Quick reintroduction: I’m Kevin. Firefighter. 36. Wife, 3 kids (5 and under) I bought my first house at 19 during the worst housing crash in modern history. Ended up buying about 50 more over the next 5 years. Quit two corporate jobs before 25. Moved to Australia for a year to figure out what I actually wanted. Turns out it wasn’t to sit behind a desk and work a 9-5 or to manage a bunch of homes. Today I own 12 self-storage facilities across 4 states (acquiring more each year), run a hard money lending business, and coach people getting into storage. Things I believe that most people in real estate won’t say out loud: * High occupancy can be a trap * Most coaching programs are marketing funnels disguised as education * Real estate isn’t passive. Run from whoever tells you it is. * A $500K storage facility in a small town will outperform a $2M multifamily in a “hot market” 9 times out of 10 * Automation is overrated if your processes are broken - you’re just automating chaos faster * You don’t need to quit your W-2 to build real wealth I post real numbers, real mistakes, real lessons learned, and real operations. No fluff. What’s one question you have about self-storage or real estate investing? Drop it below or DM me - I’ll answer every one.

Building businesses is fun. Building a life you don't want to escape from is better.

Bought 3 houses at auction Sept 1. 1 in escrow 1 listed 1 in rehab Bought 4 houses Oct 6 auction. 1 in eviction process 1 reverted back to owner 1 listed 1 in rehab Interesting housing market right now Makes me really appreciate self storage

You have $500,000 cash and want to invest in real estate. Are you: A) Buying a cash-flowing self-storage facility B) Flipping houses to grow your capital C) Buying rentals for long-term appreciation D) Sitting on cash waiting for a crash What are you doing and why?

Only 2% of you said underwriting is what's stopping you. That's the problem. Underwriting is the one skill that protects you from everything else. Bad deals don't kill investors. Bad math on decent-looking deals does. Here's how I underwrite every storage facility: 1) In-place NOI only. I pay for what the facility makes today. Not what the broker says it could make. The upside is my reward for doing the work, not something I pay the seller for. 2) Rebuild the expenses. Never trust the seller's P&L. Small owners skip management, payroll, software, and repairs because they do it themselves. I plug in what it costs me to run it. 3) Reassess the property taxes. When the facility sells, the county can reassess it. The seller's tax bill isn't yours. 4) The 100x rule. Price (typically) shouldn't exceed 100x monthly gross rent for small town storage. A facility collecting $5,000 a month tops out around 500K. Fast filter. Kills most overpriced deals in 30 seconds. 5) Check supply. Roughly 7 square feet of storage per person is my benchmark. Way over that and you're fighting for every tenant. Verify by calling competitors and assessing vacancy 6) Four hard gates. Going-in cap rate, year 1 cash-on-cash, debt coverage, and the 100x rule. Fail one and the deal is likely dead. 7) Verify what isn't on the spreadsheet. I cancelled a deal this year after one call to the state environmental agency. The numbers worked. The dirt didn't. Here's why this connects to everything else: Can't find deals? You can't recognize one.
 Can't raise capital? Partners fund numbers, not enthusiasm. 
Scared to operate? Good underwriting already priced in the cost of running it right. Underwriting is the skill that makes every other part of this business easier.

Just dropped $10,700 on an 11-night Airbnb stay in Orange County. Not on the beach. That’s almost $1,000/night I thought Airbnb owners were getting crushed? Apparently some markets didn’t get the memo. Maybe I should’ve bought more Airbnbs instead of self-storage facilities..

We tried this at one of our storage facilities. By morning, 14 raccoons were living in a 5×5 and the one on the lease was asking for 50% off the first 3 months. 🦝

20% of you said you’re scared of operating a storage facility. Fair. Nobody wants a second job. But here’s what most people picture: sitting in an office, answering the phone, chasing late payments, dealing with a guy living in his unit. Here’s what it actually looks like when it’s set up right: I live in California. I've owned facilities in Texas, North Dakota, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Kentucky. That only works because of systems, not effort. Online rentals. Tenants find the unit, sign the lease, and pay online. No office. No office hours. Autopay. Most tenants on autopay means most rent collects itself. Cloud management software. Rent roll, payments, late fees, and lien notices all run automatically. Gate access and cameras. Tenants get a code. You see the property from your phone. A local part-timer. Someone in town for a few hours a week. Walks the property, cleans out vacated units, cuts locks, handles anything physical. A VA or call center for phones and follow-up. Calls, collections, and tenant questions handled without you. Written processes. Move-ins, move-outs, delinquencies, auctions. Write it once. Hand it off forever. Now the honest part. It’s not zero work. Delinquencies happen. Auctions happen. Something breaks. A tenant calls angry. The difference is whether that lands on your phone or goes to a system you built. Most people aren’t scared of operating storage. They’re scared of operating it without systems. And the one nobody voted for, underwriting at 2%? That’s the one that matters most. Post #4 is next.

33% of you said capital is what's stopping you from buying your first storage facility. Here's the truth: capital is rarely the real problem. 1) Seller financing. The best tool for small rural deals. The owner who built it 25 years ago often wants monthly income, not a lump sum and a tax bill. 10 to 20% down, he carries the rest. 2) SBA loans. As little as 10% down on an owner-operated business. Slower and more paperwork, but it's how a lot of first deals get done. 3) Local and community banks. They know the town, they know the facility, and they lend on relationships. The big banks won't look at a 60-unit deal. The local bank will. 4) Partners. You bring the deal and do the work. They bring the cash. Split the equity. Your first deal doesn't have to be 100% yours. 5) Private lenders. Higher rates, faster closes. Best as a bridge, not a long-term plan. 6) Self-directed retirement accounts. Yours or a partner's. More rules, but real money sitting idle. 7) Combine them. Seller carries 30%, the bank takes 60%, a partner covers the 10% down. Most small deals get done this way. What to avoid: putting your house on the line for deal #1. Start small enough that a bad year doesn't touch your family. A $500K facility with seller financing might need $50K to $75K down. That's not "I need millions." That's a hard year of saving or one good partner. You don't have a capital problem. You have a deal problem. Go back to post #1.

Why is my gas oven dying after 7 seconds?

The AirBnB options in and around Laguna Niguel / Laguna Hills are awful.

46% of you said finding deals is what’s stopping you. 2% said underwriting. Those are the same problem. If you’re looking on LoopNet and Crexi, you’re not finding deals. You’re bidding against funds. The real deals are in small towns. 30 to 200 units. Owner built it 25 years ago. No website. Rates haven’t moved in years. He isn’t listing. He’s waiting for someone to call. Here’s where to find him: 1. Google Maps. Pick a town of 2,000 to 20,000 people and search “storage.” No website, few reviews, landline number? Lead. 2. Direct to owner. County assessor for the name, Secretary of State for the LLC, skip trace for the phone. Call first, mail second. 3. Direct mail. Every owner in your target markets. The deal comes on the 4th or 5th letter, not the 1st. 4. Small local brokers. They see storage once or twice a year and call whoever closed last time. 5. Stale listings. 6+ months on market. The seller has softened and the other buyers are gone. 6. Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Small owners list there. Serious buyers don’t look. 7. Your network. Attorneys, CPAs, and lenders know who’s retiring or settling an estate before anything hits the market. 8. Other operators. The tired guy with three facilities wants out more than you think. Now the part nobody wants to hear: If you can’t underwrite a facility in 10 minutes, you’ll scroll past the good one and miss it when it comes. Then you call it “no deals.” You don’t need all 8. Pick 2. Do them every week for 6 months. You'll be amazed at the results. There are deals. There isn’t consistency. Capital was #2 at 33%. That’s next.

What's actually stopping you from buying your first self-storage facility?

Two of my self-storage students just went UNDER CONTRACT on their first deals. Both started with zero facilities. Now they’re one step closer to becoming owners. This is my favorite part of coaching. Watching people go from analyzing deals and second-guessing themselves to actually taking action. You don’t need to know everything to get started. You just need to start. Now let’s get these deals to the closing table!

Refrigerator leaked so need some hardwood flooring repair. Guy comes over - $800. Fair deal. Wife asks what it cost to replace all the hardwood floor in the entire house. He left. I put my foot down. Not replacing 5 year old flooring. Hard no. Nope. Love you, but no! So guess who’s getting any entire house worth of new hardwood flooring next week?

Everyone wants to own self-storage because it’s “passive income.” Until you’re on the phone with a guy who’s 4 months behind on rent, has $300 worth of junk in his unit, and is threatening to sue you for $10 million. Real estate is a beautiful business.