Services

Regardless of your personal motivation for developing a storage portfolio—whether it’s creating a legacy for your children, generating an extra income stream, or using depreciation to offset other earnings—the ultimate shared goal is wealth creation. Over the long term, storage developers and operators aim to build wealth through income-generating assets, such as self-storage, boat and RV storage, storage condos, flex warehouses, or industrial outdoor storage, and then sell or refinance these assets for significantly more than the initial investment, yielding a substantial return.

Self-Storage Ninjas’ products and services assist you by:

• Constructing the most profitable facility your market can sustain in the shortest time possible

• Reducing costs

• Incorporating multiple exit strategies

Why Storage

If you’re here, you probably already know that owning a profitable storage facility or portfolio positively impacts health, wealth, and relationships by generating income with minimal time commitment, offering a nearly passive investment opportunity. The ability to manage the facility remotely provides flexibility, reducing stress and allowing owners to maintain a healthy work-life balance while staying engaged with their personal relationships. Additionally, the management options—whether self-managed, handled by a professional third-party company, or a combination of both—further enhance this balance, enabling owners to tailor their involvement to their lifestyle and priorities, thereby supporting overall well-being and financial growth.

Why Sensei

Self-Storage Ninjas' feasibility studies and services benefit storage developers by reducing the effort, time, and sacrifices needed to complete a self-storage, boat and RV storage, storage condo, flex warehouse, or industrial outdoor storage facility. Our services streamline the development process, minimizing both tangible costs like time and resources, and intangible burdens such as stress and uncertainty, ultimately helping developers achieve your goals more efficiently.

I’m Waffling: Should I Build, Buy or Invest in Something Else?

Relax, grasshopper, Sensei will help you think this through:

Building a Facility

Effort and Sacrifice: Building a storage facility requires significant upfront effort, including land acquisition, permitting, design, construction, and market research. It demands substantial time, capital, and expertise, with risks like construction delays, cost overruns, or unproven market demand.

Tangible Benefits: You gain a new asset tailored to market needs, potentially yielding higher returns (e.g., 8-12% cap rates for self-storage, per industry data). You control design and location, optimizing for profitability.

Intangible Benefits: Pride of creation, legacy building, and full control over operations.

Trade-Off: High initial risk and effort versus the potential for greater long-term returns and customization.

Buying a Facility

Effort and Sacrifice: Purchasing an existing facility involves less effort than building, but still requires due diligence, financing, and market analysis. You may need to renovate or reposition the asset, and you’re paying a premium for an established property (e.g., cap rates often 5-7% for stabilized facilities).

Tangible Benefits: Immediate cash flow, established tenant base, and lower development risk. You can start earning returns sooner.

Intangible Benefits: Reduced stress from avoiding construction risks, quicker entry into the market, and leveraging existing operational systems.

Trade-Off: Lower risk and faster returns, but at the cost of a higher purchase price and less control over design or location.

Investing in Other Assets (e.g., Stocks, REITs, or Other Real Estate)

Effort and Sacrifice: This requires the least operational effort—investing in stocks, REITs, or other real estate like multifamily or retail involves minimal management. However, you sacrifice control over the asset and may face market volatility or lower returns (e.g., REITs often yield 3-5% dividends).

Tangible Benefits: High liquidity (e.g., stocks can be sold quickly), diversification, and lower capital requirements compared to direct real estate ownership.

Intangible Benefits: Less stress from operational responsibilities, more time for other pursuits, and flexibility to adjust investments.

Trade-Off: Greater liquidity and lower effort, but potentially lower returns, less control, and exposure to broader market risks.

Sensei Sums it Up: Building offers the highest potential returns but demands the most effort and risk. Buying provides a middle ground with quicker returns but at a higher entry cost. Investing in other assets minimizes effort and risk but often sacrifices returns and control. The choice depends on your risk tolerance, time availability, and financial goals.

Benefits of Hiring a Feasibility Expert:

• Expertise and Market Insight: Self-Storage Ninjas brings specialized knowledge of self-storage, boat and RV storage and flex warehouse trends, demand analysis, and local market conditions, ensuring accurate site selection and financial projections.

• Time Efficiency: Sensei handle complex tasks like demographic studies, competitor analysis, and zoning research, saving you significant time and effort. Time is money and nowhere is that more true than in real estate development.

• Risk Mitigation: Self-Storage Ninjas identifies potential pitfalls (e.g., oversaturation, regulatory hurdles) that could derail your project, reducing financial and operational risks.

• Credibility with Partners: Detailed, professional reports from Self-Storage Ninjas enhance your pitch to lenders or investors, boosting funding prospects.

• Customized Strategies: Sensei tailors her recommendations to your specific goals, optimizing profitability for self-storage, RV/boat storage, or other facility types.

Why You Can’t Just Do This Yourself:

• Lack of Specialized Skills: Conducting thorough feasibility studies requires expertise in real estate analysis, construction costs, and storage industry metrics, which may be beyond your current knowledge base—skills mastered by Sensei.

• Access to Data: Self-Storage Ninjas has access to proprietary market data and tools (e.g., industry reports, traffic studies, comprehensive demographic data including the number of boat and RV owners in a trade area) that are often unavailable to individuals.

• Objective Perspective: Self-assessment can lead to bias or missed opportunities; Self-Storage Ninjas provides an impartial evaluation.

• Time Constraints: Balancing this with other responsibilities could delay your project or lead to incomplete analysis, increasing the chance of costly mistakes.

• Hiring Self-Storage Ninjas leverages Sensei’s experience to maximize success, while doing it yourself risks inefficiency and errors due to limited resources and expertise.

1

Thinking About Building: Getting Started

• Join Sensei’s Newsletter

• Schedule an Introductory Call

• Schedule Your First FREE Preliminary Report

• Successive Preliminary Reports

2

Help Finding a Viable Project (or Submarket)

• Reverse Feasibility Study

  • Focuses include self-storage, boat and RV storage, storage condos, contractor yards or flex warehouse

• Do-it-Together Market and Land Identification Package

  • Secure the right parcel for your self-storage, boat and RV storage, storage condo, flex warehouse facility or industrial outdoor facility within six months with Sensei’s help

• Do-it-For You Market and Land Identification Package

  • Sensei finds the right parcel for your self-storage, boat and RV storage, storage condo, flex warehouse facility or industrial outdoor facility within six months (e.g. Sensei does all the work and you write the check)

3

Validating Project

• Initial Feasibility and Market Study

  • After your preliminary research is completed, this initial study takes a hard look at the competition, rents, supply and demand to determine the market’s ability to support the proposed facility (also known as a Phase One Feasibility Report).

• Full Feasibility Study

  • This study gives you the information needed by your engineer/site plan designer, your lender and investors to build and fund your project.

• Acquisition Audit

  • To buy and expand an existing facility or not to buy and expand, that is the question. Sensei provides the answer with hard data and experience.