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Start Here - Welcome to Freedom Through Storage 🚀
I’m Shane Chapin (The Storage Mentor), and I’m excited to have you here! This community exists to help people break free from the rat race and build real freedom through self-storage investing. To get started: 👉 Go to the Classroom 👉 Open the Start Here course 👉 Follow the first few pages to get oriented Everything you need to begin your journey is inside that course. You’re not stuck. You're not behind. You're just getting started. Welcome to the journey! - Shane
Live Q&A Calls Cancelled
Happy Monday! Unfortunately I am unable to continue hosting our live Q&A calls on Thursday's. Feel free to post any questions you may have here in the community and give others a chance to help. I appreciate those of you that have been on the calls and engaging with others. Feel free to reach out directly if I can help in any way.
🚨 What's Possible in Self Storage? 🚨
This facility just hit the market again... And seeing it brought back a lot of memories because we used to own it. Here's the story. Back in 2021, another investor called me with a lead they didn't have time to pursue. At the time, I was very vocal about wanting facilities with 20,000+ square feet in the Southeast, and this one checked all the boxes. ✅ As we dug into the offering package, one number jumped off the page immediately... 👉 57% expense ratio. That was our opportunity. The facility was owned by a respected self-storage coach and several of their students, so we knew we'd have to look deeper than most investors would. When we started peeling back the layers, we found: • Expensive third-party management • High delinquency • Multiple abandoned units full of trash • Gates and cameras not functioning properly • Poor operational oversight And then we found something even better... Several units were listed as 5x5 units renting for around $25/month. The problem? They weren't 5x5s. They were actually 10x10s. Just correcting the unit mix added roughly 2,000 NRSF to the property on paper without building a single square foot. Think about that for a second. No expansion. No construction. No rezoning. Just better operations and better management. This is why I constantly tell people that value-add investing isn't always about building more units. Sometimes the biggest opportunities are hiding in plain sight. 📍 Purchased: November 2021 💰 Purchase Price: $560,000 Over the next 16 months we: ✅ Cut expenses ✅ Improved operations ✅ Fixed management issues ✅ Corrected unit data ✅ Increased revenue ✅ Added value 📍 Sold: March 2023 💰 Sale Price: $1.2 Million Now it's back on the market listed around $1 Million. The lesson? Most investors are looking for the next shiny object. The best investors look for inefficiencies. Value isn't always created with a bulldozer. Sometimes it's created with a spreadsheet, a phone call, and a willingness to dig deeper than everyone else.
🚨 What's Possible in Self Storage? 🚨
Crexi Intelligence vs. TractIQ
When it comes to TractIQ, I am hearing that a lot of the information they pull is incorrect. The last person to tell me this said it is more incorrect data than there is correct! Other than a demo, I have not used TractIQ in a real world scenario. I have dabbled in Crexi Intelligence though and found the data to be fairly accurate at the time. One of the big Crexi benefits that i am aware of is that they can pull mortgage data as well as all owner contact info. Investors will use this data to find loans that are coming due due to a balloon payment and try to find an opportunity. Curious to hear your thoughts on either of these platforms, or if you have found another platform that has worked well for you. Is anyone using either of these on a regular basis and can speak on your experience? https://www.crexi.com/ https://tractiq.com/
Crexi Intelligence vs. TractIQ
No Q&A Call Today: 7/2/2026
Unfortunately I am unable to conduct the live q&a today. You can post any questions you have here in the community as well and we can get them knocked out before next week! Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!
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Freedom Through Storage
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A community helping people break free from the rat race and build real freedom through self-storage investing.
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