90 Days After Buying an Abandoned Self Storage Facility: Lessons, Numbers, and What's Next

Ninety days ago, my partner Jacob and I took the keys to a self storage facility in Madison, Tennessee that had been neglected for years. The previous owner was completely absent. The property management software was from another era. Tenants were paying with paper checks, the rent roll was a mess, and people in the neighborhood literally warned each other not to rent there. So what does it actually look like to turn around a failing self storage facility in 90 days? That's what we're about to get into.

If you missed the first episode in this series, I'd recommend reading how to buy a storage facility where I walk through the entire acquisition process. Today's update covers everything that's happened since we closed: the operational chaos, the wins, the surprises, and exactly where the numbers stand after three months of hands-on property management.

What Day One Actually Looked Like

Let me paint you a picture. The first week Jacob was on-site after we closed, people were literally running up to his car saying "help us, help us, are you the new guy?" That tells you everything you need to know about how neglected this property was. The previous owner had checked out completely, and the tenants could feel it.

The place was a time capsule. There was a U-Haul poster from the '90s still hanging up. Everything was pen and paper. The management software existed, but it was outdated and the previous owner hadn't even communicated to the software company that the property was being sold. So when we tried to take over the system, we couldn't, because nobody on the other end knew we were the new owners. That's kind of a problem when your entire rent roll lives in that software.

Here's the thing about buying a self storage facility that nobody tells you: the first 60 to 90 days are pure chaos. There's an onboarding process for every single vendor, every utility account, every software platform. And most of these companies move at their own pace. You show up for a meeting thinking you're going to get things set up, and you learn that the meeting was actually just to schedule another meeting to start the onboarding process. It's all the non-sexy stuff, and it takes way longer than you'd expect.

"Operations is not sexy. Everybody thinks you buy a self storage facility, get into the property management system, and everybody's just paying rent. That's really not the case."

- Tyler Cauble

The Occupancy Reality Check

When we bought the property, we were told occupancy was around 82%. The reality? It was closer to 60%. As I mentioned in my last post about buying a storage facility, that 30% discrepancy was a tough pill to swallow. But here's the nuance that I want you to understand if you're looking at self storage investing: a lot of those "occupied" units had tenants who hadn't paid in months, or tenants who were essentially using the facility as a dumping ground. On paper they were occupied. In reality, they were generating zero revenue.

The good news is that the tenants who were actually paying and using their units? They've been incredibly sticky. Some of these people have been there for four to five years. We've got a catering company operating out of one of the units and an electrical company that uses another as their base of operations. These aren't people storing a few boxes. This storage is utilitarian to their businesses, and they're not going anywhere.

The biggest fear existing tenants had was that new ownership would come in and either kick them out or triple their rent overnight. Jacob spent the first 90 days personally connecting with every tenant, assuring them that we're here to improve the facility, not to gouge anyone. That personal touch has made all the difference. We haven't lost a single paying tenant since we took over.

90-Day Snapshot

105

Current Units

130-140

Target Unit Count

$0

Marketing Spend

0

Paying Tenants Lost

Operations: The Non-Sexy Stuff Nobody Talks About

There's a big misconception in commercial real estate investing that self storage is "passive income." I get a little skeptical every time I hear that phrase. Is it simpler than managing an apartment building or a hotel? Absolutely. But passive? Not when you're turning around a failing facility.

Here's what the first 90 days of operations actually involved. First, we had to get the previous owner's management software company to recognize us as the new owners. That required what amounted to a power of attorney from the seller's broker because the seller himself was so uninvolved that he couldn't even facilitate the handoff. Then there was the insurance transition, utility transfers, setting up new payment processing, getting a gate code system working, and about a dozen other administrative tasks that all had dependencies on each other. This has to be set up before that can be set up, and it just takes time.

A lot of this can't be delegated, either. Jacob and I both have administrative teams for our respective businesses, but the vendor onboarding process specifically requires the owner to be involved. So for the first quarter, a significant chunk of our time went to just getting the infrastructure in place. Not the glamorous stuff you see on YouTube, but absolutely essential.

The timing actually worked in our favor, though. January and February in Tennessee are terrible weather months, so there wasn't much we could do on the physical improvement side anyway. By the time spring hit and we were ready to tackle curb appeal (new signage, dumpsters full of junk removal, general cleanup), we had all the backend systems running smoothly.

The Moving Company Marketing Hack

I touched on this in the first post, but it's worth going deeper because the numbers are genuinely remarkable. When we were evaluating management companies for this facility, the proposals all included $8,000 to $10,000 per year in marketing spend. That's standard for the industry. You need Google ads, you need a website, you need to be listed on storage aggregator sites, all of that.

We spend zero. Not a dollar. Because Jacob's moving company, 6th Man Movers, is our marketing engine. Every customer who books a move with Jacob's team gets asked a simple question: "Do you need storage?" And a good percentage of them do. It's the most natural referral pipeline imaginable.

Let's talk about what that actually means for the property's value. If you don't have to spend $10,000 a year on marketing, and you're running at a 7.5% cap rate, that's $133,000 in property value created just by eliminating a line item. That's not hypothetical. That's real equity that shows up when you refinance or sell. Think about that: $133,000 in value from a business relationship, not a capital expenditure.

And the customers coming through the moving company pipeline tend to be stickier than average. These aren't people who Googled "cheap storage near me" and are shopping on price alone. They're people in the middle of a life transition (moving houses, downsizing, building a new home) who need storage as part of a larger service package. That relationship starts before they ever see the storage facility.

The Next 90 Days: Adding Units and Scaling Up

Now that we've got the operational foundation in place, the next 90 days are all about growth. Our focus is on everything inside the fence line: maximizing our footprint by adding shipping container storage units to the existing lot.

We're looking at adding enough containers to bring our total unit count from 105 up to 130 or 140. Each container costs between $4,000 and $8,000 depending on the type and configuration, and each one can hold two to four individual storage units inside. The containers are mobile, which is actually a strategic advantage. If we ever decide to redevelop this site or reconfigure the layout, we can pick them up and move them. That flexibility is worth a lot.

The math on adding units is where this deal gets really fun. We're already cash flow positive at the current unit count. Every container we add is nearly pure profit because the infrastructure is already there: we don't need additional power, water, or management systems. A 30 to 40% increase in our unit base translates directly to a 30 to 40% increase in NOI, and at the cap rates self storage properties trade at, that's a massive jump in property value.

Beyond the containers, we're also focused on leasing our flex space buildings and continuing to drive occupancy through Jacob's moving company pipeline. Our goal is to get the facility stabilized at 90% or above, which based on our current lease-up pace of three to five units per month, should be achievable within the next couple of quarters.

"We sold our investors on a five-year timeline. If we add the container units and get to stabilized occupancy, we might be done in two. That's what gets everybody excited."

- Tyler Cauble

What We'd Do Differently Looking Back

If I could give one piece of advice to anyone about to buy their first self storage facility, it would be this: don't underestimate the information gathering. During due diligence, walk every unit, verify every tenant, and don't take the seller at their word. We took them at their word, and their word wasn't great.

Also, budget for 60 to 90 days of pure onboarding before you can really start operating at full speed. There's a chicken-and-egg problem with vendor setup where everything has dependencies, and it all takes longer than you think. Plan for that instead of being surprised by it.

Key Takeaways

The first 90 days are about infrastructure, not income. Expect to spend your first quarter getting systems, vendors, and operations in place. The revenue growth comes after the foundation is solid.

Tenant retention beats tenant acquisition. We haven't lost a single paying tenant by investing in personal relationships and basic customer service. In self storage, keeping existing tenants is far cheaper than finding new ones.

Vertical integration is a superpower. Pairing a moving company with self storage eliminates marketing costs entirely and creates a natural customer pipeline. That alone is worth $133,000 in property value at a 7.5% cap rate.

Self storage is not truly passive. Especially in the turnaround phase. Budget your time accordingly, and expect to be personally involved in vendor onboarding and tenant relations for the first few months.

Adding units to an existing facility is the highest-ROI play in self storage. Shipping containers at $4,000 to $8,000 each can add $41,000+ per year in revenue, creating hundreds of thousands in property value with minimal capital invested.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: 90 Days After Buying an Abandoned Self Storage Facility

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About the Author

Tyler Cauble is a commercial real estate broker, investor, and developer based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the founder of The Cauble Group, the author of Open for Business: The Insider's Guide to Leasing Commercial Real Estate and the host of the Commercial Real Estate Investor podcast. Through his CRE Accelerator mastermind at CRECentral.com, he coaches investors at every stage of their commercial real estate journey.