Joe DownsCEO & Co-Founder, Belrose Storage Group. Founder, Storage Moguls.

Self-Storage Turnover Myth Debunked

2 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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Most self-storage facilities are owned by small operators, which keeps turnover low. But facilities do hit the market when owners retire, settle estates, or mismanage debt. Off-market deal sourcing gives buyers an edge finding motivated sellers.

True or false? The average self-storage facility changes hands less than once every 20 years. Average self-storage facility.
False. Oh, it's true, James.
Now you might have the data. You might have the data that, that actually you're going to have to check. Well, I'll tell you that.
I'll tell you the last 3 years I would have, I would have a hard time buying that one.
Well, it says the average. Now, most of these owned by my mom and pops, right? And they, there's storage owners that hold. So sure, that's true. Facility does hit the market. There's always a reason. Retirement, estate, Debt mismanagement, the low transaction velocity is exactly why off-market matters and why the buyers who know how to find motivated sellers win every time. But I think that's where this data's coming from. But I would love, I would love for you to fact-check me. And really what you're doing is fact-checking Claude.
No, you know, I, you know, thinking, thinking on it and again, thinking about the total number of single small operators. Yeah, that would make sense because it's the highest percentage.