Location of Facility: 13500 Hwy 40, Kingsland, GA 31548
Square Feet: 13,700
Number of Units: 94
Method for Finding the Deal: On market
Acquisition Price: $230k
Cap Rate at Purchase: 3.4
NET Monthly Cash Flow (After any Debt Service): Break-even to start, increasing from there.
Funding Type: Owner finance 12 months, bank loan month 13
Closing Date: May 30, 2020
Why did you like The Deal? Huge value adds, way below market rents, lots of deferred maintenance, no software – our chance to bring it up to current small-town standards. 4 ac for expansion.
The strategy you learned from Self Storage Profits, Inc. that helped you the most: How to analyze a facility, how to see the different options with purchasing.
Exit Strategy/future plans: 3-year hold, then sell or begin expansion.
Facility Website:
Scott and Shannon Kimber
Scott: “This event was a culmination of gathering all the tools necessary for a serious investor to actually be successful in this business and also an opportunity for us to meet Scott and his team and the kind of values that they expose.
If you missed weekend, what I would say is find when the next event is…
…If you’re serious about changing your life and getting into the self-storage business find the next event and go to it. Thank you for being willing to share your experience. And your passion for other people is apparent and that’s not always easy to find, out there in the real world. They’re willingness to mentor, tell it like it is to make sure that your success is their success is a breath of fresh air. We really appreciate that and we are absolutely looking forward to joining forces and doing great things.”
Shannon: “Just reiterating again what Scott said already, we know that we need to surround ourselves with people that are smarter than us. We need to stay experts in what we do and we need to surround ourselves with people who are expert in what they do. So that when we’re partnered together we’re an unstoppable force and clearly we all have God on our side and so nothing will stop us now.”
James Reid
“Deal structuring (investors into the deal) was one fo the most valuable aspects I am learning from Self Storage Investing.”
Marc & Liz
“We presented a project that we had been “eyeing” for quite some time. It was a unique and challenging conversion opportunity in a VERY Strong Market.
We were blown away by the feedback and the suggestions we received at the Mastermind which reaffirmed our desire to purchase this property…
…Having multiple sets of experienced eyes to dive deep into the details of how to unlock the potential in this site allowed us to solidify our plans moving forward and I can’t wait to share our progress with the group at our next meeting!”
Stephanie Walters
“The Mentoring program is the key to completion. Without my wise coach and the “A” Team, my time, commitment, and efforts would have waned. This program demands active participation in a very friendly and professional environment. I now know how to expand and convert my facility.”
Wendell Long
“Been in real estate, now, for over 30 years. a couple of years ago, joined his mastermind, and the input and direction [the Mastermind] gave us to take our company to the next level has been great. We’ve looked at a lot of deals, and I think this has helped us a lot to NOT do some deals that maybe we might have done in that past, to just jump on something just because it looked good, or get all excited about it, but you really got to know that you’re doing the right stuff…
…I think that’s really what it’s helped me to do. You know, I think we go to learn from other people, so we don’t make the same mistakes.
The mastermind is much more intimate, you’re getting into very specific information about each particular deal, and how it can be structured, and while sometimes we, or some of us, may bring something to the mastermind that maybe we don’t think will even work, or how it could even work. That’s the whole power of the mastermind – everybody puts their heads together, and says, ‘Well, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?’
It’s much more in-depth, and creative. A lot of creativity comes out of those. But also we have other investors, ourselves, that have invested in some of our other companies or investments, and saying, ‘Maybe we need to spread it around some, across the country’, because that way we can draw from other areas and other people’s efforts – they need some money to be put in, whether it’s development deals or even buying existing facilities.”
Alberto Bernardoni
“If you are still thinking about participating in the educational training programs with Scott Meyers, I can tell you that learning with Scott and taking action will definitely change your life! I’m sure we are going to meet at one of his future events and I would be happy to tell you my successful story. Take action and join our team to turn all your dreams into a wonderful and happy reality.”
Faircloth Family (Nelson, Richard, Jonathan & Charity)
Bluff Road Self Storage
Location of Facility: Apalachicola, FL
Square Feet: 11,900
Number of Units: 114
Method for Finding the Deal: Direct Mail
Acquisition Price: $460,000
Cap Rate at Purchase: 12.58%
NET Monthly Cash Flow (After any Debt Service): $23,052
Funding Type: SBA
Closing Date: April 30, 2020
Why did you like The Deal? Cash Flow- We received funding for immediate expansion which will bring our cash flow up to $50,148 in year 2 after debt service
The strategy you learned from Self Storage Profits, Inc. that helped you the most: Underwriting- we were very conservative coming in and it will pay dividends for the life of the project.
Exit Strategy/future plans: Expand with Boxwell Portables (3,552 sqft YR1 and another 1,920 sqft YR 3)
Facility Website:
Ante Colic
“The Self Storage Academy gives you the information and tools needed to succeed in self storage and the commercial industry in general.”
Faith & Kerry
“I woke up at 5am to drive to our 8am closing and was wondering do I really want to do this? But I trusted our training and followed through. We are on track to beat Moore’s law, doubling our units (or cash flow) every 18 months. Still a lot of work ahead, but at least we can drink wine in our office! (Not cool at my city job)”
Matt Woeber
“You tear a deal down and then you put it back together with the assistance of the group.” The first day was, I think, six or seven deals, and the second day was even more, so I feel like I got a large amount of exposure to a variety of deals all the way from a small deal of like $250,000 all the way up to deals in excess of $2 million.”
Sue & Steven Southwell
“We asked her, ‘Well how did you find your first property’? And she said, ‘Well, I went to one of Masterminds and it was one that … A deal that somebody else brought that they couldn’t fund themselves … They couldn’t take it on and I just took it’. And so we’re looking at … Hey, there’s another avenue to try and go down to find properties.”
Larry Horton
“The biggest strategy I learned from Scott is knowing when to walk away from the wrong deal.”
Brandon Hobbs
“Just wanted to send you an update on how our self storage business is coming along. After attending your academy in Dallas last November, we went to work. The tools you provided helped us to locate a deal, create the business plan, and structure the financing…
…Here are some of the highlights:
- 95 Unit Facility
- Purchase price = $385,000.00 at 10.0 Cap rate
- Seller was elderly and looking to retire. He was considering putting on the market, we were able to get to him before he contacted a listing agent.
- Purchase price included an additional 1.5 acre corner commercial lot directly next door that appraised for $100,000.00!! Instant 100K equity!!
- Seller did a great job with the upkeep of the buildings, no deferred maintenance.
- Value add opportunity = well below market rents, poor accounting and bookkeeping, seller taking cash payments and hiding revenue, approx. 2.5 acres for expansion.
It will take us several months to turn this facility around. But once we do by cleaning up the bookkeeping, implementing management software, raising rents and improving collections we are on track to have a value of approx. $600,000.00 -not including the vacant land – by the end 2017. Once stabilized we have plenty of room to double in size.
Here’s the cool part. We found this deal by direct mail, using one of the mailer templates you provided. The interesting thing is, the letter was never opened!! the letter was returned to me because the facility did not have a mailbox. When it got returned, I simply made a good ol’ fashioned cold call. The owner answered and we had about a 30 minute conversation about the property and he proceeded to tell me his health was declining and his wife really wanted him to retire. A few months later we closed.”
Mary Malloy
Ramsey Storage Center
Ramsey Storage Center had its Grand Opening yesterday, on June 11, 2020, with owner Bob Mikulak cutting the ribbon.
In attendance at the ceremony were the Mayor of Ramsey MN, John LeTourneau, as well as members of the Ramsey City Council and Chamber of Commerce.
Everyone who sees the building loves it with many commenting on how beautiful it looks!
Thomas Mattingly
“I came to this event knowing that I was going to learn about self-storage, but it’s really beyond my wildest dreams, about the content, the plan, just the people that Scott surrounded himself with. So it’s been an absolute pleasure, and very gratifying. Would recommend to anybody…
…If you missed this weekend you missed a great event, really incredible information, just a great group to be around. Tremendous networking, I met a lot of new friends and future business partners. There’s no real word that can describe how tremendous these people are, how giving how incredible, knowledgeable. Just a tremendous fantastic group.”
Jason Fahl
“I learned how to get the education – know what to do AND what Not to do, Work the system to find the Deals, and Network to find the Money. I now have many possibilities from quick resale to holding for long term cash flow and equity.”
Monica Owen
“In our market, it’s very, very competitive, and that’s where we came to the conclusion that we would have to be developing, which takes a whole lot more money.
So we needed to come to a Mastermind in order to connect with people that had money and could help us develop the property that we wanted…
…And in the whole process of everything, we had investors falling in love with our project as much as we are in love with it.
I already have three investors that are interested in participating in our development project.
I could see how I would just want to come to every Mastermind there is, and I would just want to invest my amount of money in each, a little bit in everybody’s projects. There were, out of those 20, there’s probably four or five that I would have invested in.”
Tim Kanke
“I learned to obtain a feasibility study and not to be cheap about it, Hire a general contractor when starting out, and have your plans figured out up front. Making changes to plans mid stream can be dificult to maneuver with the City P and Z. I also learned to be careful about everything you provide to the city P and Z.”
Faith and Jermaine Hill
“Our biggest asset is Knowing how to evaluate a facility using the Self Storage Investing Calculator.
…Around May of 2018, we decided to seriously look into purchasing a self storage facility in Virginia. We literally followed Scott Myers program to the letter and closed on a 158 Unit Facility…
…I wanted to thank Scott Myers for the educational program which helped us successfully acquire our first self storage facility.”
David and Elisabeth Landoll
Southside Storage
Thank you very much for the lovely bottle of wine to help us celebrate the closing of Southside Storage! That was very thoughtful of you, and much appreciated.
And, I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating. Thank you for all that you do every day. We truly could not have done this deal without you and your organization’s help, guidance, advice, connections, experience, and encouragement…
I’m proud to be a part of this organization and looking forward to doing more deals with you going forward.
Best regards,
David and Elisabeth Landoll
Cody Babb
Lake Brown Mini Storage
“After attending the Self Storage Academy, my father David and I found a 115 unit, Bank owned Facility worth $600,000. We bought it for $310,000 and the Bank Financed the entire amount PLUS a new Gate System, and agreed to 4 months no payments at 4% for 20 years with a 10-year balloon!”
Jon & Ginger Griffeth
“The Strategy that helped us the most was the direct mail and valuation process, it helped us land a great deal. We have improved operations and collections, raised prices, added merchandise, and will be selling the property this year in order to move on to bigger projects.”
Sandy Smith
“I went to a Mastermind and we had a deal kinda come across the table. He wanted to know if anybody wanted to run with it we looked at one and said “Holy cow! This has prospects!”
I was the first one to jump in and went home and did a little bit more research and within a week or two, we were down in Chattanooga looking at the site and it’s been just go ever since…
…Within five weeks, Scott and I had turnaround and purchased the place and I was a self storage owner, life is good.”
Val & Gary
“I know you’re a very busy guy but I wanted to send you an email thanking you for allowing Val and I to join your program a year ago, attend the academies, Masterminds, and learn from you and your team. Each and every time we attend your events we learn something new, this past week was no exception…
…We are very grateful you gave us a chance to move ahead with this adventure. This is a chance for us to change our lives, and we will take full advantage of it. We have struggled all our lives, but with the help of you and your team we will make this happen. We will do our best to get total domination of Iowa and the Midwest, for starters.
With the complexity of this facility we just bought, it has taught us quite a bit. I feel we can operate and manage any facility. This purchase has used up all our resources, and may need your help with our next project. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Hopefully we can attend future events. Once again, thanks for helping us get into this business. I know this WILL change our lives.”
Greg Michael
“We purchased your home study course and attended the self storage boot camp in Las Vegas in January of this year. We came away from your boot camp ready to buy our first facility. We have been in apartments for 10 years and although they have been good to us, we were ready to change from “tenants & trash” to something that wasn’t so labor or tenant intensive…
…We looked on the internet at facilities that were for sale around Indiana the next few months and visited several. We made an offer on April 1st on a 122 unit complex in northern Indiana. After a few days of negotiations (using your forms) we signed a purchase agreement and later closed on June 18th.
The Facility is less than 4 years old and is in excellent condition with 5+ acres so there is room for expansion. The economic occupancy was about 60% with a physical occupancy of 68%. The great thing is that the property pays all its expenses and payments at that occupancy rate, so as we rent the property up.. profits will go through the roof.
Thanks so much for imparting all the knowledge we needed to get us a great start. We are looking forward to adding several more facilities to our portfolio as we continue to “wean” ourselves out of the apartment business.”