Employment Evolution: The Shift From Residential Management

In the early days of self-storage, many companies opted to hire husband and wife teams who not only shared the caretaking responsibilities of managing a storage facility but enjoyed the added bonus of living on site. Is this reality a thing of the past? Is this even viable, much less desirable? Seasoned pros say times have changed for the better. 

What (Or Who) Didn’t Work 

“That caretaker duo scenario is kind of in the dustbin of history,” says Maurice Pogoda, president and founder of Pogoda Companies. “It’s still out there, particularly in some rural areas, but it hasn’t really been the preferred mode of operation easily for 20 years now. The industry has evolved. The problem was you always had one that was stronger than the other, whether it was the husband or the wife.” 

The sad reality is that the odds of finding two equally talented individuals within a couple is very unlikely. A facility would often knowingly hire a less qualified individual solely because they were married to someone who was qualified. 

“When you are looking for a husband and wife, a couple who want to work together, who don’t have their own skills to get jobs out in the marketplace, all of a sudden your employment pool gets tiny,” says Carol Mixon, president of SkilCheck Services, Inc. “It’s like fishing out of a really small pond. You just can’t possibly ever get enough traction to get multiple people interested. Sometimes I only have one or two couples apply and it almost always works out where one of them was great and the other one was just … why do we even pay this person? That’s how stark the difference was.” 

Lack of skills wasn’t the only hiccup in the old school model of management. 

“I have had some really spectacular husband and wife couples, but it’s not the norm for sure,” says Mixon. “Even when it works, it doesn’t work. The problem is when they want to take off time to go on vacation or have a family emergency; they are going to go together. It’s not like you have two separate employees who can cover each other, so it causes scheduling issues.” 

Some residential managers also began to feel a little too at home on site. “When you hire a professional to do a job, they don’t go back to their attached apartment and cook lunch, leaving the office filled with the odor of onion soup or tuna melts or something that smells terrible as prospective tenants are coming in choosing whether to rent and entrust their personal goods to our environment,” says Pogoda. “We’ve gotten away from that old mom-and-pop shop model. We’re just trying to hire the best professionals we can who essentially come to work and do their job.” 

Unused Residential Space 

While hiring practices have changed, many facilities are left with residential spaces for which they no longer have a management use. In an era of uncertain financial times, making the most of every square foot for revenue is key.  

“Out of our 70-plus stores, we may have four or five that still have resident managers,” says Pogoda. “A lot of times, those apartments are leased out to outsiders for the income. We also might put in a maintenance person servicing 10 of our properties in the surrounding areas, so that they have a central place to live.” 

The old way of thinking was that installing a resident manager equaled a higher level of security. “Some people made the mistake of talking about 24/7 security, which was a potential liability, because no one’s around 24/7,” says Pogoda. “It’s been replaced by all kinds of technology, from cameras that are monitored off site, digital smart locks to call centers. Even if we even have an on-site manager, they are secondary to our professional call center, which is specialized to sell and advise tenants.” 

Although expecting a retired couple to tackle every bump in the night or security alarm alert is neither realistic nor a great idea, heightened security was in the mind of one out-of-the-box storage management professional. 

“I went to a sheriff’s office and put a listing up—three-bedroom apartment, rent is X, located at a storage property,” says Mixon. “I rented it within two days. One of the guys called; ‘hey, I’m a sheriff's officer and I saw your ad. What do I need to do?’ I said, nothing in particular; there’s an outside entrance, so you don’t even have to go through the office. I was thinking it would lead to a no-trouble renter, but then I realized he would be taking his marked car home with him at night! How great is that? Some customers were like, ‘Hey, we saw the police were here,’ and we said, ‘Oh no, no, the guy lives upstairs.’ It was a universal, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so awesome.’” 

This inadvertent, passive security boost led to further unexpected benefits. “The alarm would go off on occasion, so I said, ‘Listen, if you just tell me when, and if you have to go outside to check, I’m happy to pay you to do that,’” says Mixon. “He offered to also do a round while he was out there. He even discovered the alarm was being triggered by feral cats going over the fence and had his friends come out to rehome them. From that point on, I never ever housed a husband and wife couple in an on-site apartment again.”  

Community relations are a major aspect of a successful storage business, and Mixon built onto her positive renter experience. She volunteered one facility to be used as a training ground for drug-sniffing police dogs, and upon alerting her customers, found ne’er-do-wells eagerly and quickly moving out without incident.  

“One of the biggest stores I ever ran had 2000 units,” she says. “I had over 80 break-ins one year. I didn’t have a residential manager, so I gutted the office/apartment to increase retail space, and then I made a large lounge room with a couch, big table, a bathroom, and its own exterior entrance. I asked the local police officers if they’d like to use it as a comfortable break room to write up reports, rather than sitting in their cars. I gave them a key, kept it stocked with coffee and donuts and they were so appreciative.” 

Pleased customers noted cop cars parked outside at all hours, and Mixon never had a single break-in again. “It was pretty simple to do,” she says. “So fantastic. I will never ever hire another husband and wife couple unless lightning strikes twice.” 

Sara Beth Johnson, vice president of sales and development with Universal Storage Group shares additional innovative approaches to maximize financial returns with the space. 

Community Or Conference Room  

Transforming the apartment into a meeting space allows storage facilities to provide added value to local businesses or community groups. These spaces can be rented out for small events, business meetings, or co-working opportunities, generating additional revenue. 

Additional Storage Units 

Converting the space into rentable storage units is a practical way to increase revenue while aligning with the facility’s core business model. If demand in the area supports it, turning former apartments into climate-controlled storage units can be highly profitable. 

Retail Overflow Storage 

Managers can use this area as overflow storage for merchandise. This allows facilities to maintain a well-stocked retail area without using valuable rentable storage units. Items such as packing supplies, moving equipment, and specialty storage accessories can be stored in this space to help streamline inventory management and ensure that high-demand products are always available. Additionally, keeping merchandise in a separate space prevents clutter in the main office, enhancing the customer experience and operational efficiency. 

A More Efficient Way 

“I'll be honest with you, I haven’t used a management team in years,” says Eric Blum, president of BMSGRP, a 30-plus-year-old family-owned company that focuses on feasibility studies, site selection, and development in the storage industry. “Management companies are so involved in the industry that the majority of my clients will go with a big name to run things. They take care of staff hiring. Typically, it will be a manager, an individual, possibly with an assistant manager, again, an individual. Very rarely do you see the husband-wife team of the past.” 

Things have changed, even for family-owned properties. “Sometimes I run into sites where the owner is also the manager,” says Blum. “You see a few stragglers in rural-type markets. Sometimes it’s a family business. When I started 20-plus years ago, I would go to the apartment complexes around the facility, visit the local businesses, attend chamber meetings, but with the internet and Google, the majority of leads and even rentals are all done online. That really got enhanced during COVID, when you couldn’t have in-person contact. Smart locks, phone, or Bluetooth access, pay online have cut down on the cost of labor nowadays.” 

The landscape has changed and savvy owners evolve with it. “Everything has become more professional, more retail oriented,” says Pogoda. “Gone are the days where people were building rows of garage doors with a separate apartment and a small office. The much larger operators are so technologically advanced that small operators of five to 10 facilities don’t have an enough money and time and expertise to do the things that we do. Our presence is greater; the sheer buying power of large management companies and the REITs in terms of Google and SEO—when we have employees, we’re able to offer health care and 401K to attract the best. If you want your daughter running your facility, that’s great, as long as you understand that you are leaving money on the table. You might save on payroll, lawn care, snowplow, but you don’t have revenue managers with dynamic pricing models. So you think, ‘I’m 100 percent occupied, so I’m doing great,’ but you're not maximizing your rate. Very simply put, the industry has evolved.” 

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Sascha Zuger has nearly two decades of experience as a freelance journalist writing for national magazines, including The Washington Post, LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic Traveler, and others.  

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