Can niche markets like RV and boat storage be the game-changer your business needs?
In this episode, Scott chats with Gary Edmonds, a seasoned storage manager, about his journey from a commercial lender to a thriving storage facility owner and third-party manager.
Gary shares his insights on managing facilities efficiently, the importance of meeting customer demands 24/7, and the evolving role of technology in the industry.
They also discuss the potential in niche markets like RV and boat storage, and the critical importance of constant attention to facility operations.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
03:57 – From Banker to Storage Boss
06:22 – Mastering Remote Management
09:32 – Expansion Strategies
28:38 – Niche Markets Explored
Leave a rating for this podcast with one click
GUEST: GARY EDMONDS
LinkedIn | Website
CONNECT WITH US
Website | You Tube | Facebook | X | LinkedIn | Instagram
Follow so you never miss a NEW episode! Leave us an honest rating and review on Apple or Spotify.
Episode Transcript
Gary Edmonds (00:00):
It all starts with the labor component, the payroll, the personnel. Quite often when I’m talking to a seller of a facility that we’re taking over management or that I’m purchasing, they’ve been running it their way and it’s set and they think that’s the way that it has to be run.
Announcer (00:25):
This is the Self-Storage Podcast where we share the knowledge and skills from the industry’s leading investors, developers, and operators to help you launch and grow your Self-Storage business. Your host, Scott Meyers, over the past 18 years has acquired, developed, converted and syndicated nearly 5 million square feet of self-storage nationwide with the help of his incredible team at selfstorageinvesting.com, who has helped thousands of people achieve greatness in self-storage.
Scott Meyers (01:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Self-Storage Podcast. I’m your hostess, Scott Meyers, and on today’s episode I have my good friend Gary Edmonds on the Storage Manager. So Gary and I have known each other for a number of years. We met through our mastermind. Most folks do come through our education organization and get into a facility or multiple facilities before they are welcomed to and invited to come to the mastermind. But Gary was already a seasoned, a grizzled veteran in the industry when he came to the Mastermind looking to grow and scale his business and then also do what we do in the Mastermind, which is to lean down each other for best business practices and then learn how we can raise more capital to do more deals and have access to all of that. Gary is the epitome of that. He’s done that in spades and has continued to grow his company, but in a little different fashion than most of the folks in our mastermind.
(01:51):
And that in one of his presentations, somebody as we normally do in the interest of with all peace and love and the accountability that goes along with it, said, Gary, I think you need to get into the third party property management business and you need to make a run for it and I think you’d be fantastic at it, and so now we’re going to help you do it. And so Gary, maybe without knowing, certainly not knowing as he headed into that meeting that he was going to come out with a secondary business in the industry and it has just taken off and has done so well with that. And so we’re going to talk a little more about that because he is the storage manager, but I’ve had the privilege of sharing the stage at the inside self-storage at trade show and the pages of Inside Self Storage magazine with Gary.
(02:32):
He is a frequent speaker on stage and does an incredible job. He’s been a consummate contributor to the industry by way of the articles that he’s written on the operation side, but more importantly is the work that the serving that we both do together on the mission field down in Ensenada on our house building trips. Gary has been on, well, he went on one several years ago and has been on every single one now since then. And it’s just been a joy and an honor to be able to build alongside of him and what he brings to the table and not only his carpentry skills, which are great, but the heart that he brings to show other folks that are there for the first time what it’s like to be able to give back on the mission field. So with that Storage Nation, I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Gary Edmonds. How are you sir?
Gary Edmonds (03:14):
Well, thank you Scott. It’s good to be here.
Scott Meyers (03:17):
Well, good to have you. And just off of our Self Surge Academy where you made your first appearance on that stage as well and did a fantastic job there. And so yeah, we can’t get rid of each other.
Gary Edmonds (03:31):
Very true, very true. Okay, though. Well,
Scott Meyers (03:35):
Let’s talk from your standpoint. So Gary, share with Storage Nation your background, how you got into the business, where you started, and then let’s bring it up to the place where you are right now, whereas you’re knee deep in multiple niches within self-storage as well. So I’ll let you take it from here and talk about the genesis on up to where we are now.
Gary Edmonds (03:57):
Very good. Well, late in the year 2000, I was working as a commercial lender at a small town bank and had a number of rental properties on the side just trying to work the dream. And I had a client came in, sat down at my desk, somebody that I talked with quite a bit because they owned a storage facility and he just sat down at the desk and said, Hey, would you want to buy my storage facility? And that was when it first, I mean we talked about it and everything, but it was just theoretical until that point. And when Dwayne came in and offered it to me, I thought, there’s none of that toilets or tenants or trash going on there. I should really look at this. And we did end up buying. He was actually selling two properties. We bought ’em both and a little unconventional financing going on.
(04:50):
We put 10% cash down and put 15% on the credit cards and borrowed 75% from a bank. That’s probably not something you’d get away with very easily today, but it was 24 years ago, it was a different 23 years ago, different time. And that was the beginning of our storage journey and it was in the same small town that we lived in, so it was easy for me to run by a few times a day and eyeball the facility and everything and what a facility, because there were five buildings when we bought the main facility and it was kind of humorous. One was built out of concrete blocks and then the evolution goes on and the next one was built out a two by four framing like you’d see in house. And then numbers three, four and five were all pole barn structure. So you could see even back then in 2001 when we closed onto the facility, even then you could see several different generations of building construction and styles and it was an eyeopening experience into storage. About six months after we bought the facility, I took a job, so we moved 150 miles away and I learned how to remote manage facilities in July of 2001, and that’s kind of been our model ever since to reduce the reliance on onsite labor and to reduce the training impact and everything like that.
(06:22):
Back then it was a little piece of electronic and plastic and some of the people listening to this podcast may not remember, but it was called an answering machine, and the phone number for the facility rang into the answering machine. And from my day job, I’d retrieve messages three or four times a day and return calls and make notes and rent units over the phone and tell ’em I’d mail ’em the lease and they’d mail it back to me and a little different than the technology that we have today and a little bit more trusting back then. But when people would get a little worried I’d say, Hey, you’re going to have your stuff in my unit, I’ve got your stuff, you’ve got stuff in my facility. We’re fine. Don’t worry about it. Just send a check along with it. We’ll be fine.
(07:07):
So that was the introduction. That was the first few years for my storage journey, those two locations. And then we did end up selling one of them off. It violated one of my wife’s long held beliefs that I should never own anything that has water on it. And that other facility had a car wash, and that definitely fits in the water category and the upper Midwest in the winter and water, they are not my friends. So we sold the one with the carwash and we’ve expanded the other one. We still own the original site. We’re looking to put up another building hopefully in the next month or two and we just keep expanding and fill it up and expanding. Definitely a tertiary market, but there is a lot of good things with that. Typically we don’t see the revenue maybe that you do in the primary markets, but our advertising costs are so much lower because we’re not competing against 12 other facilities. There’s a couple others in town, is it? So there’s some give and take there and that really works for us. So we’ve stuck with the smaller town, tertiary market as we’ve grown. We bought another facility in Missouri and sold it and we bought a couple in Peoria, Illinois, which is a bigger market and then bought a small portfolio in western Illinois. And that was about the time that I met you a number of years back.
(08:38):
We were scaling, but it wasn’t efficient scaling and I knew there had to be a better way and I knew there were people with more experience than what I had to help me along that process and to learn from some of their mistakes. So that was kind of when I got introduced to Scott and the mastermind and it has been much better sailing since I referenced myself as a buy and hold person. I’m just not succeeding at that very well these days because most everything I buy we end up flipping in a couple years. So I’m failing at the buy and hold, but I still kind of have that mentality that someday I’m just going to be able to sit back and have the mailbox money trickle in, but in the meantime I’m going to buy underappreciated facilities and try and improve them and move on.
(09:32):
So that was a lot of our journey and we got into the mastermind and I realized that the actual operations of a storage facility were something that really intrigued me making them work. I’m not as interested in the lending and the spreadsheets and the broker relationships and everything. I like to see those things improve as they’re supposed to, as we want them to. And that combined with the need at the time for people that have more experience with remote management led us to start the storage manager in the middle of 2020, late 2020, somewhere in there. And that’s kind of been a lot of our emphasis over the last four years is building out that model and trying to stay efficient, trying to identify the right customers and the right ways to market facilities and the right way to market our services. We have internal confusion when we start talking about marketing is wait a second, are we trying to find another facility to manage or are we trying to find a tenant to rent a unit because those are two different hats, but it’s kind of the fun part and it keeps us on our toes.
(10:51):
We’ve come to realize in the last few years that there’s a lot of different types of management out there. There’s a lot of different styles, there’s a lot of philosophies and really what we’ve been promoting lately and when somebody asks me, Gary, what should we be looking for? I said, well, you need to realize with your third party management company, are you looking for somebody just to maintain the project, keep it moving, keep the revenue coming in, or are you looking to hire somebody that’s going to try and elevate your facility and maximize the revenue? Because those are two different attitudes, those are two different philosophies and neither is wrong. It just you’ve got to find as an owner what fits into your philosophy. And we are trying very hard to be more of the maximizer. We are testing and trying out a lot of different revenue techniques to see if it’ll positively impact occupancy or positively impact rental rates or what we can do on that side.
(11:53):
So much of storage is, it’s a p and l statement, but for the most part the L side of the equation, the expense side is fairly fixed. There’s not very much that a manager can do to impact electric rates or insurance or taxes or any of those things. They’re fairly well locked in. So outside of labor and marketing, there’s not a lot that can be done on the expense side, but the revenue side is wide open revenue of course with storage is completely based on two factors and that’s occupancy and how much you can charge the people that you have. And playing those two things off each other is what is really going to make your facility or anybody’s facility really pop is focusing on those two things above all else. And that’s where we try and be and that’s how we try to maximize facilities.
Scott Meyers (12:51):
Well, you’ve done a masterful job with your own portfolio and obviously caught the attention of folks within our mastermind and then in the industry as well and continued to grow and scale that. Did you find Gary, that also the fact that you’re responsible for so many more units, not only on your own and others that maybe caused a resurgence in your desire to dig in and learn more about the industry and to force you to be more creative and be able to look into other corners and maybe corners that you didn’t even know whether were there to find additional revenue or ways to be able to reduce expenses? Did elevating your game help to elevate your game, I guess is a better way of framing the question?
Gary Edmonds (13:31):
Yes sir. On everything but some of my own facilities, because sometimes I let them go and focus on the clients because honestly it’s a lot more important to me to take care of our client stuff than it is my own. But that may not be the smart thing to do. But we certainly have gotten, especially in the last 24 months since we started coming out of that covid bump or whatever we want to call it, when we started to see a correction, we got a lot more excited about working with some outside vendors to try and impact that rate, whether it comes from value pricing or products online, whether it comes to adding extra services or whether it comes to just a more AI based way of setting rental rates. And that’s both for existing and street rates. We’ve gotten a lot more adventurous. And for the most part, I’m kind of lucky I’ve got my own facilities that I can try things out on. So I’m not putting any of our clients’ facilities at risk when I’m trying something new. But that’s the nice thing for them as I am not talking to them about something for their facility that I haven’t already tried on mine and that hasn’t worked or I wouldn’t be bringing it up in the first place.
Scott Meyers (14:52):
So the niche that you’ve carved out for yourself isn’t really a niche that you carved out. It is an evolution of what you were already doing in your own facilities. As you mentioned, you’re in the secondary and tertiary markets, and that seems to be where the greatest need is, at least within folks that are obviously starting out. But then even as people are growing and scaling, they get really good at that side of the business of knowing what markets to go into, how to evaluate them in these secondary tertiary markets. And that’s usually where you have the opportunity, the greatest opportunity to move the needle in taking facilities from a C to a B, whereas well, you can’t really take it from a B to an A, there’s only so far you can take a facility that’s in pretty decent shape. And so filling a need for so many folks that are looking to grow and scale in these smaller facilities and smaller markets is when you’ve been able to fill because it’s not an easy one, we know that there’s not, the facilities don’t generate as much revenue to cover third party management, and so they’re forced to manage it themselves or that they bring in some help, they hire an employee, they bring in a management company, but there isn’t enough revenue to be able to cover it the way that it really needs to be done to have somebody present at all times and maybe to answer the phones and to have the marketing dollars to spend on those.
(16:04):
But you’ve really done a good job of being able to show folks how they can tap into and come inside of your ecosystem and get that economies to scale. So let’s talk about some of the challenges that folks face when they’re in these markets and how you’ve been able to help them as a result of working in those markets.
Gary Edmonds (16:24):
Absolutely, and it all starts with the labor component, the payroll, the personnel. Quite often when I’m talking to a seller of a facility that we’re taking over management or that I’m purchasing, they’ve been running it their way and it’s set and they think that’s the way that it has to be run. And they think that they’ve got a tremendous employee, Barb or Scott or whoever the person’s name is, and they’re going to stay on with the facility. And the facility is just, oh, they’re doing such a good job running it. And then you look at the numbers and you dial in and it’s at 72% occupancy and existing rate increases haven’t gone out since the late nineties and all these things that haven’t been done. Right.
(17:12):
And that’s not to knock on the people at the facility as much as it is the training and the knowledge in the industry. Our industry’s changed so much since I got involved in 2000, 2001. I mean it should has changed that much in five years, but let alone going back to the way so many of these facilities are still being run by the original person that built them and grew them and then got tired of working in the office, hired somebody else to come in and that person comes in and works 25, 30 hours a week and that’s great, but that’s not when the customer wants to rent units. The customer wants to rent units nearly 24 7 and we have to build out that component to meet the customer where they want to be met. And that’s typically not in an office at a storage facility on Monday morning or Tuesday afternoon or Thursday between 11 and two.
(17:58):
They don’t want to guess when the facility’s open, they want to rent a unit. So that’s one of the big things. Obviously everybody’s familiar with the internet and web-based platforms and everything that you could rent through and not have to go into the office, but incorporating that piece is a lot bigger than a lot of people understand because just merely being able to say, oh, I’ve got a manager on site, doesn’t make all of that happen. Even the facilities that are fully staffed with a good, experienced 40 hour a week manager, 40 hours a week is a long ways from 24 7. And how do you make that gap? How do you know when to staff? Quite often, Saturdays and Sundays and most facilities are some of our busier days. Tuesday, Wednesdays not so much. So now if you’re staff Monday through Friday, you’re missing two of the best days and you’ve got somebody there on days that maybe aren’t as busy and yet you’re still only doing that nine to five thing or whatever variation of that.
(19:00):
So when we built our systems, it was all about, okay, how can we meet the consumer where the consumer wants to be met, when they want to be met, how do we take care of them? How do we increase our rentals? Because if we’re not meeting ’em, somebody else is going to. So that led to the development of our own call center, pretty particular about how that operates and everything. And granted, it’s not 24 7, but it’s at least 70 hours a week and we’ve got trained people answering the phone, people that are dealing with multiple sales requests every day, instead of a manager that might be at the facility that’s dealing with one or two people a week that come in to inquire or call into inquire, our sales team in the call center is set up to where they may have eight or 10 a day some days more, and they’re getting a lot of repetition, so the training is better, their practice level is better.
(19:54):
And we all know what happens when you practice something more, you tend to get better at it. So a lot of our system is built behind that call center and their training. They are fully capable of doing everything the tenant needs them to do. They can move ’em into a unit. They don’t take reservations, they just go ahead and move ’em into the unit. They take payments, they can transfer units, they can handle all those activities when the customer wants that. But as we all know, less and less customers are looking for that personal engagement too. More and more of ’em want to do it on their couch on their phone between the hours of 10 at night and four in the morning. And so that was the next step. And we build out our web platform for our company. Most of our facilities are all listed on there, whether I own them or whether we manage them because we’re building a bigger presence on Google, we’re building a bigger presence so that Google can recognize us and go, Hey, that’s a much bigger deal than if all 50 of those facilities each had their own individual page with all of us linked together and everything helps our organic rankings just because each of us is helping.
(21:02):
The other, I often use the analogy, it’s similar to the old time ag co-ops where people would go together to buy seed or to buy feed or something because they’re buying in bulk. Well, it’s kind of the same philosophy with our web platform is we’re going out there and we’re all helping each other because we’re all contributing to the same pot. So as each of us grows, as each of us gets it more important on Google, that helps all the other people on the platform as well. And that platform is also definitely set up for a rapid rental experience. We don’t have 43 pages of questions for the tenant to fill out. We don’t have to have three other forms of contact for each tenant. We don’t have to know their mother’s grandmother’s maiden name or anything like that. It’s a very streamlined process. The idea is all about getting the rental completed and worrying about a third point of contact some other day down the road because odds are we’re never going to need any of that stuff that gets collected. So that’s the other piece of our puzzle is that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a tenant can log in, make a payment, but a prospect can come to our website and move in at our facilities and they’ll get a gate code and everything, right? Then they have the opportunity to e-sign any documents. So it’s a pretty streamless and pretty smooth process, which is exactly what today’s culture, what today’s tenant demand.
Scott Meyers (22:32):
Yep. We absolutely are a society that has a never ending quench for speed, and that includes myself as an investor, developer. Everything needs to be fast. And if we can bypass even the human interaction when we get our coffee, we certainly want to be able to do that when we rent a storage unit as well because the transaction is about the same for the most part. And so those who win online and allow for that accessibility and the speed of the ones that are going to win this game. And so you’ve done well
(23:05):
By the demand of our clients, but then also just by the evolution of our industry, you’ve not only kept up with, but you’ve set that as the business model and been at the forefront of that because you have to. It is even more so important than a facility that has somebody sitting behind the desk because that is the fallback. But if you’re running an unmanned facility, you have to rely on technology. So we’ve seen some very drastic improvements and enhancements and new products coming to the table. As you mentioned in the past five years, we’ve seen a whole lot of changes in the industry. What would you say, where are we in terms of the tech stack, if you will? Do you foresee that we’re going to see another huge impact yet again as technology continues to improve or we’ve gotten to that place where this transaction is kind of predictable that there’s not much left? What do you foresee coming down the pike with regards to accessibility, speed and just the overall customer experience as it pertains to the the technology at each and every one of your facilities?
Gary Edmonds (24:06):
Well, I’m tempted to say, oh boy, I think we’re about as refined an industry as we can get. I don’t know how much more technology can change storage, but I think that’s probably the incorrect answer made by somebody that might be getting immune to new technology, whether it’s age or whether it’s just the volume of it coming at us. I’m certainly of the belief that AI is going to impact self storage. I do not necessarily think it’s going to have the impact that it has in a lot of other industries, but it’s got some in our, certainly we utilize it for the purpose of setting rental rates at most of our facilities. It is capable of doing so much, so much faster than what we can do manually or even the way we can set up our own teams and programs. So it’s certainly going to grow insignificance and certainly there’s a lot to be done on the marketing side with ai, but when it gets down to the true operations, I think we’re going to have to level out here at some point the question, every new technology that we look at, it’s like, okay, is this going to really, am I really going to recognize the $200 a month or the 150 or $300 a month?
(25:32):
This is going to cost me because that’s real. And attempting to make $350 back on a $350 expenditure is not a win. So okay, is this three 50 really going to make me $700? And that’s the bigger question. I think there’s always new technology out there, but whether it has enough of an impact on the bottom line to justify the added challenges of integrating more technology.
(26:01):
Clearly when we take on a facility, it is a technology challenge to mate all the systems together because that’s everything from gate systems and camera systems management software, da Vinci Locks. I’ve been trying to get everything working together is the biggest hassle. And if you would’ve asked me that 10 years ago if when I bought a new facility, when I headed to the facility, my biggest challenge would be technology. I just got to look at you go, what is there? It’s a simple rollup door and metal walls, metal roof. How are we letting all this technology get in the way? But we’ve adopted so much already just in that last 10 years to where it’s, it’s more rare than not. It seems like when there isn’t a gate system and there isn’t a camera system and camera systems and gate systems require internet require electricity, which means other vendors, and we all know how fun the phone companies are to work with and everything else.
(27:00):
So truly, I think when I started a management company, we can look back, but I think there’s probably pictures of me before I started the management company where my hair was a nice dark color and long and everything and grasping all of the new technology at the storage facilities is a challenge. But to get back to your original question, I think the technology is going to slow down in self storage. Doesn’t mean there won’t be new vendors bringing new products, but I just don’t see how much more we can impact the tenant experience when we get down to it. It is a metal box and a lot of our tenants don’t want anything to do with it anyway. So in doing improved apps and everything else on their phone for something that they only want for a month or two, it’s going to be harder to see that all make a go of it, but I have no doubt there’ll be people that try.
Scott Meyers (28:00):
Well, as we head into then the balance of 2024 and beyond, I know that you are looking at different avenues in terms of contractor storage boat and RV storage and getting into some of the other large format that you’re managing for others and looking to develop and yourself outside of that, where do you see Gary? Are there other areas that we haven’t seen yet since you’re in it so much that is coming down the pike on other avenues in which that are going to take other avenues that are going to begin to take off and present themselves here as you look into the future?
Gary Edmonds (28:38):
Oh, I wish my crystal ball was that good right now, I’ll be honest, I am a hundred percent on the RV and boat market. Yes, it’s somewhat of a niche market, but we all know how much Americans love to play and they love their toys and it is getting harder and harder for them to find places to store their toys, to take care of their toys. As toys get more high dollar, it is more important that they have those places to store them. So I am very big on the RVB market, but I also realize that the runway on it is not near as long as self storage just because there is a limit to how many people truly are in that market. I’m also a believer in the contractor units in locations, but again, I think it’s more of a specialized niche. I don’t think it has the runway that sell storage does, but I think it makes a lot of sense in a lot of places.
(29:38):
And one of the great things about both those markets is you have less tenants, you have less tenants with more square footage, meaning less tenant interactions, you have bigger payments to deal with and those types of items and those all work great as a business person, if you can figure out a way overnight to double your revenue per customer, isn’t that a good thing? And that’s essentially what boat and RV and contractor units, pro storage as somebody calls it, those are all, what that’s capturing is more revenue per individual client, and that’s a win for most businesses. Outside of those, I don’t have enough vision to see anything else big down the horizon. There’s always going to be small niches that we can throw into storage facilities, wine storage, and maybe some coworking spaces or something to create a little revenue. But certainly those are the two biggest ones that I see right now as far as a different little tangent off of self storage.
Scott Meyers (30:47):
Well, Gary, I so much appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with Storage Nation here on the podcast. So before we wrap up in my final question for you, what is the best way for people to get in contact with you, especially if they have a need for or now have found a need to have somebody else perhaps help them out in managing their facilities?
Gary Edmonds (31:08):
Certainly you can find us all over social media. Well, I shouldn’t say that, but we are certainly on Facebook and YouTube. We are@thestoragemanager.com is our website. A lot of good stuff there as well as our Facebook channel and YouTube channels. Those are the best ways to find us and to reach out to us, learn more about who we are and how we manage storage facilities and yeah, love to talk to anybody.
Scott Meyers (31:39):
So Gary, I know there’s a number of folks that come to you that maybe you are their Hail Mary. They failed to put some good standard operating procedures in place early on and now they’re faced with some tough choices and they’re expecting you to wave a magic wand. So with that in mind, what would you say are probably maybe one or two of the biggest mistakes people make when they get into this industry? When neglecting the management side of the business?
Gary Edmonds (32:03):
Well, management exists seven days a week. Almost every facility that we know has tenants accessing at seven days a week. That means there are tenant interaction seven days a week with your facility, whether it’s with you or not. That may not be, but seven days a week you are interacting with your clients, with your tenants. And if you’re going to manage a facility properly, you’ve got to be committed to managing those tenants and working with them. And that requires a day-to-Day commitment. Managing a self storage facility is not something that you can do on weekends or two nights a week or anything like that. You’ve got to be able to respond to them quickly. You’ve got to be able to take care of them. They’re not going to wait a couple days for you to give ’em a call back. If they want to rent a unit, they’re going to find somebody else.
(32:50):
If they’ve got a problem, they’re not going to wait a couple days until you get back to ’em. Now they’re going right to Google and they’re going to tell everybody how bad an experience it was. So the biggest problem with so many people is it is truly set aside and just kind of, well, this is just, it’s an investment and I only have to work at it. That’s true. You only have to, but if you want it to be a success, you have to be more dedicated than that. And it is a multiple day a week. It is sometime every day to make sure that you’re meeting the needs of those tenants and making the facility run. Otherwise, it’s going to be a challenge because it’s not a part-time focus. It requires a full-time focus. So that’s probably the biggest thing we see is a lack of that daily attention to a facility. People let it go for a couple days and, oh, I’m going to be out of town this weekend. Oh, I’m not going to worry about the phone and that type of thing. And that’s the difference between succeeding and struggling.
Scott Meyers (33:58):
I would agree a hundred percent. I think many folks in the industry have labeled this as one that is a said and forget it a business. And since you don’t have truly tenants, people living there, you don’t have the proverbial, as we say in our company, the tenants and toilet. It’s in trash that need the constant babysitting. Then I think sometimes people misconstrue that as if, yeah, it’s a hands-off business or it’s a mailbox investment and it is anything but because by nature of the fact that it is a business means it’s not a hobby and it is something that cannot just be taken for granted or neglected. It needs constant attention and in intentional attention on it or else it wouldn’t be a business. And those who don’t, well those are the ones that we typically buy or the ones that you find, Gary, that needs some help that you may end up owning as well, if not trying to turn around.
(34:47):
So I appreciate that the insight, a good reminder for all of us. And also one to remember, for those of you that are looking to get into the business from the Get-go, this is a business on top of real estate. It is not just a real estate investment. There are two pieces to making this puzzle work. So with that Storage Nation, you have been hanging out with myself and the storage manager, Mr. Gary Edmonds. So Gary, thank you once again so much for your time. Looking forward to seeing you at our next mastermind. And then also obviously already looking forward to our next house build in Sana in November. So my friend, you take care and we’ll see you very soon.
Gary Edmonds (35:24):
Thank you very much, Scott. It was a pleasure chatting.
Scott Meyers (35:27):
Take care.
Announcer (35:32):
Hey gang, wait three things before you leave. First, don’t forget to follow the Self Storage Podcast and turn on your notification so you never miss another episode. And while you’re there, please leave us a five star review if you like the show. Second, be sure to share your favorite episodes and more via Instagram and don’t forget to tag us. And lastly, head to the links in the show description and hit follow on Twitter and Facebook to get a front row seat as we grow and scale our business and bring you along with us.