307. Then vs. Now: How the Self Storage Industry Changed
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The self storage industry is changing once again. A new cycle has already emerged, and we’re back to a familiar era of lower occupancy—but with it come better deals to be found. The market is drastically different from when we first started in the 2000s. Still, whether you’re a brand-new self storage investor or a massive private equity firm, the fundamentals remain the same.
AJ and Conner are walking through the evolution of our self storage business. From a couple of partners and a few small facilities to hundreds of employees and huge self storage projects. We scaled from nothing to over $300M in self storage, but the processes we used can be applied and repeated even by the smallest operator!
We’ll reveal the business “ecosystem” that makes up our self storage holdings, how self storage is changing, what’s coming down the pipeline, and answer YOUR questions on the show with topics like how to lease-up fast, uncover competitor occupancy rates, and get financing.
For more on finding, buying, and running storage facilities, check out AJ’s new book Growing Wealth in Self-Storage 2.0.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- The new stage of the self storage cycle we’re entering
- Buying opportunities as many ill-prepared self storage investors leave the market
- The “ecosystem” of a successful self storage business (what we’re doing)
- How to raise occupancy at your self storage facility, even if it’s brand new
- Why we always “secret shop” at other self storage facilities before we build/buy
🌳 Work with someone experienced in self storage loans at Live Oak Bank! https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/
🎙️ Do you have a great story to share on the SSI or AJ Osborne podcasts? You can now apply here! https://form.asana.com/?k=TGU88eU0bFTFW1iHcckuTA&d=1203571084143207
📉 Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And this is what self-sourge industry went through for the last like 10 years. |
| 0:04.0 | It was growth at all cost, consolidation, growth, everything else. |
| 0:07.0 | Everyone could do that without focusing on, I think, even a lot of the basics, |
| 0:12.0 | because occupancy was so high, meaning that the market rewarded them for external growth |
| 0:20.0 | at the lack of needing to do anything internally. What we're seeing now is |
| 0:26.1 | the companies are looking back internally because the growth of occupancy and rents are not |
| 0:33.0 | given to you by the market. This is causing huge turmoil in the market for people that have never even |
| 0:40.9 | operated in an environment where that existed. They've only existed in times that the market handed |
| 0:47.4 | them 100% occupancy, rising rates at 15%. And when things turn and it gets hard, that's when the value is actually there. |
| 0:57.4 | When we look at today, the consolidation that has gone on, self-storage is going to go through |
| 1:02.4 | a next phase of consolidation and growth, right? That's really exciting. |
| 1:18.9 | There's so many of you that are trying to understand yourself in the self-storage journey. Now, the thing is, though, it's important to have the context to how you are operating |
| 1:24.6 | and where you are at in your own journey within self-storage in the |
| 1:28.4 | grander scheme of things. Where is self-storage at? That plays a very important role to your |
| 1:32.7 | opportunities, dangers, and how this industry has transformed. That's why we have one of our top |
| 1:36.9 | 10 episodes ever listened to, and it was exactly covering that. The evolution of storage, |
| 1:43.3 | especially over the last 10 years, and we really look at |
| 1:47.3 | where that puts us today. That defines the opportunities in the space, understands what's |
| 1:52.1 | changed and what's important. So one of our most listened to episodes ever and one of the most |
| 1:57.0 | important. So enjoy everybody. Welcome everybody to self storage income. And today is the |
| 2:05.4 | first day that Conner's back from Hawaii. Yes. Welcome back. Thanks guys. Yeah, no, it's awesome to be |
| 2:12.9 | back. Had a ton of fun with the family and kids out there and just soaked up the sun, went around, |
... |
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