I started to put some in about 5 years ago....wish the hell I had now....

Liquor stores and mini storage...never seen either one go out of business.

Pee Wee storage on Tawakoni looks like it went out of business. That place cracks me up every time I drive by it.

In 1984 I had a chance to buy Public Storage stock at the IPO. Chose something else. Kick myself every time I drive past one.

Have a friend who use to have one. Furnished his house with stuff from units from people who did not pay. However, he bought it when it was very old and not in a very good part of town.
He had 12 units and I think he said it took 8 to make his payment and one to pay for water/electric. But after paid off, it was great for him and he sold it for a lot more than he paid for it.

I hear this story all the time....

I missed the opportunity to buy one about a mile from my house at the entrance to a lake. It also included a single family residence that was currently leased.

I thought they wanted a little too much for it and got busy with life waiting to give it some time and forgot about it. Drove by it a week ago and had a sold sign on it.

Me too. All ready owned a long five acres across the road from PK. 15'x40' boat storage would have been perfect. Ended up selling it to a dock builder. PK Docks.

I seriously looked into the storage/garage condo concept several years ago when it was new. It's a build it and and sell it vs long term investment, with your clients being folks who have much disposable income.

This company had been at it the longest http://garagetown.com/ and is who I was considering going with. They somewhat helped me convince myself I didn't know enough about real estate/construction to get into it for the money it would have taken to start. They have a couple of places down in Houston, they haven't grown much overall...

This company has been busy around the metroplex https://garagesoftexas.com/

I did a web business instead which fulfilled my entrepreneurial need.

Charlie

I know several miniwarehouse owners. The only complaint I get from them is not enough space to build more! Climate control is kinda a must nowadays. Most minis are easy to add climate control. I've designed several types and sizes including converting a large metal building into climate controlled minis. PM me if you like. I'll give you my phone number and we can talk about it.

Years ago Mueller Supply had a builders package for storage units. It was one of those packages that came in multiples of 12. All you needed was he land, the kits and someone to put them together.

This may be a terrible idea. I have not thought this through, so don’t me.

It crossed my mind awhile back.
Find a lot. Some sort of foundation.

All the storage units would be shipping containers, nicely painted in various cool colors.
Add a good fence/gate/cameras.

I’m big on nice landscaping too.

Advertise as a modern/hip/ repurposing type of facility for all the Californians needing storage.

That could be a good marketing play.

Then you could put their storage unit on a trailer and send it all back to California...hopefully them along with it

Actually not a bad idea at all. I've been quoted around $35-40/sq ft to build non-climate controlled units.

An 8x40 container is around $2500....$8/sq ft. Add concrete foundation for $6/ft and you could be all in at less than $20/sq ft delivered, painted, and ready to rent.

Most facilities rent a 10x20 unit for $100-150, so you could probably get $165-175 for full units and $80-90 for the 8x20's.

They are popping up everywhere for a reason! They are easy to maintain and no shortage of people willing to spend $1200 a year to store $100 worth of junk.

Sounds interesting. Some cities may give you some grief because they would not be permanent structures.

Sorry to bring this post back to life but I came across it when searching to see if there were any other storage facility owners on the forum!

My company (A-Affordable Storage) builds, owns, and operates RV, Boat, and Mini Storage facilities around Dallas/Ft. Worth. We have been doing it for about two and a half years now and have 5 facilities up and running with 3 more on the way. We specialize mainly on the boat and RV storage side of things as we like that model the best and believe there is a demand for nice, clean, safe places for people to store there toys. We have thoroughly enjoyed it and have big plans for expanding since it has been such a great business.

I know a lot of guys and gals on here have boats and RVs and I would love help out any THF members with any of your storage needs. We have locations in Mansfield, Midlothian, Granbury, Crowley, and Justin. We are also currently expanding into Aledo, Forney and Aubrey. You can give us a call and tell them you are a THF member and I will make sure the manager takes care of you!

Also, If any of you guys ever had any interest in getting involved in storage we have partners on some of the projects and I would be happy to meet for lunch to discuss how we operate and the opportunities.

It's genius. Americans ain't ever gonna stop buying crap they don't need so why not cash in?

And it also helps we still have 350,000 people moving into Texas every year! Top growing State

If you build it they will come... and put a whole lot of crap in it.

This...…...

"Actually not a bad idea at all. I've been quoted around $35-40/sq ft to build non-climate controlled units."

That sounds like highway robbery. Heck got this one built with a company out of Rockdale a couple years back , 40' x 60', (3) 14' roll up doors, insulated with a 6" slab floor for $48,000. They built a 50' x 60' for me out at the ranchito I sold 10 years ago for about the same. Krazy K Konstruction. Owner was talking about retiring so don't know if He is still in business. Fast and family owned at the time.

yes $35-$40 per sqft is extremely high. We building fully enclose on slab for at least half of that

My model has predominantly the RV canopy covers which are even less to build. These are the photos of a few of the buildings at my facilities.