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Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#61

Post by sliverstorm »

chockablock wrote: post #57
davidw wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> younger demographics don't accumulate as many physical items? We'll see how that plays out as they age, which tends to include things like getting married, having kids, buying a house, and that kind of thing. For instance, our garage now contains 2 strollers, 2 kiddy scooters, 3 kiddy biycles of varying sizes, and one sort of push-tricycle thing. I didn't have all that crap when I was younger, either! I heartily ag…

Your examples are all actively-used items, which is a different kind of storage problem. When items like those are no longer needed the trend among my peers is to donate (to friends with younger kids) or liquidate (on Craigslist).

Liquidating is definitely much easier than before. If I really want something gone, I can usually sell it within 24hr.

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#62

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

hf wrote: post #50
JaakkoP wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hope you don't mind me asking if you live in Texas? I'd love to ask feedback about my storage on demand startup remotegarage.com, as it sounds like it would serve your needs better than traditional self-storage?

I don't want to sound overly enthusiastic, but I do think that this fits the bill 90% of the way. Great presentation[0]; pricing explicit and almost exactly what I would have imagined; and, of course, sane pick-up and delivery. I even hunted around for a spelling mistake to have something on the opposite side of the ledger. No such luck. Alas, I'm a few thousand miles short of becoming a valued customer. Now, hopeful…

I believe the typical understanding here in the US is that there is no insurance, so you don't even need the pictures. A number of farmers around here rent out space in their barns or put up cheap buildings for public storage to get a bit more easy income.

AirBnB for storage would be awesome. Wonder if I could make enough to cover the cost of an an outbuilding?

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#63

Post by toomuchtodo »

jtbigwoo wrote: post #53
seanalltogether wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall reading that this was a big problem with downtown Denver back in the 60s or 70s. The whole downtown area was covered in parking lots because people were sitting on land waiting for it to go up in value. It was having a negative impact on trying to turn downtown into an attractive hub for more business to come in. edit - found it http://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/05/13/how-denver-repaired-it...

Downtown Minneapolis had/has the same thing. The interesting part is that most of the parking lots are owned by groups of moderately wealthy folks (doctors, mid-level corporate execs) who had bought super cheap in the 70's. The income they are able to make risk-free is a huge obstacle to redevelopment. As an example, there's lot next to my old office that gets about 250 cars into a half-block lot. At six dollars/car/…

Eminent domain is always an option, along with the value as determined by the local taxing authority.

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#64

Post by coldtea »

larrys wrote: post #28
pdeuchler wrote: post #19

This article misses the entire point of the self storage game, in that it's all about real estate. I'm not sure of the structure they have over in the UK but I'm quite sure it's the same type of thing, considering that land over there is much more valuable. Here in the US you'll find a vast majority of the land used for self-storage is owned by either investment firms specializing in commercial/self-storage real esta…

I'd be curious where you are getting that narrative from. It differs from what I am familiar with for sure in terms of knowledge of this industry. Not that that's not the play of some REIT's (or what they say they are doing but not really doing) of course but I wonder how many of the locations fall into that category vs. just "after a certain point the money essentially prints itself". Which sounds pretty good. [1] (…

>Unless you have land in a particularly valuable location the fact that there is a building on it is going to contradict having someone purchase it for development purposes. It's being used. In other words "nothing to see here move along".

Huh? It's not like the way those things are sold is people driving around and searching for empty lots.

The owner actively seeks to sell it, and he (or his agent) negotiates with prospective buyers who might not even have visited the location at this point, just look for something in that area.

The fact that there's a building (the garage or self storage) on the location so "it's being used", doesn't matter at all as to whether there will be buyers for it.

Heck, buyers investing in upcoming (development/price wise) places are known to buy and demolish existing residential buildings and established business to build their new stuff (an office building, a mall, a skyrise, etc) -- a parking lot is nothing compared to that.

And it even comes with a single owner to negotiate with, as opposed to buying several different residential buildings to build on.

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#65

Post by jpindar »

kcovia wrote: post #10

Whether it's for economic (less spending money), technological (mp3s are a lot smaller than CDs), or simply cultural reasons, the younger generation seems to have less stuff. I see an opportunity in 5-10 years...microapartments in former self-storage space?

It's hard enough to get the governmental approval of microapartments in buildings with more normal residential design. (Depending on the location of course.)

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#67

Post by newman314 »

chockablock wrote: post #58
newman314 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I would love is a site(s) that lets me get all that stuff used, in decent condition and quickly. It kills me how much money is dropped on kids stuff that is not used for a significant period of time.

I'm torn--your comment history doesn't suggest that you are trolling, but then how could one have both kids and 1500 karma without knowing about *.craigslist/baa?

Not trolling.

craigslist is fine if you have time to sift through things. I'm looking for a site that does it better with filtering to cut out the cruft. Maybe FOBO but a specific subset?

Also, no kids yet. =)

Re: Self-storage: The men who got rich selling empty space

#68

Post by chockablock »

newman314 wrote: post #67
chockablock wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm torn--your comment history doesn't suggest that you are trolling, but then how could one have both kids and 1500 karma without knowing about *.craigslist/baa?

Not trolling. craigslist is fine if you have time to sift through things. I'm looking for a site that does it better with filtering to cut out the cruft. Maybe FOBO but a specific subset? Also, no kids yet. =)

Sorry for the snark. For the items mentioned in the GP (strollers, etc) where there are a few well-known brand names/models, CL is going to be very hard to beat:

-pricing is rational and stable. In such markets, people just know 'what stuff goes for'. -where the savings of buying used is >$100, then the transactional costs of an email, a couple texts, a trip to the ATM, and a short drive are worth it to a lot of people. -no taxes, fees, waiting for your money, account signup, email subscriptions, app downloads, etc. etc.

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