318. The BIG Opportunities Small Investors Have in 2026 That REITs Can’t Touch
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when interest rates spike, self storage demand dips, and REITs start a race to the bottom with rent prices? You’ve got the current state of the self storage industry, with shifting market dynamics that have made things difficult for smaller investors over the last few years. The question now is, where do we go from here?
Interest rates have had a ripple effect throughout the self storage industry, leaving smaller investors wondering how they can build wealth with self storage investing while REITs and private equity have a stranglehold on many major markets. AJ, Travis Morrow, and Lance Watkins break it all down in a session from this year’s SSI Live Event. There’s reason for optimism heading into 2026 and beyond, but investors will need to adapt to major changes if they want to coexist with the bigger players.
Savvy market analysis is more crucial now than ever, and adopting technology is no longer optional—even if you’re investing in rural areas. Fortunately, everyday investors now have access to data that wasn’t available to them just a few years ago. Whether you’re developing or buying self storage facilities, these insights will help shape your strategy going forward and give you an edge in your market!
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- How to compete with institutional investors (REITs) charging rock-bottom rates
- Why investors must analyze self storage deals more conservatively in 2026
- How technology is transforming self storage (and how you could get left behind)
- The massive opportunities small investors have in secondary and tertiary markets
- Strategies that will help you determine whether to invest in a new market
- How rising interest rates created a “ripple effect” throughout the self storage industry
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Tract IQ: https://tractiq.com/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The one thing that I want to stress here is the opportunity. Right now, we are in a place in the market that is so wildly different. |
| 0:09.0 | Getting started or even scaling a business, you have tools that the reeds had. I'm shocked about how we think the business should operate, but then we don't participate it as customers. |
| 0:20.4 | Now, I think we should do is we don need website. And then you go and actively consume differently |
| 0:24.6 | than you run your business. |
| 0:26.6 | Normal is going to be the continued adoption of technology and implementation of it in the |
| 0:33.6 | self-storage facility and the operations of the self-storage facility. |
| 0:38.3 | That is the customer expectation of all of the businesses that they interact with. |
| 0:48.3 | All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, AJ, Lance, and Travis. |
| 1:01.1 | Welcome, everybody. |
| 1:05.1 | We are so excited. |
| 1:07.2 | It's been a great event so far. |
| 1:13.9 | Who here, I'd like to know who's listened to the podcast the longest. So let's start. Everybody that's listened to it for at least a year. |
| 1:20.9 | All right. There we go. Two years. Okay. That's right. It's my mom. It's my mom. It is. It's my mom. It's my mom. |
| 1:28.3 | It is. |
| 1:29.3 | It's my mom. |
| 1:30.3 | Three years. |
| 1:31.3 | All right. |
| 1:32.3 | Four years. |
| 1:37.3 | There we go. |
| 1:38.3 | Five years. |
| 1:39.3 | Five years. |
| 1:40.3 | All right. Now let's see six years that's right it wasn't an existence six years ago |
... |
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