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Bree Hartman - From Gym Owner To Self-Storage · REL Freedom Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why I think storage is a great like asset class, and why I picked it is that I don't love hospitality.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: So some people, like right now, they love Airbnbs and they love making them look great, and they have they love that part of the community piece.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Storage is wonderful because it's a simple, stupid, keep it simple, stupid business with Automy.
• 0:22
  Mike Swenson: Welcome to the Real Freedom Show, where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate.
• 0:29
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:31
  Mike Swenson: Let's get some real freedom together.
• 0:38
  Mike Swenson: Hello, everybody.
• 0:39
  Mike Swenson: Welcome to another episode of Real Freedom where we talk about different ways that you can build time and financial freedom through different opportunities in real estate.
• 0:47
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:49
  Mike Swenson: If you want to get started on your real estate investing journey, check out our website, freedom throughrealestate.com.
• 0:56
  Mike Swenson: We've got a lot of great resources on there, podcast episodes, articles for you to read.
• 1:00
  Mike Swenson: It's really all about you finding your path and your journey with what resonates best based on your past situation.
• 1:06
  Mike Swenson: So I'm excited today to be able to share a great story with you for those that might be interested in self-storage.
• 1:11
  Mike Swenson: I've had a few people on over the years that do self-storage.
• 1:13
  Mike Swenson: I know it's something that's very intriguing for people.
• 1:16
  Mike Swenson: And so our guest today is Bree Hartman, went from being a gym owner to getting into self-storage.
• 1:21
  Mike Swenson: So love to talk about kind of that transition to real estate, how that works, and how you got into real estate investing.
• 1:26
  Mike Swenson: But now you run a self-storage school where you do kind of coaching and mentoring and helping people.
• 1:31
  Mike Swenson: So love to hear your journey transitioning into self-storage.
• 1:34
  Mike Swenson: So thank you for being on the show, Bree.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm so excited just to talk to you about it.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I was a yeah, gym owner um for the past gosh, it was five years.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got pregnant with my first kiddo, I was like maybe 10 weeks pregnant.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I hit that point where as a like you're expecting mom and you're like, oh my goodness, I I can't wake up at 5 30 a.m.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: and like work all the way to like 7 30, nor did I want to.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was my really big pivot, was where I woke up one night and I was like, I was listening to a podcast actually, and I we had an accidental rental.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we're I thought that really was gonna be like, okay, I want to own 20 different like homes in California.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I figured out really quickly that there was toilets, tenants, and then more problems really fast with service dogs.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that kind of led me down the line of like, what else is there?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want more like kind of like freedom and cash freedom, um, I I kind of went through that whole podcast like go and explore like what other asset classes and I heard about self-storage.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so when they kind of talked about that there was no tenants, no toilets, and you can have that cash flow and have automations, that was when my like light bulb went off.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So um, when I was like 10 weeks pregnant, I woke up in the middle of the night and I um actually bought a ticket to Las Vegas to go to the storage conference to be like, is this my thing?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you go and explore.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went there, um, bought like a$2,000 ticket to go all the way to this conference and didn't know one lick about storage, but I came back and I think it just being inspired that um, you know, you can go bigger.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was something that I was like, my one thing was gonna be to buy a storage facility in 2021 and sell my gym.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my little bit of that transition.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but yeah, it was it's been a big, gigantic roller coaster.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I think being a owner, like a business owner itself, um, you have a lot of skill sets and you have a lot of, you know, curiosity and one dot leads to the next dot.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was a little bit of the beginning about how I got into self-storage.
• 3:35
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, you touched on a few kind of common themes that we hear from people, which is, you know, kind of trying to pick your thing.
• 3:40
  Mike Swenson: And I also remind people, too, that it's okay to change, you know, like you may decide that self-storage is great and you want to build another leg on top of that in a different asset class in the future.
• 3:52
  Mike Swenson: And that's okay.
• 3:53
  Mike Swenson: I think sometimes people decide not to make a jump because they're waiting for the perfect thing, and so you don't really know what the perfect thing is until you get into it.
• 4:02
  Mike Swenson: And so kudos to you for going bold and doing something big.
• 4:05
  Mike Swenson: But if you got into self-storage and didn't like it, like you can then pivot and do something else too.
• 4:10
  Mike Swenson: And so I want to remind people that that's it's okay to change as you go, but uh, you know, a big piece of that is just taking action.
• 4:17
  Mike Swenson: So, what was that process like for you transitioning then, or what what happened with the gym business as you transitioned into real estate?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that was, I think you got I first started with like a big why was that my why was like, you know, hey, I I desired a different lifestyle.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because it's so fascinating.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: You, as your first time in business, you kind of I feel like I did everything wrong.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you do everything yourself, you build it out yourself, and you're like, you don't um it you have a hard time hiring, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's a this is there's a lot of new skill sets that come about.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I really think that like what happened was um with that big desire, I was like, okay, I'm gonna go buy a storage facility.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was underwriting as I was pregnant, I was training people all through the day.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then at nighttime, I was listening to webinars, I was analyzing deals, I was having conversations with my like people that I met at conferences.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, with the consistency, which is kind of crazy, and that big why for me was hey, like I want to do something more like in with my life and and reverse engineering it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that was actually my how we actually bought our first storage facility is I met um my two partners um at a conference in Idaho, middle of nowhere, but didn't even know them.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but met them and we just continued to bring deals.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like you nurture relationships after conferences.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, what they do is they go to conferences, get some knowledge, meet some cool people, and they come home and then they forget about them.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to like, we really nurtured and jumped and did a lot of analysis, and I just got better and better underwriting like a deal a day.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then actually my business partner came to me and was like, hey, I think I found us a deal.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was the turning point, which is really kind of crazy, is I ended up selling my gym um uh two months before giving birth.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also purchased a storage facility, like it was we six weeks after giving birth.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it was this like really crazy pivot of um, you know, but I I had a whole year of underwriting, a whole year of like I was learning about this asset class before pulling the trigger.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's something that is like you are constantly looking at deals or constantly saying, hey, can how can I find, you know, um financial partners?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then you pull the trigger and become an operator.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I remember, which is kind of crazy, is I had my my baby girl six weeks strapped to me.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually did a small business association loan, um, which means SBA loan.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so this is if you don't know, it's just a fancy word that um if you go out and you can get a business, you can actually do a government loan that is sponsored and you can put only 10 to 15% down instead of having to put 35% down that a traditional bank would ask.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so SBA was our perfect, you know, kind of savior of like, hey, we're getting in to storage, we want to make sure our equity is spread out.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was how we did our first deal.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was um$3.1 million.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we uh were and it was in Louisiana, out of all the places, like I'm in California.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Never thought that I would own a you know a property in Louisiana, but when a deal pencils, it pencils.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we took it down together.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So there's three of us total in that deal.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, one of my partners is a great operator, another partner is a great development.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then I do a lot of the marketing and the advertisement and then bringing new deals to the team as well.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's been a really great experience.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that that facility, which is really neat, it's 370 units.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Half of it is climate controlled, and the other half is um drive up.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also have um we immediately put in 67 RV and boat spots, so like new gravel, new area.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we also have a cell phone tower.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we created that facility that used to be it used to have a 40 um hour week employee.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: We actually created all a non-manned.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: So everything's automated, which is great.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I got into storage, was because I created my fitness business the wrong way.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I wanted to be able to work from home and be able to scale a business model or a vehicle that you can actually build wealth, which is cash flow for your lifestyle, in addition to, you know, financial independence and then to have life options for my family and my baby girl.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's been just a wonderful blessing.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're, you know, our goal we have 10 facilities to our portfolio in the next five years.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we're just we just sold one in South Carolina for a wholesale, which was kind of cool.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we are buying one in Arizona.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we just have such a sale agreement signed, which is exciting too.
• 8:49
  Mike Swenson: So you had talked about finding your partners.
• 8:51
  Mike Swenson: A lot of people probably listen to this have questions of like, what do those conversations look like?
• 8:56
  Mike Swenson: And for you to move forward with partners that you haven't worked with before, it's not like you're like, hey, I did 10 deals on my own and now I want to have a partner and work, but it sounds like you've got a pretty good division of labor too, and expectations and talking about who does what.
• 9:12
  Mike Swenson: So, kind of what what does that conversation look like when you were deciding, like, do I want to partner with these people?
• 9:17
  Mike Swenson: How does that work?
• 9:18
  Mike Swenson: And then kind of how do we put pen to paper to make sure we've got the roles and all that stuff figured out?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I want that's a great question.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I I want to like back up to because I think people from residential, um, I mean, like traditional residential, if you're long term, is like you're getting 200 to maybe$500 of cash flow every single month, maybe, and on a good day.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then in commercial, you know, between$4,000 and like$16,000 of cash flow each month.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have a bigger piece of the pie.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I actually came into commercial, you know, wanting to partner with my dad.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's family, it's no like and trust.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I um brought him deals.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: I spun my wheels for six months, bringing him deals, and every single one, um, it was no, you know, there's so much too much risk.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so I found out the hard way, right?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, daughter, father, sometimes it works, but um, they care about you, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And they want to protect you on all costs.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then his type of risk tolerance is different than my type of risk tolerance.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's in retirement.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm wanting to grow.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's just, it was interesting to be like, I think just to understand that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then to be able to go out to conferences and find your people, right?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: That want to scale and that want to um build something, you know, bigger than you.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was something that was really important to me to understand because I I always I truly believe, and I and I talked about this to my students, is that you don't have to do it alone.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think there's this mentality of like, I've got to find the deal, I've got to find the investors, I've got to be the operator, like I've got to do it all.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was my like, I think really big learning lesson in my first business is I thought that and that mindset kept me small.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so being able to explore, I always say explore the right partnerships is important.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then having those hard conversations because you as a as like a partner, I mean, this is this is another relationship.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is someone who you're going, you know, pretty much like dating because anything that happens to them can happen to you.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So to be a responsible partner, we we talked for a full month in our operating agreement, you know, we know exactly at the what happens at the end, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because in relationships, there's always sadly an end.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And no matter how you talk about it.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think that's the smart way, just like uh a marriage is like, hey, so if someone goes bankrupt, right, what happens?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: If someone um gets a divorce, what happens?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: What, you know, if someone dies, you know.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we went through all these scenarios and we actually were able to safe case each one of them, having open conversations and then come to the end knowing that, you know, hey, this is a solid partnership, that we understand, you know, what can happen at whatever these little pieces are and that we have each other's back, you know.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that really set us up for success um because uh we had hard conversations from the start.
• 12:02
  Mike Swenson: Now you talked about kind of comparing self-storage to some of the other classes.
• 12:05
  Mike Swenson: You know, obviously there's there's kind of more cash flow potential here earlier on for people that are considering like, oh my gosh, in real estate, there's all these different asset classes.
• 12:15
  Mike Swenson: I don't know which one to choose.
• 12:16
  Mike Swenson: What are some of the things that drew you to the self-storage?
• 12:20
  Mike Swenson: But then also too from like an operational standpoint, what are the things that are kind of the key bullet points to be thinking about as you're maybe trying to look at a deal and decide whether it makes sense or not?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I'm gonna start because that's like I feel like a three-part question, which I love.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for people that don't know too much about storage, like why I think storage is a great like asset class and why I picked it is that I don't love hospitality.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So some people like right now they love Airbnbs and they love making them look great and they have they love that part of the community piece.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Storage is wonderful because it's a simple, stupid, keep it simple, stupid business with automation, um, which I love.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we all come into business to not only do business, but to also provide value to a community too.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So storage is a you know, cinder block, I always say three-size cinder block building with a concrete floor and a roll-up door, and might not even have a light.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so to me, that is um, you know, our expense ratio in this asset class is 35%.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the standard ratio and with an industrial too.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if we go to multifamily, they're looking at 55% without debt.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you look at hotels, they're at 68%.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so storage, you have a huge larger margin, A for, you know, I we we call it margin of error for stupidity, you know, as a business owner.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then we call margin of error of cash flow, because that's what we're here to do is to have life options with our family and to provide a business that can actually help our family grow as well as financial wealth.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I love storage.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we also look at it and I'm fascinated.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever used storage in your lifetime?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like to store anything?
• 13:57
  Mike Swenson: Mm-hmm.
• 13:57
  Mike Swenson: We did when we moved houses when we were kind of uh decluttering and all that.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's so fast.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they call it like the four D's.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like how why people like one out of eight people use self-storage like in their lifetime.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's because of number one, the sad death, divorce, decluttering, and then disaster, natural disasters.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, people come to storage to store their stuff maybe seasonally or for a very long time.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's kind of it's a nice, you know, piece where maybe someone's downsizing or there's an estate sale, and people will put it in storage for, you know, maybe a year and it it becomes a subscription-based business because, you know, um normally like the wife, I'm the one that's like, I don't want stuff in my house.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather have it somewhere else.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we are a consumer economy, right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: So Amazon packages come all the time.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so people being able to put it into storage and then every single month kind of push the easy button because, you know, if um say I raise rates by eight to 10%, you know, that might be, man, like only$8 for you, but it's eight dollars times 200 units, right?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a big increase that can, you know, really affect your purchase, um, the increase of your purchase price of your facility.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I wanted to show this is that we love doing rate management.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and people will continue to pay because they're not gonna go on a Saturday, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Take the time out of their kids' football games or soccer games to go run a U-Haul or grab their friend's truck to go take their stuff because$8 was added on to go to another facility down the line.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be just eight dollars less.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So there really is a sticky part component to storage as well.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's not someone's immediate home, you know.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we aren't having to go through some of these laws and regulations that Airbnb and, you know, homeowners and um renters are gonna have to, you know, really deal with.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, there's just a lot of key pieces, I think, for me, that added up to being like, wow, this is a solid business model that I can take.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you do it one time.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes your first deal is the hardest.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you can take that model and put come and plop it on to another market.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you can build, that's how you you can build your portfolio is buying, you know, one facility, one to two facilities each year, right?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: You only need one to two to change your life.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was my biggest piece since how I got in.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and now we're just gonna re-circle circling that model over and over again.
• 16:21
  Mike Swenson: It's funny you mentioned that about uh short-term rentals.
• 16:23
  Mike Swenson: One of the the cities here in in the Minneapolis St.
• 16:26
  Mike Swenson: Paul area is just starting a conversation now about rental regulations and for short-term rentals and all that.
• 16:32
  Mike Swenson: And I was just thinking about how silly it would be of like, let's have a city council meeting to talk about whether or not we kick self-storage out of our city.
• 16:39
  Mike Swenson: You know, like that's that's not gonna happen.
• 16:41
  Mike Swenson: So very smart.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and we have some of those talks and we have lobbyists and that that kind of thing.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And we always, you know, it's like you you have to think about it, but at the same time, like we don't have to go through some of those regulations, you know, at this point in time.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um it helps to, you know, I think just safeguard the the ability of that asset class.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there's a lot of people from the Airbnb that, you know, are in trouble right now because they bought in 2020 and they bought too high.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, they're they're trying to figure out the occupancy and um and all those different things that can go up and down with the economy.
• 17:17
  Mike Swenson: And then you also mentioned, too, about you know, the the purchase that you made where it was a man facility.
• 17:22
  Mike Swenson: Now with technology, there's lots of ways to be able to, you know, take those people out of it, lower your costs, lower the the human error, you know, literally.
• 17:30
  Mike Swenson: And so that's one of those things where you can then scale in different ways because you're taking what you're learning, making it smarter, making it more efficient.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I love it.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll kind of take you through like how we create our non-man facility.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a three-prong process, but um, no one wants to talk to anyone these days.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a millennial, you know.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I can't rent online, um, you know, people are gonna go elsewhere.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so how we do it is, you know, you'd find us online as a website or Google, and I can show you this example.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: But you find us, you would be able to click on the website, find that 10 by 10 that you want to rent.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it goes through, there's like a whole example of which size you need.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you can actually purchase that.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then as soon as you purchase it, it'll send you a lease that you can easily sign on your phone.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then you upload to take a picture of your driver's license, and then it instantly automated with a workflow is a text message in an email.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you get the gate codes texted to your phone, you get that gate code texted to your email, you go up to the gate, open it up um with that code and go straight to your um unit, put that same code in and you know, put your stuff in, put your own lock, drop the other lock off, and you're ready to go.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like there was no need for anyone to be there.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there are also QR codes along like the full gates.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have um we have a call center on staff and that they work 24-7.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what's kind of neat is that that helps a business reduce, you know, expenses costs.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's something that's important.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And also, I, you know, a lot of people don't want to work right now.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's hard to, I have a lot of other business owner friends that, you know, are like, hey, I all hire people and I just can't get them to stay.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my big thing with my gym was like 1099s.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: I train and put all this energy in and then they would leave, you know.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Good for them, you know, absolutely.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: But as an owner yourself, you're looking at like how do you keep talent, um, you know, and keep them satisfied and all the things.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just really nice in the storage world, like our 1099, she's amazing.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: She's retired and she loves her job.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and she works 10 to 15 hours a week for us.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and it that's like a perfect mix where you know, we're able to a have someone there on staff just in case to do lock audits, and then also um being able to cut costs because we really don't need it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's fun AI that comes into it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we're trialing this if you're interested in hearing it.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it's like all these cool things.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we're we're doing a test.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is not, you know, we haven't decided yet, but um, there's a an AI.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if you call the call center um at certain points, like from nine to five or eight to five, they'll get a real human.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: But um, if we're testing this out with AI, that they have all these different voices.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: We inputted all the frequently asked questions.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And now AI um has a talker that sounds just like me who can talk back and answer all these questions and get them, you know, get a unit rented with a call to action, which is wild.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we're testing it out, but you know, businesses that don't integrate AI are gonna get left behind because this is another great place of, you know, how can we combine technology and reduce our expenses in addition to always providing the best customer service, which is always the top part of a business.
• 20:43
  Mike Swenson: Now, um, you had talked about wanting to demonstrate.
• 20:46
  Mike Swenson: So for those people that are watching, if you're listening to this on a podcast player, hit pause, hop over to our YouTube channel.
• 20:53
  Mike Swenson: Let's pull this up.
• 20:54
  Mike Swenson: Um, but you want to be able to show people like how to find properties.
• 20:57
  Mike Swenson: Cause for somebody that hasn't done self-storage or is interested in self-storage, it's like, well, geez, how would I even go about finding properties?
• 21:04
  Mike Swenson: And so you're wanting to kind of just show a quick demonstration of what that looks like.
• 21:08
  Mike Swenson: So go ahead and uh share your screen.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: My favorite thing is like my my secret sauce and my like business partnership and my skill set is like def I do a lot of the marketing pieces and then I find deals.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a deal finder.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I have I own my own acquisition.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's Storage House Group.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've got three virtual assistants that are also helping like cold call and find storage deals.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then we do a lot of seller financing, negotiation, and um working directly with owners instead of having to go through the brokers.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is one of my favorite tricks.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you guys um have not seen this, it's really amazing.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I asked Mike, I was like, Mike, give me a city um in Minnesota that's between like 8,000 people and 100,000 people or 150,000.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I asked that is because um, number one is like we're looking for mom and pop storage operators that um are ready.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Retire and might not have a website on their storage facility, and it needs, you know, some maybe a little bit of capital expenditure, a little bit more of like a lipstick on the pig.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: We call it a paint job to make it look nicer, to add some value.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I was like, I think you picked Mang Mankata.
• 22:16
  Mike Swenson: Mankato.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Mankato.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I bet you that mankato, uh, Minnesota.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm gonna walk you guys through this.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really cool.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: You just go to the Googles, google map.com, and then you can just put in like uh Mankato, Minnesota.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um what you're gonna do is you're gonna click, so you'll click nearby right here, click nearby, and then we're gonna just put in Mankato, Minnesota, and so it'll pop up right here.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so what you're gonna actually do is put you're gonna come in here and put self-storage.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go, let's go.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Self-storage, self-storage because Google's all smart can find a lot, finds all the not only businesses need to apply to be on Google's, but um, they find restaurants, they can find RV parks, they can find a lot of different things that people don't talk about, and you will miss some, you know.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So there is some that might not have been on the, you know, on Google Maps at all, too.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I always like to preface that.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of a call it the Google map pack.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so these are all the storage facilities right here in this little town.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what I'm searching for is number one, is does, you know, does do they have a website?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: And number two is is the website actually like a good website that you can rent a unit online?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a lot of websites, you guys, that still have that like rotating E or like godaddy.com that don't are awful that were like made back in like 1999.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so if you come down here, we're gonna look for ones first that have no website, which is wild because somehow they survived COVID without having to be found online.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is a perfect example, ABC storage.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna kind of come over here and take a look at ABC storage.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: So ABC has 4.1 stars.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so anything I say less than four stars can indicate that it's also mom and pop.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number two.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then number three, anything that has 10 or less reviews can also indicate that they are mom and pop because they're not utilizing the full capability of you know Google in the marketing space.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um, we're gonna come and come on in here and take a look at this one and see if it is a mom and pop.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: So this is like a nice, it's kind of off a little bit the beaten path, but you know, nice looking facility.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so what I can do is I can drop my man.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is all in the middle of nowhere.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the Google maps don't even recognize that.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I want to try a different one because I want you guys to actually like see it.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: But you can see, like, I would call this facility all day.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it looks like it has maybe like this larger property, you can expand a little bit.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's the photos right here.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, you know that they're not 2018 was the last time they updated it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it might be a really good one to give the owner a call and just say, hey, you know, would you actually be open to an offer?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's this easy, which is kind of crazy.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I wanted to show like you and the podcast, like viewers, is like it's it's not that crazy to find.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's 76% of self-storage facilities are still mom and pop versus multifamily.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's about only nine to ten percent are mom and pop because a lot of institutional players, syndications have come into the field with more money and they're buying other ones out, right?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to say storage has less competition is kind of what I wanted to like show.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna come and come down here here, huge mini storage.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that looks beautiful.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a beautiful big property.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: No website, like nice good reviews right by the highway.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is a large property.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I would buy this all day long.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, You better, Mike, you better call them or go by and say hi.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but see, gorgeous, like has beautiful ball fence, but that's okay.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so this would be a perfect one.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like how I approach it is um either you can drive for dollars, drop by.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Normally, like this one looks like it doesn't have an office.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it might have an office on the like the back side, but I bet you if you called, they probably is either the wife or the husband that owns it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so how I always like kind of start my conversations is just, you know, hey, Mr.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hugh, probably.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I saw your facility as I was like looking, you know, down on Google.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I really liked how it was really clean, you know, I liked the red, the red doors.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just wanted to see, like, would you ever consider an offer, you know, on your facility?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that opens up that question.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he might be like, you know, actually, yeah, tell me, tell me more, you know, and that gives you permission to kind of start asking.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if he's like, nah, you know, not right now, then I kind of talk to him, like, well, hey, um I just curious, like, how did you buy the storage facility?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about your story.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so we get to start into that no like and trust, um, which is really important to build.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I've been buying a lot of my storage facilities is I find them on the Google Maps and I give them a call or I'll drive by and have a conversation with the owner.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm just buying one in Arizona.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's on eight acres.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's RV and boat and storage.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I I struggle up a great conversation with the wife and the husband.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, hey, we've owned this for 17 years, like we're ready to retire.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we're doing a wholesaler financing deal,$2 million, um, about$400,000 down,$450,000 down, um, 5% interest, 10 year balloon, um, and amortized over 40 years, which is kind of wild with interest-free payments for the first year.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's gonna be a great, great deal, you know.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So um the goal with that is to, you know, it add some value to it.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And within three years, we'd be able to sell it on market at like 3.7 um, or we would hold it.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of that nice, you know, like value add that you see and you build the relationships and you make it happen.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just like a little, a little bit.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that was helpful.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like you better call this place because this is beautiful, like it's a gorgeous facility.
• 28:16
  Mike Swenson: This is a college town, so you know, they might have, I guess I don't know, not being a self-storage guru, but you know, I'd think a college town would have a lot of those opportunities because you've got people moving in, moving out.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like multifamily right across the way, like town homes, right?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's town homes, but still, like that's a great indicator.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And by the freeway.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, that's something I just wanted to show you guys real quickly, like just to add value and and show how you can be creative um and not have to use all these different softwares.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's very it can be very simple as you know, just giving a business owner a call and having it striking up a conversation um and leading that conversation to, hey, I'd love to give you money, right?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's what you're doing is you're not selling them something.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to give you money for your facility if it's the right time, right?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's not pushy if it's the right time.
• 29:05
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, and you think about like, yeah, in multifamily, you know, you can't just, you know, call the owner of the apartment easily and say, hey, are you looking to sell?
• 29:13
  Mike Swenson: But when it's a business like this, you're at least in front of a decision maker on a phone call.
• 29:18
  Mike Swenson: It might not be the owner, but at least somebody that could point you in the right direction.
• 29:22
  Mike Swenson: And so that's just a formal lead gen that, you know, is is readily available because of the industry that you're in.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's you know, that's why I love kind of being able to have those conversations and um and and then the follow-up game, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like sometimes it's not always on that first conversation.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: But for I've been working this seller for about four months, four and a half months.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so it can take some time, you know, to build that relationship and trust.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: But when it happens, you know, you only need right that one facility a year and you add keep adding them to your portfolio.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: And soon, you know, you've got not only enough cash flow to live on to not, you know, maybe to leave your W-2, but you also have a net of wealth that you're accumulating so that you can have like a family legacy and live that life, you know.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I always say like a favorite motto right now has been like, you know, if you want to have an easy life, work hard now.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to have, you know, a hard life, keep enjoying the instant gratification, right?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, putting that time and effort into I think learn commercial real estate and jump in can be scary.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, like you said, I think the two limiting beliefs that I hear all the time and and what I experience too is you know, going, it's the mindset of, hey, I don't have enough money.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like literally, people that that is the biggest thing that keeps them from moving forward.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I get it because I, you know, my first, my accidental rental, I bought a$300,000 house to a$3.1 million storage facility.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: The two differences are are a big jump.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're all are also like I have also bought a$500,000, you know, storage facility with 100 units.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so there's multiple different ways that you can do it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the mindset is I always say, like, if you can be get good at finding deals and you can always carve off a little piece of that pie and to someone else that has, you know, maybe a storage portfolio.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: And now you have no money into that deal.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: You have infinite returns, you know.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you can get really creative with not having to have a lot of money of your own.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, what you can do is find a partner, a money partner, and be like, hey, I will do, I'll do the sweat equity.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: I will operate this thing.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, you come in as my, you know, you're a dentist, you love dentistry, but we can come together and we can take this deal down and own, you know, commercial real estate and own storage.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that's how like my my storage school was like founded was being able to help people get over those leaps and buy their first facility, learning the things that you really need to know, which is like how to find how to analyze a deal and then how to fund it and then how to put offers in and operate it.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then also getting past, you know, finding exploring partnerships so that you can take a deal down together.
• 31:57
  Mike Swenson: Are you looking to get started or scale in real estate investing but don't know your next step?
• 32:02
  Mike Swenson: Are you overwhelmed thinking about finding deals, analyzing deals, doing due diligence, and managing properties on top of it?
• 32:08
  Mike Swenson: Go ahead and push the easy button and invest with us.
• 32:12
  Mike Swenson: Real estate investing is what we do full time.
• 32:14
  Mike Swenson: We've done dozens of deals with hundreds of doors.
• 32:16
  Mike Swenson: We have the knowledge and experience to handpick the best deals that most investors can't find.
• 32:21
  Mike Swenson: We've got large off-market deals all the time where you can hopefully find returns and economies of scale that you just can't find on your own.
• 32:28
  Mike Swenson: The best thing is it's 100% passive to you or offer less capital than you put down trying to acquire a property on your own.
• 32:35
  Mike Swenson: Don't let this year go by where you don't make the leap, add to your portfolio, or you just did an analysis by paralysis.
• 32:42
  Mike Swenson: To find out more, visit freedom throughrealestate.com and click on invest.
• 32:47
  Mike Swenson: You can book a call and learn more there.
• 32:49
  Mike Swenson: So get to scaling your portfolio now with us by your side.
• 32:52
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 32:53
  Mike Swenson: Well, thank you so much for sharing all that you did and going into the deep dive and and kind of showing people how to find stuff as well.
• 32:59
  Mike Swenson: Cause yeah, who can't just open up Google, type in a city and get started on that?
• 33:03
  Mike Swenson: But yeah, for for people that want to reach out to you, Bree, and learn more and how can they do so?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I'd love it.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: I so I'm on Instagram.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely come by and say hi.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's Brie B-R-E-E.theinvestor.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then also if you guys are interested, I can give you a 10, it's like a 10-step storage blueprint.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Just text me the word um storage um to 916-579-7209.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I will send you like that free resource.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's like 15 pages and then also has a back of the napkin analyzer, which is really helpful.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'd love to love to provide like your listeners with just kind of like what are the next steps to kind of get started.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's just uh I I you know you feel blessed that you're like, hey, I I've learned this this stage and now I kind of want to help and like provide value and teach other people so that they can kind of get in and and feel, you know, like, hey, this is exactly what I need to be doing right now.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: I have to fast track their speed to buy their first facility.
• 33:58
  Mike Swenson: Absolutely.
• 33:58
  Mike Swenson: Well, thank you so much, Bree, for coming on and sharing.
• 34:01
  Mike Swenson: And uh yeah, for people listening, be sure to reach out to her.
• 34:03
  Mike Swenson: Uh thank you so much and and best of luck if you guys continue to grow.