Weeks 32 and 33 of Self Employment - Life of a Self Storage Developer

Week 32 and 33 of Self Employment: Due to the short Thanksgiving week, I saved my latest update for this week.

Houlton Storage Garages: We are still trying to wrap up the last few items in Houlton. We are waiting for the electrician to fix a few light sensors for the exterior lighting. This has taken too long. Hopefully we can wrap that up soon. We had the gates fully wired up so we'll have active gates very soon. They close on their own and seem to work properly, we just need to dial in the vehicle detection for free exits. Also we need to set up the punch codes for opening the gates after hours.
We are now just waiting for the state review on the heaters for Building 5. Still a couple weeks out. I expect this to be a non-event, frankly. But it's part of the process.
We also needed some final paperwork for the inspection agency to sign off on Building 4 and Building 5. We got them the information. B4 is all good but apparently they didn't sign off on B5 so we still need a final, final inspection.
On a side note, we installed gutters on the north facing buildings that struggle with the freeze thaw cycle. The sun warms the roof, the snow melts, it drips down onto the shaded area on the north side of the building and freezes. By installing gutters we hope to minimize that dripping and freezing issue. So far so good. The south facing buildings have the benefit of the sun warming up the ground and dripping so the ground tends to stay clear. We may add them in the future but budget only allowed for the north facing buildings this year. Plus, it's acting as a test case to a certain degree. So far, so good.
We've been trying to add a security system to our property. We selected a contractor. I think Thanksgiving week got a little too busy and things didn't happen fast enough and frost set in. We decide to change to a contractor that will be able to deal with the frost and get out system installed this year. This will be great to get installed. 9 cameras and full coverage of the parking lots. No more mystery damage to doors and buildings that no one knows anything about (sure.....).

Storage Garage of Hudson: We are still waiting to start Building 3 (our second building) in Hudson. Our contractor has been slow to get back to our facility. We are approaching 5 weeks (it was supposed to be 2 weeks) and we've let them know that we are running out of patience. Hopefully they take our concerns to heart and figure out a way to get back to our facility. Good news is that materials have been delivered as of Friday, Nov 30th. That is a step in the right direction. But they were supposed to be there on Thursday. Which would have still been 4 weeks late. Anyhow, we're working through this. Other than this latest issue, they've treated us very fairly so we're hoping this doesn't erode our relationship any further. But we do have a lot of money tied up in our down payment for materials which we're paying interest on. That is no bueno.
I shoveled snow and cleared ice from the slab a couple times over the past two weeks to keep it clear for construction. Another issue with the schedule getting pushed back is that temps will get colder and colder. That typically means that snow and ice is harder and harder to remove. If there is ice in the units and the roof gets installed, the sun will not be able to melt the ice and snow in the units which will render them unrentable. That too is no bueno. If that were to occur, we would be making interest payments on the down payment and the final payment without additional revenue to cover those payments. Anyway, we're trying to be as smart as possible about expenses vs. revenue.
We were looking at doing security cameras at the same time as Houlton but as discussed earlier, we ran out of time to trench in wires. We could potentially run the cameras over the existing electrical wiring but there is no guarantee that will work. Because of that, we decided to skip it until next year when we can trench and install dedicated wiring. Also, our electrical contractor didn't fix the electrical wiring that was hit by the grading contractor before it was buried. That gave me pause too. Mainly because the integrity of the wiring may have been compromised and it'll likely need to get fixed/adjusted in spring anyhow. I'd prefer to not have two systems (electrical and cameras) to fix at the same time.

Border Properties LLC: We are strongly considering adding buildings to our property in Prescott, WI. The land is already there and that means we just need to do the grading and add the building.

Other: Looked at a nice storage facility near my grandparent's cottage while I was home for Thanksgiving weekend. I really liked the facility but after accounting for management, facility maintenance, and an uptick in property taxes, I just felt like my offer was going to be really far away from the asking price. Rather than offend the selling party with what might appear as a lowball offer, we decided to walk away.
Looking at some other interesting properties. Hopefully we'll go into the new year with a new project on the schedule. Either way, we'll exercise patience and wait for something that fits into our investment strategy.

Week 31 of Self Employment:

This week wasn't nearly as stressful as week 30 was. I was actually able to stop and think about things a bit and no additional wrenches were thrown into the machine.
Houlton Storage Garages: We finally got all of Building #5 wired and ready for electricity. Xcel was able to install the meters for all the units but we still haven't had them (it's a different crew, naturally) run the main power to our meter panel. So that means we have everything wired, but no power. Sort of ironic.
We are still awaiting running the power to our north and south entrance gates. That should be fun to have the gates fully operational and get our keypads set up for overnight security purposes. We haven't had any issues so far (knock on wood) other than a random burnout or two (the kind that come from tires, not the type of person). I do want to get them up before someone has a little too much fun and puts a car into a building.
We are also awaiting our new security system. Not sure what happened to our security person. We may be forced to go a different route if they can't get their stuff together. This relationship isn't starting off on the right foot. Maybe I'm giving them too much rope.
Two interesting notes about developing your own properties. 1.) When you start a project, everyone wants their say and everyone wants to sign off on the project. 2.) When you complete a project, those same people want to have a say and sign off on your project. However, none of them are reachable. This makes running a business hard. I feel like I'm a total pain in the butt when I continue to hound people to get simple reviews. Not sure what else I can do. I don't want to be "that guy" any more than I already am. I'll continue to send a weekly "ping" to try to get my final sign offs.
Occupancy is a bit more qualitative than it is quantitative. Let me explain. We only have one unit available right now. We have also completely rented up Building 5 which is not 100% finished yet. However, we have two current renters who are going to move out of their current units to occupy Building 5 space. So that means we will have 3 open units as of December 1st. Still a great situation but it feels awkward saying we have 3 units open when we only have 1 that is immediately available. Either way, it's all good.
We had some last minute shifting to perform in order to accommodate some tenants. An existing tenant decided against the new unit he was going to move into. Therefore, we had to rent the new unit to the person who was going to rent the existing tenant's space (at a discount, which is really the only true negative of the situation) but was waiting for him to move out. Confused? So were we. It took only slightly less than a million texts and phone conversations to get all of the swaps right for getting tenants into Building 5. In the end, it'll all work out. It's just funny how very little of our initial plans ever ends up actually working out when we build a new building. Let me tell you, it's a great opportunity to get to know your new tenants, however. And that's always fun for me.

Storage Garages of Hudson: Wednesday came and went and no pavement was laid down. That officially puts an end to any dreams I had of paving our main entrance road and in between Buildings 1 and 3. I spent a couple days shoveling off the concrete pad for Building 3 in hopes that there wouldn't be much ice built up. We still have a few small bird baths on the slab that have ice in them, but overall, I think we can build the new building as necessary. Contractor is looking to start the building the week after Thanksgiving. I hope that actually happens. It is interesting when you're full. On one hand, it's great to be full. On the other hand it totally stinks to have to tell a potential renter than you don't have anything for them. I feel like that's bad business. We try to cross-sell to a certain degree, but most people want what they want (and I totally get it).
We got going on creating a space for a rental office. Mainly it will be an opportunity for us to have a warm place for people to sign lease agreements and such at the facility. People always want to see their unit and drive around, but it will be so nice to have a place to sit down and take our time. Winter tends to put a rush on the rental process and I always feel guilty having renters rush in and out.

Border Properties LLC: Our renters are awesome. Next.

Other: I've had some fun selling some snow plows and other items for friends this past week. I've put a few plows on trucks in the past and therefore I've come to know a thing or two about them. I'm no expert, but I have a good idea of what things go for. My friends wanted to get rid of his equipment, he left some meat on the bone, as they say, and I had some free time to list them for him. It took about 2 weeks but we got those sold. I love Craigslist. I feel like I'm getting pretty decent at weeding out the tire kickers. I also love the single line texts: Will you take $1,000 cash for your $2,000 item? Craigslist tip - only negotiate in person. That way both parties are willing and able to buy the item. Way too many people who live 3 hours away offer me 1/2 price (IN CASH - like I'd take anything else) and then have no way to get to or pay for the item. Seriously.... Buyers are buyers, they rarely have a story and they always have a plan for picking up the item and have money for the item. I'm not sure if my Craigslist etiquette is proper or not, but I'm just flat out asking buyers before they show up if they will have the cash with them. Again, buyers rarely have a story other than, "yes, I do".
I also rented out my frost blankets that I purchased on Craigslist for another week. It was the same renter but hey, I made a few more bucks on the deal. Fun stuff. OMG, this post is starting to feel like an episode of Pickers. I'll stop.
Lastly, I set up a showing for a self storage facility over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm excited to check it out. I hope I can work out a deal. If not, we have a few other things in the hopper but nothing imminent. It also looks like I'll start mentoring Self Storage students around the first of the year. I'm definitely looking forward to that too. Bye for now.

Week 30: Self Employed, Self Storage

This was the most hectic week we've had being self employed. So much happened and didn't happen. Crazy. Winter happened, and therefore many other things DIDN'T happen. Here we go:
Storage Garages of Hudson: Building 5 in Hudson isn't going to happen. Paving isn't going to happen. Had some not so friendly discussions with pavers. You know how this goes....everyone thinks it's everyone else's fault. We'll both get over it. Our grading contractor touched up the driveways and added gravel to the parking/driving area in front of Building 5.
Got a call from our concrete contractor: the concrete floors on Building 5 aren't going to happen this year. Too much frost and cold weather. I talked with the builders and they aren't going to be able to build Building 5 this winter without the floors. Basically, the crosswalls that divide up the units add rigidity to the structure. Without them, we risk the building falling down. Without the slab poured, no crosswalls. No bueno.
Fence guys got starting in Hudson. They got stuck in the sand. I had to laugh a little but I think Karma bit me in the rear - they are slightly behind schedule but they should get everything wrapped up prior to hard-winter arriving.
It looks like we are still a couple weeks out before Building 3 will get constructed. Everyone is busy, busy. With the snow on the slab, it's probably good they can't start construction right now. Hopefully we get some warm weather to melt the snow off before they start the building. Once that roof goes up, no sun hits the slab which makes melting snow almost impossible.
The good news in Hudson: We're FULL! Hurray. That took a little longer than I thought but progress nonetheless. Now we're chomping at the bit to get Building 3 up (our 2nd building).

Houlton Storage Garages: Waiting game. We're waiting on electrician to finish up the units (for the 3rd straight week) and we're waiting on Xcel to get the power run to the new building (for the 3rd straight week). Heaters are in, insulation is blown into the ceiling and everything is a go otherwise. Just got a little electrical problem.... I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but this building is already full. Oh wait, we might have one unit available. We have had a couple people back out on moving into the new building and we just had a little confusion in the mix. No problem as we still have a little waiting to do on the electrical. I don't see a problem with getting things rented up, however.

Other: So I bought some frost blankets for keeping concrete warm in the cold weather. I bought them to rent out and to add a little more excitement. We rented them out the first week things got cold and that paid for the blankets. Hopefully we can keep them rented. The cold weather has definitely added some interest. It's $70/week which isn't much, of course, but it was a little bit of an experiment. I don't really have a way to prosecute someone who doesn't bring them back so I'm going to see how much faith in humanity I have after this whole process. So far so good. If this experiment goes well, I may look for other items to rent out via Craigslist. Buy cheap, and rent out. Kind of a silly side hobby at this point.
Other than that, we've been selling every imaginable item laying around the house that we don't have a need for. This has been fun too. No, we're not broke (yet) but we've also come to realize that so many things have value that we aren't using or taking advantage of.
Oh, and I'm looking for a new fun car. Angie was sort of supportive when I told her (she didn't throw anything at me, so that means she's fine with it), so I've started the search. I'm mostly worried about Summer Nationals coming to St. Paul in June and me not having a car to autocross. I know, stupid, right? Not everything can make sense!
And we're also still looking for another property. We put a bid on WisDOT surplus property in Hudson, WI but we were outbid. We also planned on putting a bid on a tax delinquent property in Florida, but that got redeemed. I really want to take down another maxi-storage facility in the Twin Cities. We are officially on the prowl!

Week 29 of Self Employment

Finished a fun railroad track evaluation consulting gig. That was a lot of fun and the client was very happy with the report and analysis. I hope they're able to put it to good use. This made for a super busy week but it was fun to keep the railroad juices flowing a little longer. I'm working on some additional services that I hope to unveil in the next few weeks. I'm hoping to assist facilities with track in getting better, more complete estimates from their contractors. Comparing apples to apples is the easiest way to get good pricing and evaluate repair costs.

Houlton Storage Garages LLC: See the pics. I mean, c'mon, this place is looking good! Haha. Building 5 is making good progress and we should have the overhead doors up next week. The GREAT news is that we're 100% full (everytime I say something like this, I get slabbed across the face, but I'm going to say it again)! We do have a few folks moving from existing units so the good news is that we'll have a few units still available, but as soon as we have units done, people will be able to start moving in!
As an actual update, we got our building complete (except for garage doors), our driveway paved, our heaters in, out fence gate mechanism run, and a solid start on the electrical. Should be wrapping up next week.

Storage Garages of Hudson: We got the footing in for Building 5 (our 3rd building) and the frost walls poured. I had to strip the footings (2"x12"x16' lumber is heavier than I remembered) to allow for the concrete guys to get in there and knock out the walls sooner. The frost walls were poured and things are looking to fall into place for getting the road paved into and between Buildings 1 and 3 if we can get the foundation backfilled early next week.
We currently have 2 more units left but that tells me that we're ready for the next building. We still have quite a bit of interest. Honestly, I think having our pavement done will dress things up and convince a few more people to pull the trigger. I can appreciate that some people want the cleanliness of pavement. Soon, real soon!

Other: Updated my LinkedIn profile to reflect my railroad consulting services. I figure if someone is searching LinkedIn, I better make it easier for them to find me.

I'm also working through my training materials to act as a self storage investment mentor. With the other things that I had going, on that was temporarily slowed down. Back at it next week.

Week 28 Update - Self Storage, Self Employment

Nothing new happened.
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Just kidding. Exciting week.
Houlton Storage Garages - Building 5 is about 75% done. Exterior steel and 1/2 of the interior steel and insulation is up. We are waiting on three pieces of siding, a window and a service door to finish up the exterior. That won't take much. Spent a good part of the week chasing down paving contractor to get on their schedule, burying conduit for security system, talking through security options with a security guy (boy did I give him the run around, we are such amateurs!), getting conduit run for the gate sensors, and lining up a couple of renters. The heated building is clearly in demand. I think we have 5 units (or 7) rented already and lots of tire kickers. Eventually tire kickers turn into renters so I feel quite fortunate. We also had a two of our large units rent this week too. So, as we sit now, we have 1 unit left but once our Building 5 is up, we'll have a few current renters move into the new units and that will open up a few existing units. It's going well, however.

Hudson Storage Garages - The concrete guys finished up the slab on Building 3 (2nd building) and dropped in a footing for Building 5 (3rd building - I know, confusing....). They aren't going to get to the frost wall and slab on B5 soon enough so we're bringing in the relief pitcher on this one. Hopefully they're a hard throwing lefty. I gotta crank this thing out before winter so we can get our pavement in out to the road. Just want to make it easier to plow and fresh blacktop melts snow fast too. Two rights make a bigger right. We did have an issue. Just got done running our power for lights in Building 1. There was a very visible trench where the conduit and wires were run. Told excavating contractor to warn the crew. Manager warned the crew. Crew still hit the conduit and wire. Let's try this again! ;) Sometimes it just doesn't go as planned. Pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but just another one of the "things" to deal with. I got a little worked up but really, this shouldn't even be on the radar. I think it's mostly funny because these guys are typically very good and conscientious. We'll laugh about it when we're done.

Housing development - Worked on this quite a bit during the week. Decided on Saturday night that I'm just going to do it and start moving forward. I'll let the sellers know on Sunday morning. Started to look at twin home plans and realized that what I want to build is not going to fit on the lot. I made a different call than planned on Sunday. I'm out. I'm sure it's still going to be a great opportunity for someone, but my vision for it wasn't going to work. Next.

RR Consulting - I landed a track evaluation project for an investment banking company. Spent about 75% of my time working on the inspection and reports and numbers for this. It was fun to stay in the Railroad game. Quite a bit of work and a tight timeline but that also means it will be due and behind us pretty quick too. Angie took on an even larger adulting responsibility than normal. I think she's ready for this gig to be up. Soon enough.

Pics are a before this week and after this week in Houlton and a picture of them finishing the slab in Hudson (and a before picture for fun).

Week 27 of Self Employment:

Houlton Storage Garages LLC - What a full week will do. Our building contractor made amazing progress in Houlton this week. No rain days and generally a lot happening. We also got out security fence finalized and installed. It really looks like a legit joint now. Just a bit of wiring to do and we'll have power security gates. That should be quite wonderful. We also got wiring done on our unit split that we had going on. Of course as soon as I moved my stuff into one of the sides we got a call to rent it. It's a good problem to have. So a bit more musical chairs. On Saturday we took in a few people that were stranded without winter storage. We are renting out one of our large units as a group storage. I had two people call me that morning and we were able to fill it up. Amazing timing as we helped them out while I was still out there.
Since we were able to get the structure up and the sheet metal up on the exterior, we had our electrician stop in to pull wires to all of the units before we got insulation installed and interior steel on the walls. These are some of the interesting things we've figured out over the course of our projects. We used to bury wires and that took a bunch of coordination with grading contractors and gas companies and all kinds of other fun. Now, we just have the electrician come in and run the power inside the walls. This leaves the areas between buildings free of utilities and allows the gas company to easily run their lines and install meters too. I love this route. We did get the conduit buried for the wires that will take the place of the pole line on the north side of our property. Next week they will take down the poles. Now that we got the gas line buried, the wiring to the gates dug and the fence installed, we can make plans with the paving crews to get some black down.

Storage Garages of Hudson - Mostly nothing other than lining up the concrete pad for Building 3 and the foundation on Building 5 next week. That should allow us to put the gravel in for the area in front of B5. Then pavement the week after. We also rented out another unit. We are at 6 units rented out of 11. Still lots of interest. Frankly, with all the interest in Houlton this week, Hudson got a bit ignored. We also "released" our commercial for Hudson. Kind of fun to see. I'll leave it at that. More to come next week.

Other - Still plugging away at the housing development. I keep getting the answer that our lot price is too much. But everyone also seems to struggle that the price per side of the twinhome would be 1/2 of the lot price. Maybe I'm the one that doesn't get it but something tells me that this project needs execution. So I'm still working on this without much progress this week.
I did land a railroad consulting gig evaluating some railroad track for two facilities in the Twin Cities. I'm really looking forward to being able to put this together. Quite a bit to deliver within a week but I work best under pressure.
It's official, I'm going to be a mentor for a group that does self storage coaching. I spent my free time reviewing their "methods" and coaching material to make sure I'm passing along a consistent message to the "students". I'm super pumped to get going on this. Plus I get access to all of their materials and tricks which adds some extra value to this for me.
Here are some pictures of our fencing and Building 5 in Houlton. It's come a long way in a week.

Week 26 of Self Employment:

I've been waiting for this post. I'm officially 6 months into this amazing, great, scary, frustrating, annoying, horrible, maddening, positive, negative, beautiful, ugly, productive, wild, and just about every other superlative in the book, experiment. What a roller coaster it's already been. The tough days make the good days that much better.
I still get a mini-high every time the phone rings and again when we rent out a storage unit. It's such an amazing confirmation our ideas and of the work that's been put in. Okay, enough of the mushy stuff.
Houlton Storage Garages: Building 5 is finally seeing some progress as you can see in the pictures attached. We have had a lot of interest lately for the new heated building so it can't go up fast enough. I think this one might be fully rented prior to completion. I think we only have two units left. Crazy. But with that, some of our current tenants will be leaving their unheated space to move into these new heated spaces. So we'll still have something available for a while yet, I'm sure.
This week we also split one of our large units into two smaller units. We're already seeing interest in those. It's just what people want so we'll do our best to accommodate.
We rented out one small unit and took on 3 group storage renters for the winter. We're trying something a little different this winter. We had a customer/friend of ours contact us asking for winter storage. I thought, hey, why not, we'll just advertise it on a per foot basis and see how it goes. So far so good. $3.75/foot/month is a cheaper option for some customers that only have a boat or RV to store for the winter so we're experimenting and helping some folks out. Kind of fun....

Storage Garages of Hudson: Interest has been strong there also. We are at 5 units rented which is a far cry from expecting to be full by this time. We had the shortest renter we've ever had (24 hours). Apparently they found something else, which isn't a problem at all, just a bit unique for us. So we added two renters and lost one. We have a few in the queue too so we'll see how we fair by the end of next week. Still quite a bit of interest. Let's hope that continues.

Other: Still working on the residential development project. It feels like we are getting close to pulling the trigger. We are getting some mixed reviews on the price per lot but others seem to think it's right where it should be. So we'll see if we can get this deal done to do a bunch of twin home lots. Without going too deep into it, I'd personally like to be able to build some 3 beds 2.5 bath twin homes for the masses. We'll see if we can make it happen.

I'm officially a Self Storage mentor for the Self Storage Investing group. I'll be helping others get into their very own self storage facility on a consulting basis. I couldn't be more excited to do this. Should be fun. I really don't have much to lose.

I may also get involved with a bit of railroad consulting too. It might be an opportunity to make a little vacation money. Or tax proceeds for Uncle Sam. Either way, it's a win!

Until next week. (Holy cow - 6 months!)