317. We Bought 6 Self Storage Facilities While Working Full-Time
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s guests bought six self storage facilities in just four years, all while working full-time jobs, and during a time of rising interest rates. They had zero experience, no self storage background, and have only used their own money. How did they grow so quickly, and what’s the secret to scaling your self storage business? These are the bootstrapped self storage investors to hear from.
In 2020, self storage investments weren’t on Nick and Steven May’s radar. But after hearing an episode of this podcast, they decided it might be their next great opportunity. Luckily, a small vacation market two hours south of them had old, poorly-reviewed facilities around. So they did what everyone with little experience and a desire to invest should do: started calling owners without expectations. One owner was willing to sell, and the ball started rolling.
Fast forward four years from their first purchase, and Nick and Steven have six facilities, all in the same market. They’ve gotten better at negotiating, underwriting self storage, and running their business. How did two guys scale to 150,000+ square feet in self storage space without any prior experience? Today, they’re sharing exactly how they did it.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- How to build your self storage business even while working full-time, even with no experience
- Why waiting out stubborn sellers is worth it (and why you always submit an offer)
- The basic tweaks you can make to turn an underperforming facility into an over-performing one
- Investing in self storage with high interest rates (why it still works in 2025)
- The secret to scaling your storage portfolio while working a full-time job
Where to find more
📷 Steven’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenmay_realestate/
🚣 Lake of the Ozarks Self Storage: https://lakeoftheozarksselfstorage.com/
🌳 Work with someone experienced in self storage loans at Live Oak Bank! We seriously love them. https://www.liveoakbank.com/business-loans/self-storage/
📑 Our Self-Storage Feasibility Studies will help you speed up the process in understanding markets, potential risks, and analyzing the facility itself. https://cedar.cc/feasibility-studies/
📚 Get my FREE self storage starter pack to learn how to analyze, underwrite, and operate your next storage investment: https://www.selfstorageincome.com/start-podcast
📰 Sign Up for My Newsletter Here: https://ajosborne.com/newsletter
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So I drove over there. We eventually met with the owner and walked through the facility. |
| 0:03.5 | It was your cinder block spring-loaded garage door kind of older facility. |
| 0:08.0 | I think he was about 60% full and the other 40% of the units had nothing but trash in them. |
| 0:13.3 | With that being our first facility and even looking into getting into the storage business, |
| 0:17.5 | we were a little hesitant. We were learning as we went. |
| 0:20.4 | The self-storage |
| 0:21.1 | industry we had no idea about before 2020 or knew about it but knew nothing |
| 0:25.2 | about how to run a facility. So we kind of just learned as we went and there were |
| 0:29.6 | hiccups and bumps in the road but we kind of just got to kind of figure it out. I'm |
| 0:33.8 | pretty sure we were on a wait list for a couple months after for about a year. I mean, we had probably four or five people on a wait list trying to get in there. |
| 0:41.7 | So basically we went from zero to six facilities in the last four years. Just bootstrapped it. We still self-manage it. And so that's where we're out today. |
| 0:53.3 | Welcome everybody to self-storage income. |
| 0:58.1 | And today we are joined by Steve and Nick. |
| 1:03.3 | And we are talking with self-storage entrepreneurs here. |
| 1:07.5 | They got started around 2001. |
| 1:14.6 | And you know what? Let's just ask them. How's that sound? |
| 1:20.4 | Let's do it. Awesome. How's it going, guys? Hey, how we're doing? Doing good. Doing awesome, guys. Thanks so much for jumping on and hanging out with us and in coming here and sharing your guys's story with, you know, how you got started and where |
| 1:27.6 | you're at today and what that process and progress has looked like for you guys. |
| 1:31.7 | It's super, super valuable for people, you know, not only hear from, you know, AJ and I and |
| 1:36.6 | the folks that we work with and around, but it's awesome getting guys in like you that can talk |
| 1:41.8 | to, you know, other experiences and share their stories and let uh, let people know that, you know, there's a million different ways to skin a cat and, uh, you guys have skinned lots of cats. So, I mean, you are from Missouri. I'm, we're from Idaho, so we get it. We know. Just some Midwest boys. Yeah. Love it, guys. Now, I guess we can start a real quick here, just got to give a snapshot. Where are your guys' facilities and how many do you have? And then we can kind of go back. Yeah, so born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, both of us. I currently reside in Kansas City, Nick Still in St. Louis. There's a secondary market, kind of about two hours south of Kansas City, I guess south of St. Louis as well, right in between. It's an area called Lake of the Ozarks. Kind of became popular. The Netflix show Ozarks is what it was based around. But a huge vacation place. And that's where all of our facilities are. So basically we went from zero to six facilities in the last four years, just bootstrapped |
| 2:35.1 | it. |
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