313. 12 Red Flags of a Risky Self Storage Investment (& How to Avoid Them)

Self Storage Income

AJ Osborne

Entrepreneurship, Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.9 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Buying a storage facility? Make sure you spot any of these 12 self storage investing red flags. If you’re able to avoid them successfully, you could be buying a killer next investment, with high occupancy, high rates, and steady cash flow. After investing in dozens of self storage facilities, with millions of rentable square feet, we’ve nailed down the 12 deadly self storage red flags that can prevent a facility from taking off.

There are two types of red flags: the ones you can fix, and the ones you can’t. The fixable ones might mean you have a serious opportunity within your market, and you can flip that red flag to a green one. The unfixable red flags…that’s another story. Don’t worry, we’re going to spell out each so you know which red flags to run from, and which could make you money.

We’re talking about red flags like: declining populations, too much supply, high vacancy, weak local economics, poor visibility (online and on the street!), and more. Do you think you know which you can fix? Think again, we’re giving you the exact list of self storage red flags.

What you’ll learn in today’s show:

The 12 self storage investing red flags every investor should be aware of
Is a declining population always a bad thing for storage?
How to stop your competitors from building near you and boosting supply
The “secret” way to find out how occupied other facilities are in the area
How much should your self storage customers make? We’ll share the perfect income range
Which red flags can be flipped to green flags so you can profit!

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Get 1-on-1 Coaching from Conner! - https://www.selfstorageincome.com/coaching

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

Get AJ's book that teaches you everything he knows about self-storage https://a.co/d/aRSKcSq

Take advantage of today’s market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're coming into that market and then all of a sudden there's just huge amount of supply coming in,
0:04.7	it just can totally change what you're going through. Part that's exciting about all of that is
0:09.5	they're not problems that are that hard to fix. Like if you can find a market that's hard to develop
0:14.3	in or hard to get approved, like that's an advantage. Really good points. Turning those red flags
0:18.9	into value add opportunities. Absolutely, man.
0:21.6	Just make sure you dive into it again.
0:22.6	It may or may not be a red flag that it's like a deal killer.
0:26.6	It just might be a hurdle that you need to overcome and just figure out what needs to happen,
0:30.6	how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to take to do and if it actually works free or not.
0:44.9	Welcome back, everybody, to the self-storage income podcast.
0:47.2	You got me and George hanging out today.
0:49.0	George, how the heck you doing, man?
0:50.0	Doing good, Connor.
0:53.8	Excited to be here, excited to talk self-storage on another podcast episode, man.
0:54.3	Thanks for having me. Dude, it's amazing, dude. It's amazing seeing the podcast grow over the years, the reach that
0:59.8	we've had coming in here, talking self-storage, seeing people actually take that information that we
1:05.4	talk about, go out there, actually implement it, and acquire facilities, approve their operations, whatever it is
1:12.6	that they're doing.
1:13.9	And truly be able to change their lives, man.
1:15.8	It's been really, really cool to see.
1:17.8	And like you said, man, just excited to be here, excited to be a part of it.
1:21.2	And looking forward to our topic today, man, which is a huge topic, something that's super,
	...

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