Early in my career I held a lot tight to my chest - worried about others stealing my strategies.
Now I share as much as possible. Try to add value everywhere. Often without expectation or pay.
Since that shift my net worth and network have both exploded.
Not a coincidence.
Example #1.
I upset my partner by doing a mentoring session with a college kid who was starting up a direct competitor to Storage Squad.
3 weeks later he called me and tipped me off on a school contract he was pursuing but wasn’t big enough to take down.
He made the intro, we pitched the school, secured the contract, it’s now an extremely profitable branch.
Example #2.
About 2 yrs ago I was cold calling competitors in my area (self storage now) seeing if they wanted to sell.
I spoke to one owner and it turned into a..
Consulting call. All about our operations, what he should do to add the most value, how big players look at our market, and how he can sell for the most amount of money down the road.
He called me out of the blue 9 mo later - he wanted to sell to me. We’re under contract.
So much more isn’t directly quantifiable.
When my goal is to help others pick up on that. They’re more likely to do business with me. To buy from me or to sell to me.
It gains trust. And trust drives business.
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Spotted while snooping on Google Maps at storage facilities...
Two random people being kind to each other!
My partner makes fun of me but you really can get a feel for a town and its culture by driving the streets on Google Maps. Especially the gas stations.
By the time I get to the facility to meet the owner I know my way around town and how it feels. Weird I know!
I always check out the businesses downtown. And the amount of people out and about, parking spots taken, etc.
No scientific data here folks. But if you're looking at out of state RE, I think this practice is worth it.
On Sep 3rd we closed on a 120k sf glove factory built in 1890 in Gloversville NY.
Has 50k sf of self storage inside and is cashflowing $8k a month.
We used none of our own cash and received $50k on closing day.
A thread on creating $2 million out of thin air in 18 months...
First saw the property on Loopnet in mid 2018. I ignored it. Who wants to try to operate a building in an old factory in a dying NY town.
A few months later I reached out. Broker sent me financials. They were good. $25k a month in revenue and $10k in expenses.
So I visited the property and took this footage. It was old. Needed a new roof. Probably environmental issues. Full time manager. Only accessible to customers 9am-5pm M-S. No autopay. A lot of folks paying 1/2 market rent.