What are common ways facilities lose money?

Sue_C

The self-storage business has ups and downs based on predictable--or sometimes unpredictable--factors. Maybe it's simply the economy, local competition, or even the weather. What are some other ways you've seen a site lose money, for whatever reason, and did the issue get resolved?

Self-Storage4Life

That's too funny!

This is a bit of a horror story, but after the hurricane in North Carolina in October 2016 there were some facilities that were *technically* outside the 100 year flood zone but were unfortunate enough to be flooded anyway. Everything was wet - they had to call all their tenants and ask them to haul away their belongings. That's the only facility I've really seen lose a lot of money, but it was pretty uncommon situation.

One day-to-day practice that seems to cost facilities a bit of money is hiring employees strictly for maintenance or landscaping. The cost of paying taxes / benefits for a full-time employee can be heavily mitigated by hiring a crew to come by when they're needed.

@David_Moore - want to weigh in? I'd love to hear your thoughts on a common way sites can lose money.

Finalx3

Poor phone skills, poor curb appeal, messy showroom, strong odors in showroom or hallways, unknowlegeable about your property, not upselling boxes or locks, etc....

Ross_Lampe

Strong odors?  Ooooohhh yuck. Here are some ideas for getting rid of them.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/lingering-smell-out-house-44090.html
http://www.grandparents.com/food-and-leisure/home-and-garden/get-rid-of-odors-house

Chad

I know of a facility that would only rent to people with a current and valid driver's license. I know this because I had a few customers tell me as they were moving in. We do require an ID but we accept any government issued ID.

craigbell

There is NO reason to lose money if the Occupancy is higher than 80%, the rents are in line with the local market and the most important of all, the owner doesn't have the property leveraged to the hilt. Mortgage Debt will kill any Storage Business.

LewisKog

Situations where you give money for nothing happen more often than you can imagine. Let's say a year ago I decided to go in for sports and paid for a year of training. But then he stopped going to the gym because he was injured while playing football. None of the managers in the hall could help me and because of this I was very upset. I lost a lot of money for the season ticket itself and for the treatment of my injury. What if I listened to my friends and read this article https://yourmoneygeek.com/find-the-best-financial-advisor/ and I turned to any financial adviser maybe I would have saved my money. Unfortunately, now I can't change anything, but only share my experience in the hope that no one else will make a mistake.