Day 62: Self Storage Underwriting and Financial Analysis: Complete Beginner to Advanced Recap

Howdy folks, and welcome to day 62 of the Storage 100. We are live tonight, as you can probably tell, or maybe you can't tell, but we are live tonight. Uh, it's 8 o'clock, of course, that's why I started the live stream. Uh, but we are going to give people just a minute to get the notification, which is why you subscribe so you get the notification. Thanks to all of you who are here early though. You rock. Uh, or on time, I guess. Um, so I'm gonna tap dance a little bit, and what I thought of doing for my little tap dance here is, uh, to talk a little bit about— those of you who know me, shocker— AI. Uh, because I also have a podcast called Successful Idiots, and we talk about all kinds of— I host it with an AI guru Don't worry, I'm not the guru. I'm the storage guy. I'm the, I'm the you. I get to represent you and ask all the fun questions about AI because I'm leaning heavily into it myself. Um, and so here's one cool little use. I, uh, decided to, uh, about 4 minutes ago when I realized, oh shoot, I'm gonna have to tap dance while I give people a minute to log on, I went to Claude and I said, give me— what was my prompt? Give me 3 interesting things to talk about self-storage right now. And bam, here it was. So you want to know what they are, and then we'll get started. Headline number 1: The supply shock sorting itself out. Markets that were drowning in new development 18 to 24 months ago are finally showing who can actually operate and who can just ride the wave. So there's some lease-up problems, uh, out there right now, folks. So we're finding out who the real operators are, who knows how to lease up, uh, all these facilities they built Uh, 18 months, 24 months ago. Second headline, death of set-it-and-forget-it pricing. Revenue management software has gone from nice to have to you're leaving serious money on the table without it. I can, I can assure you I agree with that. And the third, and I love this because it's so timely for an announcement— I wasn't going to make this early, but I'm going to make it now— the boat and RV storage gold rush that might actually be real this time. Why is that? The demographic shift of boomers with toys, nowhere to park them, and HOAs cracking down is creating real demand. But the supply side hasn't caught up yet because everyone's been focused on traditional storage. The operators figuring out how to add RV and boat to existing facilities without cannibalizing their core business are seeing some impressive numbers. So boom, in an instant, AI give me 3 awesome headlines. To share with you. Uh, if you want to learn more about how to use AI in your personal life or business, again, go to Successful Idiots Podcast. I'm one of the idiots. Um, and that is all well and good and fun. And now I am ready to get rolling. And I just realized in all of that, I don't even know how to switch it to these slides. I think I— and I don't have to because the hand of God is behind me. Folks, what I was going to— should I save it for the end? I'll save the announcement for the end. If I forget, please somebody remind me. All right, here we go because we are live. So, um, as of course reminder, I am Joe Downs with the Storage Moguls Mastermind, and today, as promised, we are diving into Section 4 recap. And in Section 4, if you recall, we talked about the numbers game of underwriting and analysis. And, uh, hopefully you got to understand a little better the financial heartbeat of a self-storage deal. So tonight I'm going to do a quick recap of the critical elements that make or break an investment, and then we will open up for Q&A with my special guest, who is Jack Bazzino.

Jack is—

for those of you who haven't, uh, had the experience or pleasure of, um, being on a call with Jack or a podcast or listening to him, Uh, he's my guy. He's my head of acquisitions at the Bellrose Group. He's also our lead mentor at the Storage Moguls, uh, and you're gonna love hearing from him and asking any questions of him, uh, because he is a wizard when it comes to underwriting, uh, and storage and, you know, all things storage. So, all right, let's jump right into the roadmap for today's recap. So I hope if I click on the right thing— here we go. Uh, so again, this is another section where we covered a lot of ground, and it's crucial to connect all the dots. So We started with, uh, risk and earnest money deposits and understanding what's at stake from day one. Then we moved into the core financials, dissecting the P&L and net operating income, or NOI, and we reviewed why these are your foundational numbers, uh, that tell the story of a property's performance. Then we talked about the metrics that truly define a viable deal, and then this is where we got into the heart of the deal analysis. If you remember the holy trinity of metrics, first we have the cap rate, which gives you the unleveraged yield, which is a quick snapshot of the property's income-generating potential without the debt. Then there was the cash-on-cash, which is your leveraged return showing what you actually put in your pocket. And then finally, the DSCR, or as we know it, debt service coverage ratio, which tells you if you can actually pay your debt. And these 3 metrics together paint a complete picture of a deal's financial health. But even with great numbers, if you recall, there were hidden dangers that we discussed as well. And if I've referred to them as, uh, the silent killers, it's because they're expenses that can sneak up on you and destroy your projections. Property taxes are the big one. Remember, they often reset on sale, so don't assume they'll stay the same. Insurance rates are another major concern, with many seeing them double in cost. Then there's the management fees, which typically run around 6% of your gross income. And then finally, don't forget repair reserves. Remember to budget at least 15 cents per square foot to play it safe. If you ignore these, it can turn a good deal into a very bad deal very quickly. And then we talked about how to distinguish between a truly good deal from a bad one, which brought us to the perfect deal versus the deal breakers and why knowing the difference was everything. A perfect deal often has value-add opportunities, high traffic, uh, growing population. You're looking for undervalued rents that you can push. On the flip side, you had the deal breakers. These are the non-negotiable red flags— things like being in a flood zone, having major structural issues, Or being in a declining market. Environmental hazards are also immediate walkaways. By the way, folks, all of these happened in the last, I think, 3 deals for us. These are real, they're present. Jack will be on in a minute if you want to ask about them. Uh, understanding these green lights and red flags helps you make smart decisions. So we also covered some common burning questions that we always see, starting with why cap rates can feel like a moving target. You know, how do you really know what they are? The biggest drivers here being supply and demand. More demand, less supply usually means lower cap rates. Population growth being a huge factor directly impacting that demand side of the equation, of course. And then there's perceived risk. A market seen as stable and growing will command a lower cap rate. And then finally, the class. Class A versus Class C facilities will always have different risk profiles and therefore different cap rates. So remember, understanding these dynamics help you make smarter investment decisions. And then after cap rates, there's always a lot of questions about whether an expense ratio is achievable. Like, is 35% really achievable? That's the number we always talk about. Sometimes in seller pro formas you'll see 30% or even less, which is embarrassing at this point. Uh, and we talked about the short answer being yes, 35% is achievable, but it's really not the norm. You can hit those numbers with significant scale and by leveraging technology, especially with unmanned facilities that cut down on payroll. But we also talked about the trap. You don't underwrite your deals assuming perfection, and that's darn near perfection. One small mistake, one unexpected repair, and your cash flow gets crushed. So to be safe, you always stick to underwriting with a 35% to 40% expense ratio. It gives you a crucial buffer. I like to think of a 35% expense ratio or anything lower than that as an operational goal, not a year 1 metric. Then we moved on to talking about how to protect your investment with proper reserves. And a common question we always hear is whether we keep— we should keep those reserves in a separate account. And the answer is always a resounding yes. This creates a psychological barrier to spending that money on anything else. Plus, lenders are often going to require separate replacement reserves, so it's a good practice. You never want to mix your capital expenditures with your operating expenses. Keeping these funds separate is key to protecting your asset and ensuring you're ready for anything. Okay, well, as I said, we covered a lot of really important underwriting items in the last 2 weeks, and we're going to open it up for questions here shortly. But first, let's look ahead to Section 5, because in Section 5, we're really going to dig deep into financing and closing— kind of important as well— and explore how to find the right lender for your specific needs. We're also going to break down the differences between SBA and conventional loans and help you decide which path is best. And for those looking to scale, we'll discuss some strategies for raising private capital, just a little bit. Finally, We'll walk through the closing process and what it takes to hit the ground running on day 1. So get ready for the next section, next 2 weeks, give me some crucial insights. And with that, let's wrap things up for today because that brings us to the end of day 62, our recap, which means it is time for Q&A. So I am hopeful that— oh, he is! Jack Fazzino is here, uh, and, uh, I am excited to have you here, Jack. Because— is your mic on? I think you're muted. And I know you're doing double duty tonight because I know you're on a Mastery call introducing, uh, actually what we're gonna be talking about the next 2 weeks.

I'm a little ahead, so—

So don't, don't give it away. Um, so Jack, uh, were you able to catch most of my recap tonight? I know you probably didn't catch the videos every day, or Or are you watching those videos?

I saw today's. Did you?

Okay. Um, did you— were you on? I know you were. Again, I'm covering for you because I know you were jumping from another call, but were you on when I talked about, um, all of the things that we've encountered in the last couple weeks? Not just with us, but with some of our students. A couple deals, I should say.

Yes. Yeah. Uh, which one? The insurance? The PM?

Take your pick. Which one would you, um, like to talk about? I mean, I don't— we don't have any questions yet, but, um, I know they're going to be flooding here soon. So, um, which, which one of those horrible situations that we had to deal with would you like to highlight for our listeners?

I mean, the one I guess I'll talk about is, uh, this is like on those— as you're driving for dollars and you find those off-market opportunities, super exciting. But when you get these Excel sheets and everybody's promising you that revenue's X You really got to validate that revenue is X, uh, because twice this year, uh, or twice in 2025, we actually had that where the revenue that was told to us was about $25,000, like $20,000 to $30,000 off of what would be.

And those were different situations, right?

Both of them were very different.

So give us, give us each, each situation, because that, that is what we covered in the last 2 weeks is, um, not trusting the seller's pro forma, really digging into the numbers both on the revenue and the expense side. So what, what did we, in our very normal course of due diligence, what did we discover in those 2 different situations?

Yeah, so the one situation was a boat and RV facility in Virginia where, uh, the seller really wanted a certain price, and he was, he was pushing— he was telling us he was pushing rates. And we, we looked at the facility in 2024, we came pretty close, we were within a couple hundred grand and we needed to walk away because it wasn't going to service our debt service, uh, coverage ratio where, uh, that in that first year without us increasing revenue by more than 10%, which just wasn't going to happen. So we, uh, and the reason why I say it's not going to happen is like our portfolio is probably up around like 3 to 5%. So it's like the market last year was relatively flat, so you were more— you needed to be a little bit more strategic. That said, he contacted us a year later and was just like, hey, uh, I pushed my rates, here's where I'm at. So I was like, oh cool. So I'm looking at the reports, I like— we go through everything and yeah, his every, every Excel sheet he sent, it showed his revenue was now $227,000. So going through everything, I'm like, okay, cool. Uh, we actually put the deal under contract. Go me. Um, but when we go under contract, we now get all the P&Ls and the tax returns. So I'm going into the tax returns and I'm seeing like, wait, his income is really still $201,000. Like, what is this? And so I went to, uh, we had, uh, an intern over the summer, uh, who then I was like, listen, can you just look through this? I'm making a mistake. I'm wrong. Like, I, like, I definitely am miscounting something. Can you look at this again? He looks through it, he ran it through AI, and he's asking questions to AI as well. And we're— nope, it's $201,000. And now I'm going back through the rent roll and I'm going back through the P&L, and there it was. He double counted the house income. So he had it in the P&L as rent, and then he had it as a separate line item. So I was able to find that the, the house income that he was he had in there was counted twice. We went back to the seller. We had asked him, hey man, like, uh, here's where you told us income was, here's where it actually is, and we agreed to this cap rate, we agreed to like the purchase price based on this, and here's what happened. Unfortunately, the seller was really set on that number where we weren't able to retrade. But we were able to—

But if we didn't catch that, what, what kind of, uh, valuation difference is that?

So that would have been $20,000. I think that was around 7 caps. That would have been around $280,000.

So in the hole out of the gates. Now let me ask you a question. We— was that a seller finance deal?

Uh, no.

Okay. Did we get as far as a lender?

Uh, we, we started to like Uh, we started to engage and talk to one a little bit, but like, it was all predicated on the $227,000, not the—

Yeah, let me ask you a question you may or may not be able to answer, but in your opinion, do you think the lender would have caught that?

That is a tough question. So, because lenders, they're going to look at the deal And they're going to look at you where if you have a strong balance sheet and they, they may come back with something along the lines of like, hey, due to our assessment, we may— like if you're going to conventional loan, in a typical conventional loan, you put about 30% down. They may just say something to you in vague terms along the lines of like, hey, we may just need 35% or maybe 40% down here to cover the leverage.

Mm-hmm.

We're not 100% confident on the asset. Where like if you just put it like 35-40% down, we can probably get around it. And what they just—

You're kind of answering the question. Yeah, that they wouldn't have caught it. They would have just adjusted the deal based on—

I don't think they would have told you about it.

Yeah, well, maybe they would have, maybe they wouldn't. I would feel like they would if they caught it, but I don't think that they're typically going through it with the fine-tooth comb that we are. No, I think they're trusting and seeing that the revenue is close enough, and maybe they're taking their own calculation based on some other number, right? They might be just taking the seller's number and discounting it, right?

Or they—

Maybe they would inadvertently make up for it, but to your point, they would discount that, have you put more money down You still bought it because the lender made the deal work, right? And, and not— I'm not— yeah, lender watching this, I'm not saying you're the one that is going to miss it. Maybe some lenders are catching it, but it's very possible that a lender would miss it.

And, and that doesn't change the fact that you just overpaid by $280 grand. Which at that point, I just Yeah, just— I need— now I need my first year I'm working for free. And for me, I like— I mean, I don't necessarily like working for free. I'd like to monetize on the value that I'm bringing to the facility and not pay for the pro forma. But you would have been probably working there for probably a year, year and a half for free. So yeah.

You know, I've— we've seen a lot of deals in our day, and I'll that have not gone to plan. And I'll bet you that that happens more often than not. I think people get, uh, get so excited about deals. Well, we see it.

Yeah.

Right, because we've stood— but, um, I think there are people out there buying deals that don't have storage moguls to keep them, you know, the guardrails up, you know, the bumper lanes on the, on the bowling alley. And, uh, I think they make those mistakes because they get so excited about the deal and everything the seller said and this, that, and, and they, and they trust and don't verify numbers. And those little numbers, those little numbers matter.

That's— I mean, it's funny, I was just going through the underwriting on the Mastery Call tonight and, uh, just talking about small mistakes where it was like, hey, marketing here was $6,000, but hey, we're gonna, we're gonna adjust it to $3,000. Okay, so that's $3,000, but can I do that? And like in the, the offer memorandum we were looking at, the, uh, the advertising came down $3,000, and then they put a beautiful picture of snow right on the COVID page of the, uh, of the offer memorandum, but then there was no snow removal.

There was no snow removal.

Now I have $6,000 from the start because I didn't have a website. I have $3,000 in marketing, and I have No snow removal, where I'm adding $6,000 to my expenses, which, Joe, it's just, it's 6 grand, it's not that big of a deal, but that's $85,000 to the, uh, the purchase price. Where it's just those, those little numbers can really start to add up into something big, especially when you put a cap rate on it. And that's based on a 7 cap, but if you get— if it went to a 6 cap, that number goes up even higher. And if it's a 9 cap, yeah, that number will go down a little bit.

But $1,000 here, $2,000 there, before you know it, it's $10,000.

Which, that's where it's— oh, it hurts.

Mm-hmm. But that's what was the other situation.

So the other one was we were buying, uh, a storage asset, and it also had a restaurant component to it, which was handled as a triple net lease. Uh, we were going to be doing the storage component here as well as the restaurant component over here. And it was one of those—

I love the state of our company at this point because I don't even know what deal you're talking about.

This one was in—

this never made it to me.

No, it did.

It did? Restaurant?

Uh, yeah, no, this, uh, this one was in Alabama.

Oh, oh, oh, you know what? All right, that's the state of my brain then because I forgot about it.

This one was in Alabama and, uh, it was just a— it was a miscommunication between the broker and myself where this one was a broker deal. It was seller financed. Uh, we would've been able to service the debt on it perfectly. It's just our investors, it would've— we wouldn't have been able to deliver the returns to our investors had we not caught this mistake. But again, it was one of those in the offering memorandum, it showed that there was the rental income, the late fees, the insurance admin fees, and then restaurant income. So I was like, all right, cool. Like, so I had asked the question like, okay, like, is the restaurant income separate? Yes, restaurants income separate. Perfect. Get under contract. We again go and review everything. I'm about $22,000 off, and I've been through this once before, so I'm kind of going through the P&Ls, I'm going through the tax returns, and I'm going to see everything. And tax returns, they're $22,000 off. And now I'm going through the P&L, and that's $22,000 off. And now I'm going through the rent roll, and I'm like, oh wait, They had the restaurant in as a unit, so it wasn't a triple net lease. It was a unit that they had in their storage facility that they were just charging monthly rent to. So it was— now I needed to figure out a lease with this tenant and then also losing $22,000 in revenue, which would have diluted the returns too much for our investors with what we would have needed to do to increase it. Um, and then again, that seller was pretty stuck on their price. They had us— they had a number in mind. Um, but I think that deal is still out there, so who knows what'll happen with it.

Well, let's not say too much about it then. Um, Jack, one of the things I really harped on the last 2 weeks was, um, taxes and insurance as silent killers.

Yeah.

And I know we have Some situations that you can expound upon there recently, not just with us, with students too, I think.

But, um, could you—

I, I think they're silent killers because I think even less people will call a county or go to a county or whatever the taxing authority is And really find out what happens with the taxes upon sale or in the future, or find out how— what the cadence of the taxing scenario is in that municipality. And the same with insurance. I think, I think people just accept these were the taxes. That's what the seller's insurance was. Why would mine be any different? Because— and maybe I'm just thinking everybody's like me, but if you are like me, I'm sorry for you— but I am like, the thought of calling an insurance company and getting a quote and calling a tax authority, taxing authority, and learning about what happens Is like fingernails on a chalkboard to someone like me. And I think I'd be guilty if I wasn't teaching this. I think I would be guilty of being that guy going in alone and going, how could it be different?

Right? Okay.

So I think, again, full in fairness, If you're not like me and you're more like Jack, who would never do that— he's— me saying that is probably fingernails on a chalkboard to Jack, but it is okay. Um, if you're like me, get yourself a Jack. If you're like Jack, get yourself a me, because you're not gonna do any deals without me. But, um, I think there's a lot of people, like, unfortunately, they're more like me because they're the ones that are out there You know, fighting and clawing and finding the deals, who don't have time to do that. And so I can't emphasize enough how important these are and why they're called silent killers, is because they just seem so harmless. You feel like and look like you accounted for them, but trust me, you didn't. So Jack, jump into one or two or one of each scenarios or whatever. I know we've got a few to work with here, so Whatever, uh, whichever one you're feeling right now. Yeah, to emphasize the point I'm trying to make here with, with both of them.

So there was a deal we, uh, we closed ourselves last year in Tallapoosa, Georgia, and we had called the county and we were, we were vetting out the taxes there. And it was, uh, it was one of those deals where I was trying to be crafty and I was like, yeah, like, you know, like we're buying it for $2 million Uh, but like, what if we allocate— like, we were going to do a cost segregation. Uh, don't want to go too deep into that, but that's— it's an accounting thing you can do to allocate to real estate, buildings, goodwill, and basically break down the asset into multiple different categories where you can basically defer some of your taxes. So I thought, uh, so I'm on the phone with the county and we're like, yeah, like, we're gonna Like, we're gonna go through the cost segregation and we're gonna, uh, like, we're gonna put X to real estate, Y to goodwill, and then this to land, and this is how we're gonna do it. And the guy, I guess I got him on a bad day, but he was like, that's great, you should do that. Uh, your taxes are gonna be based off the purchase price, or excuse me, the greater of the purchase price or the assessed value of the buildings. And I was like, But even if like we went through the cost segregation, the taxes are going to be based on the greater of the assessed price or the purchase price. So I tried in like 3 different ways. I tried reframing my questions. He didn't like it. But I found out our taxes were gonna— I want to say quadruple here. This was in Georgia where they are in most counties, they're going to assess to— I got, I got good at it now. But they're going to assess to the greater of the assessed price or the purchase price. So it's something that, I mean, and I've been preaching this and shouting it from the mountaintops. I like— this is one of those things that are near and dear to my heart just because, uh, I don't like seeing the people make that mistake because it honestly is probably the biggest mistake people make. Yeah. And I've been shouting it from the rooftops in every academy, and I've been saying it to all of our students in multiple calls. And that's still one of the number one mistakes that I—

because it's really hard to solve for. Yeah, you can appeal, maybe you get them lower, but you're not going to win. And you can't, you can't switch management, you can't, uh, you can't throw more money at, you know, generating more revenue, you can't— there's just, there's no fixing taxes. They are what they are.

And, and on top of that, like you were talking about the bank earlier, now you submitted your projections to the bank without those tax adjustments. So the bank thinks you did that. They're not calling the county. They're not going to see what's going to happen. Like, some might have a decent idea, but if you sent your projections, they may, they may think you did a cost segregation or you deferred your tax. They don't know. So it's one of those things you really got to be cognizant of. And that's, that's on the tax side. I mean, insurance, like— Someone in the industry had said to me about insurance, Jack, you got to be careful with insurance. They've lost money for the first time ever. I was like, what? What do you mean? Insurance companies have been profitable every single year. And then COVID happened. I was like, oh, because like in COVID, then all of a sudden you had like 4 hurricanes in Florida. Yeah. What happened with the wildfires? You had the floods, you had the tornadoes. Everything seemed to be happening at once where all of a sudden insurance prices were going up like 5% a year.

Wasn't just that, it was, uh, inflation too. Massive inflation because replacement costs of everything went up by 15-20%, which is your insurance with it.

So it's, it's a— that's a great point because like the cost of replacement is going up like in insurance. So you're going to have a certain policy where you're going to have, uh, your coverage is going to be based on a specific cost of replacement. Happened to us on another deal that we were— I was helping a student look at, but the policy stated like the cost of replacement was $25. That's about a third of what you need. Yeah, about $75 for cost of replacement. Some insurance companies are going to make it be $100.

Well, put it, put it in real, real numbers. The seller was insuring a $60 square foot facility maybe when it was built. and you're gonna be insuring a replacement cost of $7,580. So right there, you're gonna see your premium go up. Um, real, real quick, Dallas has a question here. Do taxes normally double or triple after purchase?

Wow, great question. Uh, so each state is gonna have slightly different tax codes. Certain states Your taxes are going to stay the same, where they assess based on their assessed price every other year. Some do it even years, some do it odd years, and it's going to be based on their assessed value. There's going to be other states that have the— like Georgia, that's the greater of the assessed price and the purchase price, where the purchase of a new facility is going to trigger that reassessment. And then there's going to be other states— I believe North Carolina is a state that a lot of the count— every county in North Carolina is going to be slightly different, but a lot of those are going to reassess every like 3 to 5 years. Some may do it every 7 years, but every state is going to have slightly different tax codes based on the millage rate and like how the school taxes, municipal taxes, and everything else is going to get encapsulated into that. Um, while other states are, are fairly friendly. So that's why it's like it's one of the best practices to give that call to the county to have an understanding as to what's going to happen with the taxes. Just to like, because if you doubled or tripled some of those, like, and you see like sometimes that's going to be way more than what you need, other times that might be way less. Like, like I want to say there was a couple examples that I was looking at in South Carolina where again, that's a state where you The county that I was looking at at the time, I forget the county, not that good, Joe. Um, but it reassessed that purchase. So in that, that facility last transacted, I want to say in like, it was either 1999 or 2002, where it has gone like 23, 24 years without a reassessment, where the taxes were going to go from like $4,000 to about, I want to say, $40,000. Where it was like, it changed the deal a little bit. Uh, it was, it was a decent-sized deal where it could have supported, but the purchase price was based off the $4,000, not the $40,000.

It makes it sticky too for sellers because they don't understand it. And really, they're the ones that should bear it because they're the ones that paid the low tax. It was almost like a deferred, uh, it was like an IRA for your taxes, right? It was like a deferred, um, it's not IRAs, it's investment, but it literally was, it's a deferred increase in taxes until you sell. But, and you know, the seller's mentality is, well, that's not my problem. And buyer's mentality is, well, yeah it is, because now your deal doesn't pencil. It probably doesn't even cash flow from a DSCR perspective. So it is your problem. And it really, I guess it becomes a shared burden. But, um, it certainly creates friction when, when you're talking to a seller when there's that big of a jump. But I, you know, I don't— I will say more recently we've seen We've seen bigger jumps, but in, in a lot of the transactions we did in the past, in, you know, 4, 5, 6, 7 years ago, there were moderate increases, if any at all.

But a lot of our deals, it's not like— it's not drastic. I mean, yeah, a couple states still are, but it's one of those things that you try to plan for the best you can. Uh, the one— and the reason why we kind of make this big fuss on taxes and insurance is a big thing is you're buying storage, which is, it's an exciting thing. Let's, for me at least, I always, I still get excited about it. But you're buying real estate in a business. So the one thing when you're kind of going about that, and this is where I become like a numbers nerd, but I want my asset to be an asset. I don't want, I don't want to buy an asset that quickly turns into a liability and then I'm playing defense and like, that's not fun. So I want to, I want to see that asset grow and not become that liability that it's just like, why did I buy this? Like, I, like, I, you know what, I don't like self-storage. I want to get out of it. Like, this is like, I was told I was getting all this cash flow and all, all of a sudden it's not there because I missed one step.

Yeah.

So I like, I want to keep it fun. So that's why it's like one of those, if I don't get the deal because of it, stinks. But at the same time, it's also gonna be awesome because I'm still, I'm, I'm not gonna have the bank calling me for a bad debt service, or—

Well, it's awesome because you dodged a bullet. You lived to see another day and you found another deal, right? That's why it's awesome. It stinks because, you know, you put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and hard work into finding the deal. The good news is you found a deal, so just go do that again because you know how to do it now. Um, don't, don't just live with or accept a situation that isn't going to pencil. Um, just because you found out some bad news. Make sure you find out the bad news, folks. Don't, don't not try to find out the bad news. Um, Jack, uh, you said something a second ago about being a nerd. You are a nerd, but you're our nerd, so we love you. Um, you, you do you. You keep being in there because you're helping a lot of students, uh, stay out of trouble. So we appreciate it. Um, and thank you for being on tonight. Awesome. As always, awesome information. Also, you're a great resource, and you're not just a student of the game; it's clear you love the game. So thank you, folks. Make sure you like and subscribe so you don't miss tomorrow, day 63, where we're going to dive again into the deep, deep into the financial or financing excuse me landscape. And you know, just keep watching the series because you keep learning, keep growing, keep sharing. You're building your expertise, and it's important to show that. On your social media network. So if you can share this content with your network, it demonstrates that you know what you're doing, you're, you're invested, you're involved. Um, people see it, you'll be known as the storage person in their network. And you'd be surprised how quickly that happens just by sharing and liking and demonstrating that you're involved in storage groups, uh, masterminds, communities, you know, YouTube video series, whatever it is. Articles. Make sure that you're doing that because you're going to want— when you, when you do find a deal, when you do jump in to business, you find a deal, you want to be going to be able to go to those people and you're going to want them to think you've been doing this for a long time. So start now. It doesn't take that long, trust me. All right, and by the way, there might be someone out there in your network that wants to hitch a ride alongside you and learn as well, and they just might thank you later.