284. Why the Self Storage Industry MUST Adapt or End Up Like the Hotel Industry w/ Steve Mirabito
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Is self storage in trouble? Not exactly, but we need to adapt to avoid suffering the same fate as the hotel industry. Today’s guest has had his finger on the pulse of the self storage industry since the 1980s, and he’s going to share where we’re at and where we’re headed!
We had the opportunity to chat with Steve Mirabito, who is not only the founder and president of StoragePRO but also a board member for Storelocal, the largest self storage co-op in the world. In this episode, he winds the clock back nearly 40 years and shares about his journey into self storage and the challenges he faced early on. You’ll learn all about the birth of the industry, the role Steve played in popularizing this asset class, and how self storage has evolved since.
Most importantly, where does the industry stand today, and what can investors expect going forward? Steve will share his unique perspective on some of the biggest opportunities and threats in self storage, the lessons investors can learn from the rise and fall of the hotel industry, and the number one thing you need to prepare for in 2025 and the years ahead!
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- The number one thing self storage investors need to prepare for
- Why self storage owners should start overlaying the “valet” storage model
- Steve’s journey to becoming a major player in self storage development
- How the self storage industry has evolved since the 1980s
- Why all independent operators should join a self storage co-op
- What self storage investors can learn from the hospitality industry
StoragePRO: https://www.storagepro.com
StoragePRO Management: https://www.storagepromanagement.com
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Mentioned article: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/blog/the-self-storage-industry-a-brief-overview
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever since I saw it happen, I said, oh my gosh, this is an existential threat to our industry. |
| 0:07.9 | If we had the tech, we could overlay that on our real estate and then charge the customers for it. |
| 0:12.5 | Now it's not an existential threat, but an added value option that we can utilize. |
| 0:18.3 | I think, you know, in the next couple of years, we're going to see some real big |
| 0:22.1 | revolutions in technology that serves our industry, and it's going to catapult us to a level |
| 0:28.7 | that we've never seen before. |
| 0:36.9 | What's going on, everybody, and welcome back to the Self Storage Income podcast. We have a special |
| 0:41.9 | edition episode for you guys today, which is a re-release of one of our top 10 episodes with |
| 0:46.7 | none other than Steve Marabito himself, the legend. He sits on the board of Store Local, |
| 0:53.6 | the largest co-op in the world of self-storage |
| 0:55.7 | as well, in and among a number of other things. In this episode today, we talk about what he |
| 1:02.0 | sees in the self-storage industry, how it's come to be the asset class that it is today, what he |
| 1:07.1 | sees in competition, how he sees the future of self-storage. Being a part of store local, he's obviously very, very invested and very interested in seeing |
| 1:14.8 | the continued success of self-storage. |
| 1:17.2 | So it's very interesting to see and to hear what he has to say about where the storage |
| 1:21.2 | industry is today, where he's seeing it going, and essentially what his story has been |
| 1:25.2 | throughout being involved in the self-storage industry. |
| 1:27.6 | So with that said, I'll let you guys get to it. |
| 1:30.4 | Steve Maribito, enjoy. |
| 1:33.1 | Welcome everybody to self-storage income. |
| 1:36.9 | And today we have a podcast that has been a long time in the making. |
| 1:41.5 | I'm really excited for this one, Connor, because Steve Maribito, |
... |
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