296. The #1 Reason You Haven’t Bought a Self Storage Facility…Yet
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Thinking of buying a self storage facility? If you’re like most people, you’ve been thinking about it for a while. You see self storage deals come up in your emails or on listing sites. You get close to pulling the trigger, but haven’t quite gotten there yet. What’s the deal? Why does it seem so hard to finally buy your first self storage facility?
You’re not alone. In today’s episode, we’re describing why this “analysis paralysis” happens, how to break through it, and finally buy a self storage investment.
We break down why so many investors never close that first facility—and how to move past fear, doubt, and analysis paralysis. Whether you’re unsure about risk, buried in underwriting, or just can’t pull the trigger, this episode gives you the mindset, framework, and tools to finally buy a storage facility the right way.
We’re not talking fluff. We’re talking tactical risk management, how to build your buy box, what really holds people back from buying their first self storage facility, and how to cut through the noise to take action. Plus, an exercise you can do RIGHT now to prove to yourself a deal is worth buying and that you can handle getting it done!
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- The real reason you haven’t bought your first self storage investment yet
- How to break through analysis paralysis and build confidence to finally buy
- A three-step risk mitigation framework to help you quantify risks and make smart, confident buying decisions
- Why waiting for the “perfect” signal is a trap—and how the best deals are often made when others are afraid (like right now!)
- The mindset shift that top investors make to go from fear to execution
Useful links!
Buying your first facility- https://www.selfstorageincome.com/blog/buying-your-first-self-storage-facility
Storage investing 101- https://www.selfstorageincome.com/blog/self-storage-investing-101
Underwriting 101- https://www.selfstorageincome.com/blog/self-storage-underwriting-101
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A lot of times this is the layer when people walk away. You know, maybe this isn't right for me, or I'm not going to do this. So now there's, here's the problem, here's what it would take for that problem to occur, and you can decide, is that likely or is that very unlikely? If it's likely or even probable, you shouldn't be doing the deal. If it's very unlikely and not probable, what would make it probably? List out those things. |
| 0:23.3 | Now you know what to be looking for, and then you also know how to plan. As you do this, |
| 0:27.7 | you're going to start to take these big concerns, drop in occupancy, drop in rents, increased |
| 0:32.3 | expenses, and you're going to start to whittle those down to something that is, no, here's the actual risk associated, |
| 0:39.3 | which is largely a lot less than people think. Focus on managing what you don't know, not trying |
| 0:45.8 | to find just endless more information to confirm your belief. Control those downsides, measure the upsides. And as you go through this process, |
| 0:58.0 | then you'll feel way more comfortable, you'll understand those risks, and it won't be nearly as an |
| 1:03.5 | emotional thing. |
| 1:10.5 | Welcome everybody to self-storage income. And today we have a very difficult topic. I'm not going to like. |
| 1:18.0 | This is a little different than our standard self-storage income underwriting acquisitions, market analysis, valuations. |
| 1:27.4 | It's equally important. It really is. In fact, |
| 1:30.8 | it has to do with all of that information. We get stuck in analysis paralysis, right? So there is |
| 1:37.9 | this point where we are holding ourselves back. It is not due to a lack of information. It's not due to a lack of |
| 1:48.1 | resources, even though you may perceive that. It's not true. It is simply us holding ourselves |
| 1:55.9 | back. Like we can't seem to just move. We can't seem to get going. And then we find ourselves sitting there like, why can't I find deals? |
| 2:04.8 | Why are other people being successful and I'm not? |
| 2:07.6 | And you may already be successful, meaning that you're not moving. |
| 2:10.9 | You're not progressing. |
| 2:12.4 | There's a lot of times in life that I feel that way, even though I've already had success. |
| 2:16.8 | And then there's a lot of times when you're starting out, which I've been in years, that it's like, I feel like I'm smart enough. Like, I see people that are successful. And I'm like, I'm not an idiot. Yeah, you see everybody else out there doing it and, like, quote, unquote, doing it, right? And, like, like you feel stagnant like you're not moving |
| 2:35.3 | forward like there's something that they know that you don't or that they see that you don't and you're |
| 2:40.0 | like how what is it yeah what is it yeah and this is a ongoing thing i think for a lot of people |
... |
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