Putting off repairs may temporarily save you money, but delays will be more expensive in the long run, says Diane Gibson, owner of Cox Armored Mini Storage Management, which oversees 18 self-storage facilities in Arizona.

To make it easier to come up with the cash for unexpected maintenance projects, consider setting aside money each month to create a maintenance fund, Gibson advises. She said some mortgage lenders set up an impound account for such purposes when they finance the purchase of self-storage businesses.

“That makes it so much easier for an owner to do maintenance because they don’t have to take money out of pocket,” she said.

Sometimes deferring maintenance can limit your business opportunities. Natolie Ochi, vice president of SKS Management, which runs self-storage facilities in California and Hawaii, warns that it may be hard to convince a lender to refinance your property loan if your facility has a large backlog of maintenance projects.

Here are three common maintenance problems that often are overlooked until the problems become very costly to correct:

1. Leaking roofs

“Probably one of the biggest problems is not taking care of roofs, letting them go to the point where they start leaking,” said Gibson.

When roofs leak the water typically damages tenant property. Because many tenants seldom visit their units, the issue can go unnoticed for months.

Caesar Wright, president of Mako Steel construction company in Carlsbad, Calif., says standing seam panel roofs rarely have such problems, but screw-down roofs often do.

“We encourage people to get on that roof once a year, make sure screws are fastened down,” he said.

Some leaky roofs can be resealed with acrylic or urethane. One of the reasons roofs fail at self-storage facilities is that managers forget to clean gutters and downspouts.

“It is so common,” Wright said. “That can cause quite an issue.”

When the water backs up, it often has no place to go but inside the building, he explained.

While this is a job no one enjoys, gutters and downspouts should be cleaned annually, he said.

“The last thing you want is water intrusion.”

2. Doors that don’t open properly

When doors become very hard to open, the units become unusable. No one wants to struggle with a rollup door each time they visit their self-storage facility. Even so, doors that are difficult to open are a common deferred maintenance issue, said Gibson.

“A lot of times owners will hold off and not fix doors that have broken springs,” she said. “You can’t rent the units. I have seen people have 100 doors that need to be fixed. The doors keep adding up. It becomes so much money to fix all of them.”

The problem can be addressed with routine maintenance. If tenants complain about doors, respond right away. Also, it’s a mistake to rent out a unit if you know there is a problem with the door. Take the time to make repairs.

“The only moving part in storage is the rollup door,” said Wright. “There is a tension bracket on the door that you can adjust. It’s good when tenants move out to get a good look at that door, make sure that it is easily operating.”

3. Crumbling asphalt

Ochi said the most common problem she sees at self-storage facilities is poorly maintained parking lots and driveways. If a potential customers have to navigate around potholes to reach your office, they may take their business elsewhere.

“That always is unattractive, just really a bad impression,” she said.

When your parking lot is badly damaged, units become difficult to rent and property managers end up reducing fees to keep new business coming in, Ochi said. In the end, you lose more money than you would have spent if you had kept up the appearance of your property.

She noted that poorly maintained driveways and parking lots might contain tripping hazards. If a customer falls and a court rules that you were negligent, you and your insurance company could be liable for legal damages.

“People are very litigious these days,” Ochi said. “You do have to be careful.”

If your employees see a potential hazard, make sure they’re trained to report it at once, she added. “That is a must.”

A fresh set of eyes

Because it’s easy to overlook maintenance issues when you work at a property every day, Ochi recommends periodically bringing in a set of “fresh eyes” to look for things that may escape the attention of regular staffers. If you use a management company to run your facility, she suggests making periodic visits yourself and walking the grounds. If you run your own facility “hire someone to walk the property with you.”

The post 3 deferred maintenance nightmares and how to avoid them appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

This uncomfortable truth acts as both job security and sanity stressor for storage managers and maintenance crews, most of whom have a pretty good handle on their daily routine until the gate swings open and the humans arrive.

How can a kind-hearted, sleep-deprived storage pro best manage the human factor?

Perhaps these 9 New Years’ resolutions will help you snatch order from the jaws of chaos and handle the most difficult of customers with ease.

Don’t be half-accessed

Admittedly, a facility’s hours of operation and tenants-only access policies should be obvious to anyone willing to spring for a rental unit. Inevitably however, some tenants insist on access at their convenience, or for a buddy they sent over to pick up some camping gear at the last minute.

Let’s face it: there’s no way you’ll open a unit to persons unknown without written permission from the renter. End of discussion.

But you can minimize the after-hours inconvenience (though not the sleepus interruptus) with a surcharge, or add a software solution like ClickandStor to allow after-hours access unit by unit, or both.

“That way, you don’t have to worry about people moving into unlocked units,” explained Holly Ritchie, marketing director at The Storage Group, a Florida-based web-marketing firm.

Solve the gate code shuffle

Consider each plea of “My gate code doesn’t work!” to be a cry for help.

View this as an opportunity to pleasantly and professionally explain to your tenant why the robot overlords are banning them from their unit: their rent is late, they misplaced their card, they’re inputting an incorrect code, etc.

Do it face-to-face if possible; it instills trust and good karma with your customer.

Learn to spot a squatter

Face it: squatting happens. One way to spot a potential squatter? Watch for attempts to jury-rig electrical power into an unpowered unit.

Scott Meyers, the owner of Alcatraz Self Storage in Indianapolis, IN, says prevention far beats the alternative.

“If things go south, not only do you have an uncomfortable situation in having to let them go; you’ve also got an eviction on your hands that could cause issues as well,” he warned.

Stay cool about climate control

When most consumers rent a climate-controlled unit, they naturally think of creature comfort. It’s easy to correct this misperception and avoid the forthcoming “It’s not hot/cold enough” complaints by explaining that the goal of climate control is to temper extremes and keep humidity within optimal storage range for inanimate objects.

Crack the code on dumpster abuse

Does any single part of a storage facility deliver more hassle and headaches than the dumpster? When someone’s not overfilling it, someone else is scavenging through it, looking for treasures, Ebola or both.

Pam Domingue, the owner-operator of Storage Solution in Huntington Beach, CA, chose the path of least resistance to solve her dumpster nightmare, placing pad locks on all of them.

“We were concerned about liability,” she noted. “Some sensitive customer information could wind up in there.”

Don’t sweat the nitpickers

You never forget your most persnickety customers: their vigilance will reveal that their 10×20 unit is actually 10.26×19.975, a couple screws seem loose in the rollup door and there are six types of insect and rodent feces under foot.

Best course? Be helpful and instructive, never judgmental. On the other hand, should they ask for a discount or threaten to vacate, helpfully point them to a well-lit exit.

Take pride in your pricing

Stand by your price increases. Few customers will vamoose to save a few bucks, just as few storage pros will lose a good customer over chump change.

“If they’ve been there a long time and had multiple rent increases, deal with those on a case-by-case basis,” advised Matt Van Horn, vice president of Cutting Edge Self Storage Management in Port St. Lucie, FL.

No more “surprise” auctions!

Understandably, customers seeking storage don’t tend to quibble over the fine points of the contract, what with a rental truck and famished family out front. But if you stress nothing else in that lease review, be sure to gently but firmly explain that should they fail to pay their rent, the delinquency process could result in the sale of their stored contents at auction.

Have compassion for the odd ones

You know you’re had them, the eccentric, the irrational, the unhinged and paranoid and downright perplexing pains in the booty.

“They cause damage to other people’s stuff, too, because they don’t take care with what they put in there and then blame somebody else,” said Beth Schroeder, the owner of A Place for Space in Rockford, IL. “They’ll put in bars of soap that mice are going to eat, or put their couch in without vacuuming out the half a bag of Cheetos that their kids ate the night before.”

Best practice? Be kind, treat them with dignity and never take it personally. They may be wrestling with junk for which there is no known storage solution.

The post 9 New Year’s Resolutions for Self-Storage Tenants appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

It’s free to create a Facebook page, which allows you to post photos, videos, status updates, links, tips and contests.

“It’s just one step of your marketing process, but it’s one you can’t skip,” said Marc Goodin, president of Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Storage Authority Franchising. “It’s common sense that Facebook is the best social media site. It’s the largest one out there.”

Get started

Create a profile picture and cover photo, which can be of your facility, logo or staff. You also want to fill out the “about” section, making sure that your facility name, address, phone number, email and especially your website are easy to find, said Amy Daniels, content manager at storEDGE.

Provide a link to your website in your Facebook profile as well said Jeanne Dotson, director of Internet marketing strategy for The Storage Group.

“And just don’t link it to your home page; link it to your ‘units available’ page where people can rent online [if you have that capability] or at least get more information,” Dotson said.

It’s also a good idea to add a short description of your property and key features (like climate control or boat storage), using easy-to-understand language that isn’t overly promotional, Daniels said.

Post engaging content

“Facebook, just like many social media outlets, is all about engaging with your customers,” Daniels said. “If you just get on Facebook and only post ads about your facility, you’ll become white noise that your customers will ignore.”

In terms of engagement, it boils down to relevancy and frequency.

Are there community events that your target market is talking about? Is everybody pumped up for a big college game? Was there a crazy snowstorm in your city? How does your target market celebrate upcoming holidays?

“Facebook allows you to see trending topics, so aim for roughly half of your posts to not be directly storage-related,” Daniels said.

The other half should still be more than straight ads. Try spreading the news about events at your facility, ask your Facebook audience questions to get them engaged, and share fun facts about your staff, Daniels suggested. You can also post helpful information like how to store appliances or packing and moving tips.

Try to include a photo with every post if you can.

“Users gravitate far more toward pictures and videos than they do text,” Daniels said.

Goodin agrees.

“Never post without a picture. Never!” Goodin said.

Personalize it

“Have somebody in charge of your page, so it doesn’t come across as a company, but a live person,” suggested Marlene Corpus, marketing director for 21st Century Storage.

“Bigger companies’ Facebook pages are being run by third-party people, so posts can come across more like a newsletter. A potential customer can connect to you, because they’re responding to a person and not a business,” Corpus said.

Post at regular intervals

What’s really best for your facility is a frequency that you can maintain, Daniels said.

“If you think you can easily post twice a week, stick to that frequency,” Daniels said.

Goodin believes in posting a minimum of every other day, and “there’s nothing wrong with posting every day.”

Is it worth it to buy ads, or boost posts?

In addition to all of this free stuff, Facebook offers two ways to advertise: the standard Facebook ads (where you can offer specials, promote your facility, etc.) and boosted/sponsored posts, which allows businesses to pay for their posts to be more predominantly displayed on newsfeeds.

“Just like any other marketing you try for your facility, it’s a good idea to test in small doses, measure your results, and continue to tweak how much you pursue that particular marketing venue,” Daniels said.

Daniels said Facebook ads and sponsored posts often cost much less per lead than pay per click with Google.

“You can also hone in on a very specific demographic,” she added. “Facebook lets you customize age, gender, interests, and locations of your target market, giving you the capability to tweak your ads until they’re getting in front of the people who are most likely to rent with you.”

For example, you can target college students, people who recently bought a house, moved or even divorced, Dotson said.

How much should you spend?

The amount you spend should depend on your marketing budget and how successfully your ads perform, Daniels suggested. Some facilities may find that their Facebook ads get them a lot of traffic, and others may find that Google PPC produces better results.

“My advice is to isolate and measure your results,” she said. “If you’re trying multiple marketing venues, make sure you’re tracking which ones are actually producing leads,” Daniels said.

If you find that paid Facebook posts aren’t viable for your facility, you can still continue to post for free.

“I always suggest if you have a smaller budget, try Facebook and do some of their target testing for specific audiences,” Dotson said. “When you do your ad campaign, you can set your daily budget so you know exactly what you’ll pay.”

How do you measure results?

Facebook gives you most of the tracking and reporting tools needed to measure your results. For paid content, they’ll show you how many impressions (how many times people saw your content), number of audience members you reached, and how many people clicked on the ad.

Also, remember that success can be measured in different ways. “There may be people who see your Facebook ad, don’t visit your site right away, but later remember you because of it and become a paying customer,” Daniels said.

The post How to use Facebook to market your facility appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

One of the best pieces of advice is to work with an experienced CPA or tax preparer who also understands the self-storage business. “You have to have someone who knows all of the tax laws and changes that have occurred,” said Andy Shobert, vice president of administration for Universal Storage Group in Columbia, SC.

Deduct the halls

To that point, there is an extender package that is expected to be voted on in Congress before year-end that will have some tax implications for business owners, such as allowing for higher caps on enhanced or “bonus” depreciation where taxpayers are allowed to deduct an extra 50 percent on shorter life depreciated property. The 179 deduction, which relates to the ability to expense assets such as a company vehicle, also would be enhanced and extended.

“There are 52 extenders, and we expect that all of them will be extended for another year,” said Dudley Ryan, CPA, JD, a principal at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in Minneapolis

Write off doors and cameras separately

Another new provision passed in November expands the threshold on “de minimis” property or small dollar items as current deductions. Previously, business owners could deduct amounts up to $500 without question from the IRS. In November, the IRS increased that threshold to $2,500. One of the requirements to that is a business would have to claim the same deduction for financial accounting purposes as for tax purposes, notes Nathan Clark, CPA, a tax senior director at BDO in Charlotte.

De minimis deductions are intended to cover any type of property or equipment that might usually be covered as a depreciating item. For example, it could apply to the purchase of new roll-up doors or security cameras. As long as each individual item is less than $2,500, then each can be deducted separately. So, if an owner replaces one security camera that costs $1,000, or even 100 cameras, each would be permissible as a deduction that would not be questioned by the IRS.

Another caveat to this deduction is that a business has to have a policy in place at the beginning of the year. So, businesses will want to create a clearly documented policy starting in January in order to capture those deductions in 2016. “I think that is going to be huge for a lot of businesses going forward,” said Clark.

Think about the future

Another sound piece of advice is to take overall financial objectives into account when doing tax planning. Some business owners might be looking to make the most of expenses to reduce tax bills, while others might be motivated to defer expenses and boost net operating income, particularly if they are considering a property sale or refinancing.

“To most small business owners, tax is a relatively important part of their live, but we always encourage people to make the right economic decisions, and tax is just a component of that,” said Ryan.

Year-end Tax Check-List

• Make necessary purchases related to equipment and repairs by year-end so those deductions can be applied to the 2015 tax return.
• Gather your documents, receipts and other statements to provide to your accountant or tax preparer in early January so that you are not scrambling around in February or March before the filing due date.
• Think ahead. Keep up to date on reconciliations of bank accounts, as well as you mortgage to make sure that your mortgage balance agrees with your statement.
• Avoid penalties. Depending on the business structure, it may be important to assess an operator’s income for the year to make sure that all of the necessary pre-tax payments have been made to avoid incurring any underpayment penalties.
• Consider establishing a tax-deferred retirement plan, such as a 401(k). Most retirement plans have to be established by the end of the year, even though they don’t have to be funded until 2016.

The post Beat the clock: Last minute tax tips for facility owners appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

If you’re an operator, some of these 10 New Year resolutions are on your mind.

1. Hire Mr./Ms Right

“You want a people person who genuinely understands how the business works,” said Katy Tynan, founder and operations executive of Liteskip Consulting Group in Hudson, MA. “If they’re too empathetic, they’ll bad-mouth the organization; if they’re a corporate climber, they’ll bad-mouth the people underneath them. You need someone who understands both perspectives and can be the effect liaison between them. Not everybody is good at that; it’s a hard thing to do.”

2. Tidy up

When your product is empty space, there’s really no place for trash to hide. Management consultants like Bill Cohen of New York City-based Storage King USA can tell by one visit to the restroom if management is slacking off.

“There’s an old expression: ‘the fish stinks from the head,'” he said. “Our philosophy is that every facility that we own and operate be kept clean for both our customers and our employees.”

3. Count the cash drawer. Twice.

Andy Kelly, founder of Sierra Self Storage Consulting in Tucson, AZ, starts every facility audit by checking the cash drawer.

“If there are shortages in the cash drawer, further investigation is needed on how much is missing,” he said. “If it balances, then I may look into petty cash to see if all tools and supplies bought for the facility are accounted for.”

4. Don’t be a sucker: raise those rents!

The same people skills that make a good manager often prevent them from raising rents, according to Matt Van Horn, vice president of Cutting Edge Self Storage Management in Port St. Lucie, FL.

“Being a storage manager is like being a bartender without alcohol; you hear about everyone’s problems because most people are using storage for some kind of life change – moving, a new job, divorce,” he said.

5. Mind your occupancy

As counterintuitive as it may seem, 100 percent occupancy is not only not the goal; it’s usually a sign you’ve screwed up.

You sell space after all, so without some, you’re turning customers away, not to mention failing to get top dollar for your facility. As a rule of thumb, you want to start bumping rents as you approach 90 percent full, thinning the herd so you can move new customers in at a higher rate.

6. Hammer out your training

Although it may not be apparent to the casual observer, a facility that consistently trains its employees fair far better than those that don’t.

“You can absolutely tell; they fill faster and tend to do better,” said Mike Mele, first vice president of the Mele Group at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services of Florida.

7. Automate collections

Phil Murphy, owner of 14 Next Door Storage facilities, never looked back after automating collections calls.

“Once you free up management from ‘dialing for dollars,’ all of a sudden you have a lot more time to handle leads, do follow-ups and rent units,” he explained.

8. Meet a niche need

One thing about storage space: it’s versatile. Just ask Daryl Henline, who oversees seven band practice spaces as manager of Bridge Storage and Art Space near San Francisco.

“Our seven band spaces rent for 15 percent more than our 11 other 10x25s,” he said. “Our plan is to build the rest out as band spaces.”

Resolve to identify artists, musicians, craft brewers and other passionate pastimes in your area and customize your space to their needs.

9. Feel the (audit) burn!

Veteran Virginia-based storage consultant Jim Chiswell says regular financial audits are the key to keeping your facility in top shape.

“You go in and literally look at the lifestyle of the facility,” he said. “I tell the manager, ‘Listen, this is going to be worse than an IRS audit because I know the questions to ask.’ I know the corners to look in to find the skeletons.”

10. Invest in the facility

Carl Touhey, cofounder and president of Performance Self Storage Group of Redwood City, CA says you can’t go wrong by making your place look right.

“In today’s world, it’s essential. For the biggest bang, clean up the front landscaping and redo the office,” he said.

The post 10 Self-Storage Owner New Years Resolutions appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

Don’t rely on newspaper and Yellow Pages ads to bring in apartment and condo customers, though.

“None of that works anymore,” said Marc Goodin, co-founder of Storage Authority, a self-storage franchisor in Fort Lauderdale, FL. “Guerrilla marketing” is how you snare new customers from condo and apartment communities,” he said.

“It doesn’t take a lot of money but it does take a lot of effort,” said Goodin. “The problem is, everybody thinks it’s easy but it actually takes work.”

In other words, it’s time to hit the pavement and make your facility memorable to leasing managers and their tenants.

Develop Relationships.

Visit the apartment manager’s office four or five times a year.

“That way, you get to know them, and they get to know you,” said Goodin. “Every time, drop off some different type of information.”

Find out when that community’s high rental season is. Offer to display the complex’s materials at your storage facility in exchange for them hanging your flyer on the clubhouse bulletin board. Get to know leasing staff so they’ll hand your brochure to everyone who moves in or out.

One of Goodin’s facilities rented 67 units for one month to tenants of an apartment complex who couldn’t move in on the date promised due to construction delays.

“They thought of us because they knew us, even though there were three or four self-storage places in the same area,” Goodin said.

Leave a tangible reminder.

When leaving promotional materials with apartment managers, go for something three-dimensional, not just more paper, which often gets tossed in the trash, said Anne Ballard, president of marketing, training and developmental services at Universal Storage Group, an Atlanta, GA-based self-storage operator.

Ballard drops off bags of popcorn labeled with a catchy slogan like “Popping out of your space? Pop into ours!” Give apartment leasing staff candy-filled stadium cups that display the storage facility’s logo and phone number, tied with a bow and referral card.

Reward referrals.

Rick Yonis, president of Sentry Self Storage in Coral Springs, FL, offers leasing managers anywhere from $25 to $100 for referrals, depending on the unit size rented. Occasionally, an ownership group may not want apartment managers compensated with cash. “In that case, we might use a gift card or send lunch,” Yonis said.

Host events.

Sentry likes to sponsor cookouts at neighboring apartment complexes. If 50 people show up for your mid-summer barbecue, that’s dozens of potential self-storage customers under one roof. Whenever a nearby complex has an open house or a meet and greet, Sentry sets up a table with promotional materials.

Spread the word on social media.

People don’t get on Twitter to read about 10 x 10 storage units every day. Use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to promote events like cookouts, condo and apartment open houses or sponsorship of a 5K run.

Design custom specials.

Ballard once sent one of her self-storage managers across the street to find out which kind of floor plan that apartment complex most needed to sell. The manager learned that there was barely any storage in the apartments and worked out a deal to offer new tenants a free storage unit — paid for by the apartment complex — for a year as part of their apartment lease.

“Our storage rent was cheaper than giving away apartment rent, and they still got the $25 referral fee for every person they sent to us,” Ballard said.

The post How to market your facility to apartment communities appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

Security is the number two factor in choosing self-storage, according to a 2014 consumer survey conducted by SpareFoot, edged out by price but still ahead of location, access hours, cleanliness and friendliness.

“There are steps you can take and low-cost methods you can employ to minimize your property as a target,” said Jerry Quarles, a crime prevention officer with the police department in Mesa, AZ.

“Facility operators who take a proactive approach will send burglars looking elsewhere,” Quarles said.

Security experts and police use a program called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), said Timothy Zehring , a security expert who specializes in self-storage facilities.

The CPTED program focuses on four key areas of security:

1. Surveillance

Take a walk around and look for possible access areas into and out of your storage facility. Zehring searches for places where non-customers could jump over or crawl under a fence. For potential trespass areas, plant some thorny bushes, enhance lighting and install a surveillance camera in that spot.

“If anything hinders surveillance, those are the things you need to fix,” said Zehring.

Rows of units may be hidden from office view. That’s why you need a combination of organized surveillance such as a staffer driving around the property along with cameras and convex mirrors. You also need to have some type of surveillance after hours, Zehring said.

In addition to your own security audit, ask local police to check for vulnerable points. It’s better to be proactive than reactive by having police do a security survey before a crime occurs, said Quarles.

“We will walk the site, thinking about how a criminal might access your property and units. We will then make recommendations on how to harden the target,” Quarles said.

Call a security products company, which can send someone out to pinpoint weak spots that can be eliminated or reduced with keypads, cameras or alarm systems.

2. Access control

Storage facilities like to offer 24-hour access to customers but keep in mind that “burglars love 24-hour access,” said Zehring. “If they go in at 2 a.m., no one is there.”

Keep track of who comes and goes with a keypad at the gate where tenants have to type in a PIN. That way, management can review the record for suspicious entries and exits.

“You can tell if someone got in by tailgating or ask, ‘Why are these people staying here until four in the morning?” said Gary Carland, business development manager for PTI Security Systems.

Limit gate hours and change customer PINs every couple months, since codes get passed to friends and relatives. Control access to storage units by securing them with disc locks or “some lock that cannot be cut,” said Zehring. Place anti-tamper security tape on all locks so you can tell with a glance whether someone cut the lock.

Nowadays, self-storage customers generally expect units armed with door alarms, said Carland. Storage alarms average around $120 per unit (depending on the technology and quality) but facilities with alarms have a higher occupancy rate, fill up faster, and command higher rent, he said.

3. Activity support

Don’t spend all your time in the office. Get out and shake hands with tenants, said Zehring. Make several passes through the facility to check things out. “If you’ve got lots of activity going on, that will support the safety of the property,” Zehring said.

Photo credit: Wisconsin K9 SOS

Partnering with law enforcement also sends a message that your facility isn’t an easy mark. Applewood Self Storage in Madison, WI, teamed up with the Madison Police Department to conduct ongoing training for the K-9 unit’s officers and drug-sniffing dogs at both of its facilities. Applewood also partners with Wisconsin K-9 SOS, a team of professional rescuers.

4. Territoriality.

What impression do you give about who is controlling your property? Is your fence in disrepair? Are weeds thriving next to scattered litter? Thieves look for things like that.

“It’s an environmental clue,” said Zehring. “When burglars see that management is asleep at the wheel, that’s an invitation to crime,” he said.

The post 4 keys to securing your self-storage facility appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

Here are some creative ways to spread a little love around to your self-storage tenants this holiday season:

Host an open house

Send e-mail to tenants (and post signs) inviting them to stop by your office for hot chocolate, apple cider and cookies. Experts say it doesn’t have to be a fancy affair.

“It can be as simple as in the middle of the month—maybe a Thursday and Friday – and say, ‘We’re having a customer appreciation day. Come on by and we’re going to have cake and goodies and prizes,’” said Anne Ballard, president of marketing, training and developmental services at Atlanta-based Universal Storage Group.

Hot cider on a cold day is small gesture that can go along way with customers.

Partner with a charity

You can also combine your party with a food, coat or blood drive, which sends a strong message that your property is a key part of the community.

“The best event is one you tie into a local charity,” Ballard said. “Collect cans, coats or food or pair up with local churches and get a drive going for whatever they need.”

Roseville, CA-based LifeStorage launches a big campaign every November for Toys for Tots and ties it into their open house.

“When customers bring in a toy we put their name in a raffle,” said Michelle Wight-Sands, LifeStorage’s director of operations. “Every week we raffle off prizes, gift cards, a free month’s rent or gift boxes. That’s something we do to help motivate our customers to give, but we want to give back to our customers as well with some fun gifts and prizes.”

Serve up breakfast

Several of Ballard’s stores choose a day to serve drive-thru breakfast to tenants.

“They just show up at the keypad and are served some kind of breakfast goodie,” Ballard said. “It doesn’t have to cost a lot; it just needs to be clever and creative so your customers know you’re really thanking them for storing with you, because they could be storing with someone else.”

Free turkeys

One year, Universal Storage Group promoted “Stuff yourself, not your closet,” and gave away free frozen turkeys for renting during November.

Elmwood Self Storage set up a wrapping station to reward tenants.

Become ‘holiday central’

Offer a “Santa’s Workshop” for customers with a free gift-wrapping station in a vacant storage unit and provide the necessities—wrapping paper, bows, scissors, tape and nametags.

For example, Elmwood Self Storage and Wine Cellar in Harahan, LA, decorates their facility for the season and sets up folding tables in a 10-by-20 unit for tenants to wrap gifts. They serve apple cider and cookies and designate one Saturday for tenants to get their kids’ or pets’ photos taken with Santa.

“For the stores that do that program right, it’s very successful because you can market it not only to your own customers but to local retailers to send their customers to wrap for free. It’s a dual-purpose marketing and thank-you event,” Ballard said.

Send a card

While some stores mail out holiday cards, others send them electronically through e-mail blasts. If you’re going to mail cards, consider sending a gas or coffee gift card to your longer-term customers, Ballard said.

“One year, one of our very high-end stores with a wine cellar sent a note to tenants who had been renting over five years, saying, ‘We have a gift bottle of wine for you if you come into the office,’” Ballard said. “It’s very nice to give our best customers a little something extra.”

Wight-Sands said LifeStorage sends out holiday cards thanking customers for their patronage and adds a coupon for a discount on their boxes and packing supplies.

Elmwood Self Storage in New Orleans goes all out for Christmas.

Give small gifts

Marlene Corpus, marketing director for 21st Century Storage and a self-storage consultant, knows everybody loves a freebie, so offering a small logoed-gift can go a long way.

“Every manager should have something to offer for free on a weekly or monthly basis,” Corpus said. “Our managers give all customers a free porcelain coffee mug with every new rental.”

During holiday customer appreciation events, Sue Haviland suggests having calendars made and handing them out. Haviland is owner of San Francisco-based Haviland Storage Services and a partner at consulting firm Self Storage 101.

Perks for tenants

“In the past, we have waived a late fee in December,” Haviland said. “I’ve also had a couple of clients that have a drawing in December for either a free month or a prize.”

Corpus believes in “refreshing and reviving” customers on move-in day and offers a free Starbucks coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

The post 8 ways to show customer appreciation this holiday season appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

After a long dry spell, self-storage construction is once again ramping up. Yet developers who are moving forward with new construction and redevelopment projects are finding they are back to square one when dealing with cities. Obtaining the necessary zoning, city approvals and permits can be a lengthy and challenging process.

“As the development window opened, the reality is that it opened for a number of potential developers,” said Todd Amsdell president and CEO of Cleveland, OH-based Amsdell Companies, a self-storage developer and operator of Compass Self Storage.

Construction activity is on the rise for self-storage, as well as other property types such as multifamily, industrial and retail. That creates more competition for sites, as well as more options for communities.

Competing with other uses

The zoning itself is not more restrictive than it has been in the past, according to Amsdell.

“But, as communities see the opportunity to develop other product types, as they were seeing prior to 2006 and 2007, they start to become less open to the idea of self-storage,” Amsdell said.

Some cities are less willing to work with self-storage developers when they have interest from developers who want to build industrial or retail property on a site, which often bring more jobs and tax revenue.

For example, Amsdell Companies started working on a new self-storage development project in south Florida about two years ago. “When we started the project, our view was that the city was on board,” said Amsdell.

Fast forward two years and now the community leaders believe there is a higher and better use for the site and the project has stalled.

“As the economic climate has gotten better, their willingness to work with us has diminished,” Amsdell said.

Compass Self Storage under construction in Mansfield, TX. Photo via Storage Concepts Development

Educating municipalities

The ease of getting the necessary zoning, approvals and permits for a new greenfield self-storage project or even a redevelopment is very much a case-by-case basis that varies from municipality to municipality, said Norman Schulman, CEO at Sentry Self Storage, a full-service management and consulting company based in Coral Springs, FL.

For example, Sunrise is one Florida city that removed self-storage from its zoning entirely 20 years ago. In nearby Coral Springs, that city applies a special use to self-storage development, meaning that a developer can’t just go in by right. The city has to look at and approve a specific site for self-storage use.

Taking the time to educate municipalities on the product and the design can help smooth the way. A lot of the zoning that was written years ago is in place because of an outdated view of self-storage with metal garage buildings and gravel driveways. The industry has changed over the past two decades with beautiful properties that can conform to what a municipality wants, such as a retail-style property or more vertical storage developments, said Schulman.

“A lot of it is educating the municipalities to understand that,” Schulman said.

Make a positive impact

Each city views self-storage in its own way, Amsdell said. Some cities might allow for self-storage in areas that are zoned for light industrial uses, while others view self-storage as retail. In addition, zoning districts can include exclusions or carve-outs, such as an industrial zone that prohibits the addition of chemical plants, junkyards – or self-storage.

Even with the correct zoning, some cities may be able to block a project just because they don’t like the design, Amsdell said.

One of the steps that can help to get city leaders on board is if a developer can demonstrate a clear positive impact that a project will have on a community, such as taking a vacant or blighted property and converting it to a viable storage business.

Other good advice is to sit down and talk to the community early on to help gauge whether there will be support, or if it might be an uphill battle to try to push a project through the permitting and approval process.

“It all comes down to people and their interpretation. It’s never black and white and simple when you have people making decisions,” Amsdell said.

The post Navigating zoning laws in the new development cycle appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.

The climate-controlled facility recently signed a new tenant that has transformed the rooftop on the two-story building into an urban farm.

Planting seeds

Five years ago, Wave Self Storage owner Beau Reinberg was living with his wife and children in downtown St. Louis. His wife was involved in community garden program where she rented a plot from Urban Harvest to grow fresh produce for their family. Reinberg was helping out with the watering one day and happened to meet Urban Harvest Director Mary Ostafi and her husband Joe.

“They mentioned that they were happy to have the community garden going, but their ultimate goal was to establish a rooftop farm as a pilot to show the benefits of rooftop and urban agriculture and how it can work well in cities,” Reinberg said.

Wave Self Storage in St. Louis found a way to turn its rooftop into a revenue source with community benefits.

One of the big stumbling blocks for expansion for the non-profit has been finding available land for long-term lease. Most of the property downtown was either already in use by buildings or parking lots, or was very expensive.

Reinberg pointed to his nearby building and asked, “Would that work?”

From roof to garden

In fact, it did work. It took about four years of planning and extensive fundraising for it to get off the ground. But, Urban Harvest opened its Food Roof Farm on the roughly 9,000-square-foot roof of the storage facility this past summer.

Urban Harvest installed a green roof system on the entire roof of the self-storage facility. They are using part of the roof for rooftop soil farming. They also are using raised beds for a community garden, hydroponic towers, container gardening and a greenhouse.

Taking an unused space and transforming it into space that a community can use is a growing trend nationally, especially in urban centers where green space is in short supply. At the same time, property owners are increasingly recognizing the rooftop as an underutilized building amenity that can add value to a property. Building owners are converting those rooftops to community gardens, rooftop restaurants or other event space as a way to add value.

“Part of our purpose is to use this as a pilot and demonstration project and to learn from it and put together best practices so that we can scale up to be most efficient,” Ostafi said.

Farm with benefits

Wave Self Storage is cashing in on a number of benefits from its new tenant. Urban Harvest pays rent for its rooftop space at Wave Self Storage—close to $10,000 per year.

Another financial incentive is savings on utility costs created by added insulation. The “green roof” keeps the building cooler during the summer and warmer during the winter. The 17,000-square-foot-facility has 250 climate controlled storage units on three levels including the basement. The expectation is that the Food Roof Farm will generate utility savings of 20 to 30 percent during the summer and up to 40 percent during the winter, Reinberg said.

Food Roof Instagram Pt.1 from Suede Media Co. on Vimeo.

Adding the rooftop garden made further sense for Wave Self Storage because Urban Harvest paid to put a brand new roof on the building that would be able to accommodate the farm over the long-term.

Creating a green roof also has broader sustainability benefits for a community in that it helps to reduce the heat island effect, mitigate storm water run-off, increase biodiversity and clean the air, Ostafi said.

“Doing something good for the community and leveraging the market value of that for their business is another reason for building owners to get excited about putting rooftop farms on their buildings,” Ostafi said.

Making it work

Roof farms will not work in every situation.

The biggest determining factor is structural capacity to support the added weight of a rooftop farm or garden. It also is important to look at the quality of the roof. The roof needs to be sound in order to act as a waterproofing membrane and a root barrier for the plants. It also has to be a flat roof with good sun exposure, which is not always easy in cities where there are a lot of tall buildings.

A harvest of Scotch Bonnet peppers, just one of the many crops grown on the Food Roof Farm.

One of the things that really made the Food Roof Farm work is the caliber of people behind the project, Reinberg said.

Ostafi has a background in architecture, and the group also did its homework. They visited other rooftop farms, such as the Brooklyn Grange Farm in New York, and talked with farmers to get an idea of what worked and what didn’t.

Urban Harvest is a very professional organization that has done a good job of keeping their operation clean and well maintained, Reinberg said. The positive publicity for the project has increased traffic to the storage facility.

“In fact, we have already gotten a few new tenants from that,” Reinberg said.

The post Rooftop farm lands on St. Louis self-storage facility appeared first on Self Storage Blog: The Storage Facilitator.