• September 29, 2023

2 Aug, 2023

Self Storage: What the Wall Street Journal Got Wrong

In 2021, self storage was the darling of the Wall Street Journal, with the paper declaring the industry “The Pandemic’s Hot Property.” Last week, the same outlet reported that self storage rents and occupancy had fallen to record lows as the “Pandemic...

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21 Mar, 2023

Valuation for development, sales and acquisitions

What’s it worth?

That’s the ultimate question when it comes to determining valuation for developments and for sales and acquisitions in self-storage and all other classes of real estate. Getting the right answer involves answering a complex series of...

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31 Jan, 2023

Prime Group Closes Self-Storage Fund at Record $2.5B

Prime Group Holdings, LLC, a private equity real estate firm based in Saratoga Springs, NY, has closed its third flagship self-storage fund, Prime Storage Fund III, LP at the hard cap of $2.5 billion, exceeding its $1.5-billion target. Fund III is the...

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17 Jan, 2023

A Cloudy Forecast: Will A Volatile Interest Rate Climate Dampen Deals In 2023?

Predicting the movement of interest rates is like blowing on the dice before you toss them to the green felt. You can read the signs to help hedge your bets, though.

In early November, the Federal Reserve System’s Federal Open Market Committee raised...

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20 Sep, 2022

Volumize Your Value: Fees As Alternative Revenue Streams

Admin fees, insurance, merchandise, late fees, other fees, charges, and add-on services—all of these can add up to quite a lot of income and improve your property’s overall valuation.

Let’s assume your property income for the year is $1 million, and...

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16 Aug, 2022

Rally Support: Self-Storage Can Be The Best Use For Land

The way we live is continuously evolving. From the once sought out luxury mansions to the ongoing rise of small housing unit developments and van-dwelling, we are living in an era where the drive to downsize our living spaces is increasing without...

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28 Oct, 2021

Cap Rate Compression Continues - Newmark Investors Survey Q3 2021

The self-storage asset class is now generally considered CORE or CORE+ commercial real estate, comparable to office, industrial, retail, and apartments based on robust underwriting criteria in our latest Investor Survey for the sector. Since our last...

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15 Sep, 2020

Strategy Shift: Structuring Transactions In The COVID Era

2020 has ushered in a dramatically different landscape for not only the self-storage industry but the entire economy as well. As brokers, we may sometimes forget that our world of real estate transactions is quite unfamiliar to our clients when they...

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1 Oct, 2018

Stop – Do Not Pass Go Without a Feasibility Study | MSM

In the game of Monopoly, players move their piece around the board in an attempt to purchase as many properties as possible. When a player has procured all the properties within the same color group, he/she can begin building houses, and eventually...

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1 Aug, 2018

The Valuation Question:

Cash Flow Or Cap Rates

In the commercial real estate world, most investors apply value to a property through something called the capitalization rate or, quite simply, the cap rate. The term is universal and means the investment return based on the...

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1 May, 2018

The Interest Rate Factor

Where Are Values Headed?

By Dale C. Eisenman, CCIM, and Michael Morrison

After a period of high transaction activity for the past few years, the market has continued to be strong into 2018. Many of our clients and potential clients are faced with...

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1 Apr, 2018

Q4 2017

Self-Storage Investor Survey

By Kate Spencer and Greg Wells

The survey data was collected as part of an online questionnaire that was sent to key self-storage market participants during a two-week period at the end of December 2017. The market...

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1 Mar, 2018

Self-Storage & Wall Street

Cash Is Flowing!

The self-storage industry presented two faces throughout 2017. On one side, there were widespread reports during the first half of the year of decelerating rental growth, revenue, and occupancy, and hints of discounting. In the second...

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1 Feb, 2018

Influx Of Capital

A New Class Of Investors

Since the Great Recession, the self-storage sector has grown by leaps and bounds. With a shortage of supply, growing populations, and increased demand in many MSAs across the country, operators of stabilized facilities managed...

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2 Jan, 2018

Decelerating Performance

2018 To Bring Sustainable Growth Rates And Realistic Expectations

The perception of the self-storage industry by outside investors is vastly different than that of people in the industry. While outsiders are pessimistic, insiders are optimistic.

The...

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1 Sep, 2017

The Irony Of Cap Rates

Objective Value Is A Matter Of PerspectiveBy Adam Karnes

A capitalization rate, or cap rate, is a useful tool in a real estate investor’s valuation arsenal. Everyone seems to use them, but how do we define them? While researching for this article, I...

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1 Sep, 2017

Self-Storage Investor Survey

Second Quarter 2017

The survey data was collected as part of an online questionnaire that was sent to key self-storage market participants during a two-week period at the end of May 2017. The market participants were asked to segregate their responses...

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1 Nov, 2016

Maintaining Your Lease-Up Schedule

Best Practices To Stay On Track

Self-storage owners dream of the moment they conquer their lease-up timeframe. The proper schematics for a lease-up timeframe used to be so reliable 20 years ago. Today the market is inundated with competition and ripe...

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1 Sep, 2016

Buy Or Build?

Investment Insight For The Best Deals

Back in the spring of this year, Sovran Self Storage, Inc., of Williamsville, N.Y., announced it would acquire LifeStorage, LP, a privately-owned self-storage operator for about $1.3 billion. In the deal, Sovran...

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1 Sep, 2016

The Results Are In!

2016 Investor Survey

At the beginning of April 2016, Cushman & Wakefield conducted an investor survey for the self-storage industry. The survey data was collected as part of an online questionnaire that was sent to key self-storage market participants...

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