340. 11 Red Flags You Can’t Afford to Ignore When Buying a Self Storage Facility
Self Storage Income
AJ Osborne
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The mistake you’re about to make could sink your self storage deal.
We’ve been there many times before. We’ve been too aggressive with our numbers, cut corners on due diligence, and lost money. Thankfully, you don’t have to make these same mistakes.
Conner and George are shining a light on the biggest red flags and pitfalls that catch self storage investors by surprise and, in some cases, leave them with a problematic asset that bleeds money. From environmental complications to “phantom” occupancy, we address the warning signs that should tell you to walk away or at least go back to the drawing board with your self storage underwriting.
The truth is that not all of these issues automatically spell doom for your self storage facility. Some roadblocks that might scare off the average investor could actually be opportunities hidden in plain sight.
But preparation is the key.
With real-life examples, we’ll show you exactly how to approach every deal, from deep market and competition analysis to due diligence checks and balances, so that the next self storage facility you buy is set up for success.
What you’ll learn in today’s show:
- 11 biggest self storage deal “killers” you should (usually) walk away from
- Real-life due diligence blunders we’ve made in the past (don’t repeat them!)
- How to turn minor self storage issues into major opportunities
- How to protect your cash flow by properly forecasting tax and insurance costs
- Evaluating property improvements for their return on investment (ROI)
- Zoning, permitting, and title challenges that could set your self storage deal back
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Grab AJ’s Book, Growing Wealth in Self-Storage 2.0 - https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Wealth-Self-Storage-2-0-Post-Pandemic/dp/1735258865
Join the Self Storage Income Community! - https://www.selfstorageincome.com/learn
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think so many of us have this idea that we're going to find this facility and everything's going to be clear. |
| 0:04.6 | But a lot of times, unless we had submitted the LOI, gotten a PSA put in place, and then gotten out on site on any of these deals that we've never closed on that we've looked at, like we wouldn't have known that. |
| 0:16.3 | That is what due diligence is for. |
| 0:18.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:18.3 | So get the LOIs done and the PSA is done and move forward |
| 0:21.9 | through the steps to tell you what needs to happen next. Do you need to move forward or did you |
| 0:27.4 | find a deal killer? |
| 0:32.1 | What is going on, everybody? I'm so excited for today's episode because we're talking about deal killers. |
| 0:39.5 | We're talking about avoiding these huge pitfalls that can set you guys back a ton that can be those risks of ruin, right? |
| 0:46.7 | That can literally destroy your potential of getting into storage, succeeding at it, all those things. |
| 0:51.8 | We want to help you guys avoid that. |
| 0:53.3 | And George, today we're talking all kinds of things from things that we've seen in our deals to things that we've |
| 0:58.2 | seen in other folks' deals and how to navigate these challenges as they come up. Fantastic |
| 1:02.8 | episode coming down the line today. Yeah, for sure. The biggest thing that we want to help you |
| 1:07.0 | guys with is preparation. The more examples and scenarios that you guys can see, |
| 1:11.2 | you can be prepared for them if and when they come to you. Because every deal is different, |
| 1:15.8 | every situation is different. AJ and his team, we got 20 plus years of experience and we're still |
| 1:20.8 | always constantly seeing new things or members in our community. You're seeing new things. So |
| 1:24.8 | you'll never have every scenario covered, but the more prepared |
| 1:28.0 | you can be for these deal killers will help you walk away from the deals that you shouldn't be doing. |
| 1:33.6 | And then also uncover opportunities where it can be something that everyone else is running away from, |
| 1:39.0 | but you can use that as an opportunity to then go and purchase that facility. So diving right in, |
... |
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