The Seller Stopped Operating. The Data Made Them Stay.

I want you to imagine something. You've spent months finding a deal. You went through the education, you underwrote it, you got the bank on board, you signed the contract, you put your earnest money down, and then while you're under contract, the seller stops operating. He just stops. Phone goes to voicemail. New tenants can't rent. Existing tenants move out. The facility you thought was 75% occupied is now sitting at 40%. And you haven't even closed yet. You have a clause in your contract that says if the seller violates his obligation to keep running the facility, you can walk away, full deposit back, no harm, no foul. That is the moment my guests today were standing in. They almost walked. They came very close. The rational choice on paper was to take the deposit and go find another deal. But they didn't walk. Today, Lemon Springs Self Storage in Sanford, North Carolina is at 70% occupancy and climbing. Their year 1 projections, they hit 'em. Deal number 2, they're already looking. Adam works in sales. Kirby homeschools their kids. They had no prior storage experience. What they had was the ability to tell the difference between a market that doesn't want you and an operator who stopped trying. Today, you're gonna hear how they figured that out. I'm Joe Downs. Welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast. My company's acquired 20 storage facilities, which is over $50 million in assets across multiple storage niches. With three more under contract right now and two pro storage facilities in development, we've seen this business from every angle, educated hundreds of students, and learned how firsthand how to succeed and why and who succeeds and why. That's what drove us to build StorageMuggles.ai, an AI-powered community with the tools, the structure, and the guardrails to teach people how to buy storage facilities. And that's exactly why I launched this podcast to try to bring you the operators, the lenders. And the real people who've bought deals, so you can hear their stories, learn this business from them—the folks living it every day. I am excited about today's conversation because Adam and Kirby bought this facility back in July or August of 2025. So this is a great chance to hear their story and check in to see how they're doing. Adam and Kirby are the owners of Lemon Spring Self Storage in Sanford, North Carolina. 96 units. Purchased in August of 2025. I was right. Adam is a sales professional. Kirby homeschools the kids who are now, by the way, active participants in the family business. I'm looking forward to unpacking that. They came through our Self Storage Academy, and I got to watch this deal happen in real time. This is the full story: the fear, the near walk, the fix, and where they are now. Adam and Kirby, welcome to the Storage Moguls Podcast.

Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Yeah, we appreciate it. Thanks, Joe.

I'm— well, I appreciate you guys coming back because I know we've already talked to you guys right after you bought it, and we're gonna, we're gonna get into all that and break that down. But before we do, I'm gonna— I'd like to have a little fun on our podcast. So, um, I'm gonna ask you a series of true/false questions along the way. All right, you're up for it? You can take turns, you can both answer.

We'll see how much we're on the same page.

True or false? Self-storage was one of only 3 major real estate asset classes that actually increased in value during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

True.

True.

True is correct. When the housing market collapsed, people downsizing still needed storage, so demand went up, not down. The other 2 asset classes, if you're curious, you want to take a guess? They're kind of techie.

Oh, tech was kind of starting to boom, man.

Cell towers and data centers. Yeah. Yeah. Real estate asset classes. But anyway, all right. Adam and Kirby, um, aren't real estate operators by background. He's in sales. She homeschools the kids, which is exactly why the story matters. Because if getting into this business required an industry background, they'd have never gotten in, and neither would most of you. And I, I don't think I would've either. So I wanna back up, um, to before Lemon Springs, before storage was even on your radar, because I think where someone starts tells you more, uh, than any deal number ever could. So Adam Kirby, what, what did a normal week look like for each of you before self-storage entered the picture? What were you doing and what were you trying to get to, or where were you trying to get to financially?

Am I going? Okay.

Don't all answer at once.

It was, it was a journey. I mean, I think as you, you grow up and you, you know, we both graduated from college and obviously trying to get your feet underneath you, you know, from a career standpoint, we had just, we had some career changes, you know, over the last 20 years or so. But I predominantly have been in sales, business development, you know, customer service. My whole career. Kirby, I don't want to speak for you, but she started really in the corporate world as well as a sales manager, events sales manager for a hotel. And it just wasn't who she was. She recognized that a lot sooner in life than I did. I was in corporate America for about 16, 17 years until I finally realized it's not the path that I want. So yeah, that's kind of how it came about. But then it came, you know, you get into your mid-30s and you just feel like you're on that hamster wheel, right? Just going around and around and around from day in, day out. The weeks look the same and it's honestly not who I am. Joe, I mean, we spent some time together. I'm a very high-strung kind of active person and like to keep things interesting. Yeah, the complaining from me became kind of a daily thing. I came home almost frustrated and then the kids can see it. And it just all kind of built up over time, honestly, to where we kind of sat down and we're like, where do we go from here? What do we want to accomplish? What are our goals? And we really structured that out. Fast forward a year, 2 years. Um, yeah, it was really kind of sitting down and saying, Kirby, um, again, Saul.

Yeah, let me follow up here with a question for Kirby. Kirby, how long were you watching storage from the sidelines before you actually did something about it? Or how— maybe you weren't watching storage. How long were you watching this frustration that Adam just talked about, um, from the sidelines before you did something about it? Because what you did about it sounds like it was storage, but But maybe answer both those questions. So how long did this go on before the light bulb went off? Like, hey, we gotta do something different. And then when you stumbled onto storage, how long did you sit on the sidelines just watching storage before you did something about it?

Yeah, so I would say, I mean, honestly, it was a couple years with Adam. Like, it started small and then, you know, it gradually increased the stress levels, you know, the, just the frustration with his job and things like that, and just not wanting to be in corporate America. And I think it got to the point where we were on vacation in July, and he, I think he was just relaxed because he was on vacation. He didn't have to have the stress over work. And he was like, it was a heart-to-heart moment, and he's like, I'm just done. Like, I need something. And we stumbled upon, across, you know, the Scott Myers, I think it was on social media. And I was like, let's do it. Let's, like, we had no idea about storage. We honestly never even like looked into it. We never owned a storage unit, you know? So it was just completely something from left field. And honestly, then that November, so just a few months later, Adam went to the academy and it was all from there.

Yeah, I think when we first talked about this, I think you said you saw an advertisement on Instagram.

Yeah.

And so it was a couple of months. You sent him off to the academy.

Yeah.

A couple of months later, like the good soldier that he was, he went and he came back. And I distinctly recall from that podcast interview, He was taking good notes and you were encouraging him to take the next step, right? Or did you, he came home and you talked about it? I'm not sure exactly what happened there.

I mean, honestly, no, he actually called me while he was down there and he was like, I think I said this the last time, it was like a different person. Like it did not sound like Adam. He was just super excited. Like his voice was just, you could tell it was something that like, just like a fire was lit under him. You know, he was just had this passion that I haven't heard since probably like maybe we got married. So, I get it.

I had a similar experience when I went to my first academy. I couldn't sleep those nights because I was finally excited about something new.

Yeah, I'm kind of sad that I didn't go personally. It was, you know, that part I was sad about, but we kind of made the decision over the phone, like before he even left the academy. So, I trusted him and I could just feel it, you know, even though I wasn't there in person. So, Yeah.

All right. Um, Adam, you, you guys, uh, I'm gonna fast forward here a little bit. You, you passed on Lemon Springs the first time you looked at it. Walk me through that. Why'd you say no the first time?

I think originally we just had in mind, you know, and I know you hate this word, Joe, the, the whole buy box thing, but it was, you know, trying to understand Again, no hate.

It's just misused.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

But yeah, it was just trying to understand, okay, what does the first one look like, or what do we want the first one to look like? And Lemon Springs was just smaller than what we were honestly looking for. We were trying to get something that was closer to 200 units that potentially we would third-party manage. So yeah, we looked at it, but it Nothing really stuck out to us. Again, even being 30 minutes from our house and having Scott and you and the team drive into your head that a good first deal too would be one to self-manage, right? Because you learn a lot upfront and you learn the business. So I did like that approach, but it was just kind of, we had the blinders on a little bit just thinking, hey, we want We want to go a little bit bigger. And yeah, so yeah.

Well, there was, there was a lot of old school wisdom that you have to, everything has to be bigger. And when you guys were coming through, that was still lingering. It's a completely different mind— mindset today. In fact, one of the reasons I started storagemuggles.ai and this podcast was to talk about deals that aren't bigger because People make so much more money risk relative to the risk they take on, on these smaller deals. Like, what was your purchase price on this Lemon Springs?

Uh, $625,000.

Yeah, like, and just, we'll fast forward real quick. What's it worth right now?

Uh, $725,000. It'll be coming up on a year. If we can get another 5%, 5-10%, we'll have $100,000 on it.

Right. In, in, in less than a year. Right. So you, you don't, you can't, it's hard to do that in other asset classes and you're only 1 year in. Let's fast forward 2, 3 years. You're only at 70%, by the way, when this thing's stabilized, it's gonna be worth well north of a million. Right. So the prevailing wisdom used to be, and, and a lot of it has to do with low-hanging fruit, right? The low-hanging fruit, 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago, you could buy 30, 40, 50, 60,000 square foot facilities that were grossly undermanaged and undervalued. That's so much harder today with so much more competition. The real value is in that sub-$2 million, sub-million even range, which translates into the smaller square footage size that we're talking about. But you guys were, when you were coming through, there was still this kind of old prevailing wisdom though. Oh no, bigger's better. Well, Not necessarily, not necessarily in storage. It really comes down to where it is and and how you're going to manage it. And can you can you manage it? Do they have to be near you like this one? No, they don't. But look, when I one of the prevailing themes throughout this podcast is going to be me talking to people who first deal is under a million or certainly under two million, and how much more money risk. Reward-wise you're making on those deals versus having to scrape and claw and squeeze every penny to get yourself into a $2 million deal, even where you guys were when you started, which might've broken every bank you had, to what? Where would you be today? So, and I'm not necessarily saying that you wouldn't be in the same place. It's just how much more risk, how much more capital does it require To be able to learn the business, get into the business, create value for yourselves where you are today. So I— your story is one of the stories I love as well, which is why I wanted to have you guys on in the early, early days of this podcast, because you set such a great example for so many people. I just want everyone to hear your story. I want people to hear the Blonk story. There's so many more stories I want people to hear because you are truly paving the way for people, whether you realize it or not. By by doing what you're doing, taking the not risks or big leaps you are, but by by forging this path and showing people no, I can buy a six hundred thousand dollar facility, and by the time I go to refi or sell this thing, it's going to be worth two x what I paid for it because you've got the tools to not only source it like you did, but evaluate it, underwrite it, negotiate it, and and close it, and now manage it. So. I'm just so excited to have you guys on and keep telling this story here. So, um, when you went back Lemon Springs— I don't know if Adam or Kirby wants to go here— but when you went back for the second look, what changed between the first time and the second time? What changed your mind?

You know, honestly, I think, uh, I think some of it was is we weren't doing our full due diligence on it. Uh, we didn't do a deep dive on it. We kind of just did a 30,000-foot overview of Just looking at, you know, the demographics very loosely and kind of the, um, yeah, how it was kind of listed and everything. But we just kind of wrote it off right away. I don't, I don't—

Yeah.

Yeah, it was one of those things where we kind of actually, we were on, um, it was one of the evenings we were on one of our, um, you know, weekly, uh, the Tuesday meetings. I forget what they were called. Um, anyways, it was one of the self-storage meetings that weekly meetings we were on, and we were kind of looking off on the side on one of the computers, and it was just like we looked at each other like, eh, let's keep looking. And then Jack on your team there kind of circled back with us a couple days later. He's like, hey, did you see this one? And I was like, yeah, we looked at it, we passed. And he's like, well, why'd you pass on it? And he started to unpack and kind of dig, and he's like, I would just encourage you to kind of go back and take another second look at it. And that's what we did. We took a— both sat down, took a Hard look at it and started to, uh, to uncover some, some interesting pieces.

Uh, it had the too small stigma. That, that's what was, um, yeah, that's what I think was just real killing. And you have to remember, um, you guys were kind of the leftover from the old school way of training and teaching, and you were just new to us coming through. And, and that's what, that's what I was trying to say. There was this old school mentality that you couldn't Too small. It's too small. Yeah. Well, you know what? Making a couple hundred grand does is I'll go too small for that. Yeah. I mean, I dealt with this in my own company where we had this one partner. Everything had to be bigger. Had to be bigger. Everything had to be bigger. And I was like, but but three hundred thousand dollars, four hundred thousand dollars profit here. No brainer all day long. Why aren't we buying this? And you know, we went through our own frustrations and friction, but. That's why we're here now talking. So thank you both for being here telling this story. Before you committed, Kirby, I think this might've been up your alley here. Before you committed, you secretly shopped the entire market around Lemon Springs. What did you find and what did it tell you?

Yeah, so I think that was just another thing that kind of initially we were kind of like, eh, 'cause it's like more of like an urban setting. It's not really, I think, just like bigger is better kind of mindset. We were thinking, oh, like it should be in like a suburbs, more like city, closer, not as many farms and things like that. So when I shopped around and called some other storage facilities within, you know, 10, 15-mile radius, I was shocked to hear that most of them were pretty much full. And I was like, okay, so there's definitely a need in this area, even though it's this urban setting. And This location is, I mean, as you know, Raleigh is just getting bigger and bigger as it grows. So it kind of like put a light bulb on. We're like, okay, so there's potential here.

All right, cool. So, but the takeaway there is you did your homework, which is what you learn, right? And you called around and you realized, hey, there's demand here 'cause everybody's full. This one's just not being operated very well.

Exactly.

We'll get into that.

Yeah.

So the, the deal that's, that scared you was also the deal that, that taught you the most important lesson in this business, the difference between a market problem and an operator problem. And one you can't fix, the other you can. So, you know, you guys found the right, the right kind of problem. Love that. All right. Um, true or false, the United States has more self-storage space per person than any other country in the world by more than 5 to 1 compared to the next closest country.

That would be true.

Yeah, true, probably.

I don't really like how this true/false is written here. I'm gonna have to have a word with Claude. He's doing my, uh, my producer Claude here, because it's kind of giving the answer away in the question. Uh, yes, that is true. That is true. The US has roughly 10 square feet of storage per person. The UK is next at about 1 to 2 square feet. The demand infrastructure here is unlike anywhere else on earth. That's not a warning sign, that's a moat. I do like the, uh, the commentary there. All right, I want to talk about fear specifically, not the general concept of it, but the specific moment where the numbers said this might not work. The seller had already checked out, and walking away was the rational choice on paper because That is the moment most first-time buyers don't survive. Adam and Kirby had an escape hatch. A continuous operation clause in their contract meant the seller was obligated to keep running the facility while they were under contract, which used a fantastic attorney, no doubt.

Hmm.

When occupancy slid to 40% because he stopped operating, They had the legal right to walk away with every dollar of their earnest money deposit back, and they came very close to using it. When you found out occupancy had dropped to roughly 40%, why? While you were under contract, I want you to say out loud, either together or separately, right now, what went through your heads? The real version, not the version that sounds good. I would say scared.

I wanted to puke. I wanted to put— I wanted to puke and put my head through a wall, honestly. Uh, I was just like, man, just like raw and unfiltered.

Yeah, that's Adam. All right, well, walk us through it.

Yeah, I mean, it's, uh Yeah, it was one of those situations where you don't know what you don't know, right? And we didn't know a lot. So thank God we had the mentors of yourself, Joe, and the greater team members behind, and Rod and Kristen and all those folks, man. It made a huge impact on us because honestly, I don't see how we would've ever got across that finish line if If we didn't have those phone-a-friends to pick up the phone and say, all right, this is the situation we're in, we're 2 weeks to closing.

Yeah, you, you would've walked. Yeah. Look, when, when I heard, when Jack came into my office and told me, it was, it felt like a punch to the gut for me because you did all this work to get to where you were and you were still in the thick of, of, of what it was taking to close the thing, right? You, you just, because you get under contract, that's actually when the work begins. Yeah, the harder work, in my opinion. Not the harder work, the more tedious work. The hardest part is getting to the point of getting under contract. And you got there, and then the guy stops operating, and you have the safety hatch, right? But God, that's— you don't want to use it. That's not why you're here. You just wasted all this time. I don't remember if you had already done inspections yet or not, so you probably did have some money invested in it. Yeah, which is not nothing. You probably had a couple grand between legal and inspections.

Oh, we had more than that.

Maybe even— maybe $10,000 or so.

We were over $20,000 that we weren't going to get back.

Yeah, yeah. It's not— that, that's more than just, uh, oh shucks, I'm getting my earnest money deposit back. That is like— for some folks, that would, that would put them out of business forever. They'd never, they'd never go back into storage again.

Yeah.

Um, did you guys actually run the numbers On what happens if the facility doesn't fill up? Walk me through, like walk me through running the numbers and deciding to stay in. And it's self-serving for me to bring this back up, but it's not lost on me that you said if we didn't have the phone a friend, if you didn't have the guidance and the mentors and to say, look, we're going to figure this out together. That's extremely important. Again, it's self-serving for me to say that as someone who's who has does the coaching and mentoring has a platform. StorageMoguls.ai. Now that's really self-serving, but it's not lost on me that you had that, but you're still in control ultimately at the end of the day. It's one thing for us to be behind the scenes, bumper rails on the bowling lane, but you still got to bowl the ball. And that necessarily doesn't always feel great when you're looking at 40% occupancy down from 70. So walk me through that whole scenario, running the numbers. How did you, how did you come to the conclusion that we're charging ahead and what'd you do?

I mean, I feel like we spent hours, you know, that, that evening once we kind of discovered the occupancy, just going every possible different scenario. Like, what if we did this? What if we did that? Or what happens, you know, any kind of situation that we could think of, we did it. And then I honestly, I remember being on the phone with you, Joe, and I was in the car with my kids and I'm like on the verge of like tears. And I remember you saying, ultimately it comes down to you and Adam. And if you think you can manage this and increase occupancy, then go for it. Like, why quit now? Like, if you believe in yourself, then do it. And I think that was like my aha moment. I was like, Yeah. Yes, like, I do believe in us, and I do think that we can do this no matter how, you know, the previous seller is operating, and no matter what kind of scenario we put in our spreadsheets. I think it's ultimately up to Adam and I, and, you know, if we're answering the calls, and we're responding to people, and we're going out there, and we're marketing, you know, that's, in the end, that's kind of how you do better.

Which is what the seller stopped doing. So it wasn't just that I said something inspirational. There was a lot of logic behind it, right?

Yeah.

The seller had stopped, if I wanna say, weren't calls coming in and he just wasn't responding to 'em. So it wasn't like there wasn't demand. He just turned himself off.

Yeah, and I even actually tried calling just to see, you know, from an outside perspective, and it just kept ringing and ringing and ringing and there was no voicemail. And then the website, no way that you can rent online. So it was just from all angles, everything was shut off.

Yeah. So it's still at the end of the day, if I'm, it's been a little while, but from what I recall, like all of the buy signals were still there. You were just starting with 40% instead of 70%, which over how many, 96 units?

92.

It was 20-something, 90, 92. So it was like 20-ish units that he, didn't fill and let, let leave for poor management or whatever, which I, I'm not trying to minimize this at all. That's a big chunk.

Yeah.

But I think we, we also saw that had he just continued to operate, he would've been at 70 or better. So the demand was there. It was a robust market. I mean, we loved the market, which the market is everything. And you guys were going to make sure that you were going to operate it properly. And I believe we felt pretty comfortable. I mean, we have to feel comfortable with you guys being able to do this too. Obviously we're not giving you that advice, but I think we all felt pretty comfortable that you would very quickly get that back and then grow it from there.

Yeah.

Do you remember what the single, if there was a single moment or a single thing that that you guys said, you know what, eff it, we're doing this?

Yeah, uh, it was honestly, it was the money aspect. It was, I want to say it was closer actually to $25,000. We were already sinking money into, into Live Oak Bank. Uh, we had attorney's fees we weren't going to get back. We had inspection fees, uh, surveying fees. I mean, it was, it was all, it was all behind us, right? Like I actually thought leading up to it, it was like 2, 3 weeks to closing, it was just like, oh, finally, we got everything wrapped up, we feel good. And then we got that final financial report and it was just like, where did this come from?

Yeah.

And yeah, it is what it is. But to your point, Joe, I wasn't going to just— I think I actually The words I said, I think, to Kirby was, if we walk away from this, I'm pretty sure it's going to break me. Because just where I was at mentally, you know, just in my career and everything, I was just like, I'm not sure I could go back into the starting line and start all over again. So it was just like—

So that's interesting because I just said that a couple of minutes ago. I think this is the type of thing if people walked away from, they'd never go back to storage again. And that, you know, by the way, for anyone listening, this is extraordinarily rare that an operator would stop operating. It makes no sense for him. He was letting money walk his, you know, walk out of his own pocket, right? He, he was, he still, he still just stopped collecting cash, which was his cash. Made absolutely no sense at all. We, we've never seen it. I've seen, I've seen laziness. I've never seen anything quite like that.

He used his hand in too many pots. He had multiple businesses and this one just got pushed to the side is essentially what happened.

Interesting. But there's sellers like that out there everywhere and the opportunity is everywhere. The version of this deal that you were afraid of, all that fear coming in and then fear out of nowhere that you guys got to experience that most people don't get to experience in their first deal. So you guys are lucky if that's one way you want to look at it. Where is that fear now?

I mean, I think that just how we've done since we started, Adam and I are both like, we're very hard workers and we don't give up and we will try and try and try. So I think just having that mentality has helped us grow the occupancy. I feel like we always say, like, we kind of sometimes learn the hard way. So we learned the hard way, but I think it made us grow to be, you know, more knowledgeable about things and just to check, you know, as we're in that due diligence period, just check in more often on the reports and things like that, just to get a better idea on how things are progressing. But I think our next deal will go smooth sailing.

Well, and you'll have— I mean, you've not only will you be eyes wide open, not that you weren't before, but you've got a new set of glasses you can wear.

Exactly.

I mean, like, this experience in hindsight was a phenomenal experience for you. There's no way it felt like that while you were going through it.

Yeah.

But in hindsight, it was— look, you're here talking about it, right? And you are all the more better for it. So Uh, look folks, the thing that kept them in wasn't bravery, it was data. They went back and secret shopped the competitors and found them full. The website was broken. The phone coverage was not nonexistent. We didn't even talk about the 2 Google Business Profiles under different names.

Yeah.

Uh, which is what, which is what you want when you're the buyer. Yeah. Because that's just opportunity. Mm-hmm. And that, again, that's not a market saying no, that's a seller who stopped showing up and apparently didn't know what they were doing with the 2 different Google Business Profiles. So. Those are two completely, completely different problems. So ends up a great story. True or false? A self-storage facility at 60% physical occupancy is typically operating at or above its break-even point. 60% physical occupancy is typically operating at or above. It's break-even port.

It's right around there. I feel like I'm gonna go false.

Oh, I want to say true.

And, and we just got a window into, uh, the 2 personalities of our hosts here. Kirby would be correct. Adam the naysayer goes with false, and he would be incorrect. But you, you, Adam, you had the answer. You said it's right around there. Yeah.

Well, I'm— well, yeah, because we're right around there as well. And I know—

And it's true. Yeah, but yeah, break-even for most facilities is between 50 and 65% physical occupancy. So 40% is a real problem, but it's a fixable one. Fixable problem. Yeah, very different from a doomed deal. Um, all right, let me ask you guys about the operational reality of taking over a distressed facility, which is what you did. A lot of times our buyers are taking over stabilized facilities Just under under market in rent, you were taking over of what we would consider distress because of the occupancy. So specifically, what you actually do first when everything is broken at once? What costs you find that weren't in the pro forma? If if you found any, how did you prioritize when the to-do list kept getting longer than you expected in the first day, week, month? Um, because folks, when Adam and Kirby closed, they inherited a broken website, no phone coverage, 2 Google Business Profiles under different names, tenants who hadn't been heard from in months, and a property condition report with enough issues that the seller had to complete some repairs before they'd even close. That's a lot to hand to 2 people whose prior week looked like sales calls and homeschooling. So walk me through the property condition report. What hit you hardest? What did you actually get the seller to fix before you closed?

I mean, honestly, the inspection report, I mean, there was a lot of, it was a lot of, I guess you'd call it minimal, easier repairs, right? That is just going to happen with, this facility was built back in the '90s, so it's been through the weather, it's been through Tenants in and out. So yeah, there was a lot of minimal things, but there wasn't— where the big issue came in is we decided to get a survey because they never did a survey. And we ended up finding out that one of the covered garages that we have for outdoor parking was on—

An easement.

Easement. Yes. Thank you.

Septic easement. Yeah. If I recall correctly.

So he had to He had to rectify that, which he did, because when he bought the facility, as he said, that was a business decision that he made. So he made that business decision years ago and he honored that to rectify because that was the direction he went. So there was a lot of, not remorse, but instant stuff that You know, I had a pretty close relationship with the seller, which, you know, I don't, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, Joe, it probably doesn't happen a whole lot. I mean, there was a lot of situations where I was directly contact— I was communicating with the, with the seller and just, you know, the broker was off doing his thing and he's like, hey, just call me directly. Happy to answer any questions. I felt like, you know, I'm— I had a good relationship with them until we started to really uncover some things with the financial report. And then once we closed, it only continued. We were finding units that were supposed to be empty that were occupied and other units. It was a mess. The first couple months were a mess, honestly.

I can't let that go. One of my absolute I don't know what the right word— driving, uh, forces behind how we coach and teach and mentor is you better develop a relationship with that seller. I don't care if there's a broker involved because you got a septic or you got a carport moved because of a survey issue of a septic easement. If you didn't have a relationship with him, he might have drawn a hard line there.

Uh-huh.

And that's just one example. You folks, you, you always want to develop a relationship with that seller. In particular, off market. This was a broker involved, and that's fine. You still you have the broker involved, and the brokers do what brokers do, and and they serve their purpose. But at some at some point in this in this contract, after money goes hard, at least you better develop a relationship with that seller because there's even at at transition and closing, there's a lot of things that you're going to want that seller to help you with and understand and knowledge. So you better. Anyway, sorry, a little PSA there.

Just to kind of piggyback off of that real quick. The seller also had kind of like an admin assistant. And she was super helpful, like throughout the process. She actually invited me down close to our closing. And we walked together through the tenants and kind of how she ran things. And a lot of our Our tenants are kind of old school in their ways where they might send a check or a money order. So she kind of flagged those people on who does that and what to expect. So, I mean, I was down there for like a good hour or 2 just sitting with her and going through the motions. So I felt like we had a strong relationship just to have that communication because like we don't know if that's something that's always done or if this was kind of like a rare case. But it was— I thought it was helpful for me just to get to know the tenants on— Kind of like the backend. You want it to be done.

It's not rare, but it's not always done. Yeah. And that's again, back to developing a relationship with the seller, which is a perfect segue into the next question I want to ask you. What was day 1 of ownership like? You had the keys, what's the first thing you did?

I mean, I feel like what we kind of jumped right into, what we thought was the biggest issue was just the marketing, like the business profile and just getting us out there, a new website, That was, I think, what we hit hard initially. It was like the physical stuff that, you know, like some of the doors that needed to be up, like just, you know, the more of the maintenance stuff we kind of pushed aside. It was more just trying to get the name out there, doing the marketing, building that up because that's what needed it the most.

And what'd you do with the Google Business Profiles? How'd you even figure that out, by the way?

That's all my wife right there. That's all Kirby, baby.

The question was directed at Kirby, I think.

You knew, Mel. Honestly, I just taught myself. It's really, it wasn't too hard for me. I feel like I've always been, I mean, I have a marketing background, but I don't, I mean, I feel like with tech stuff, it comes naturally for me. So it's, I'm kind of grateful for that. But same with Google Ads. I've never done a Google Ad before, so I taught myself how to do it. And You know, fall was like our biggest. I feel like our biggest jump in occupancy once I hit those Google ads and just it was just me talking to to Google, you know, just having conversations with them weekly. I kind of taught myself. So that's awesome, Adam.

You got one hell of a partner. Hey, we make a great.

We make a great team for sure.

Kirby, Kirby, I think. Do you answer the phones?

I do.

Right? What surprised you most about the customer side of running a storage facility?

I think just answering the phone. I was surprised.

Was it what you thought it would be? Or is it like, what's— that's what I'm looking for. What is it? Is it surprising? Is it hard? Is it easy? Is it—

I would say it's a mixture. And you kind of get to know your tenants after a while. That first couple weeks, I was really just calling them and just introducing ourselves and, kind of seeing how they reacted to stuff. And now there's a few that are, we're on a texting basis. I mean, I have a tenant that—

You got some besties.

Yes, I have a tenant that sent us a Christmas gift. I mean, it's crazy the relationships that you can build with your tenants if you just talk to them and, you know, and understand, like they will tell me situations that they're going through in life, like their mother's in the hospital or, you know, they just, their son just graduated high school. And as, If you just act, you know, like a normal human being and just be thankful for them and just, you know, have a conversation with them, I think it means the world to them. And it just really helps build that relationship.

You know, you two are suited perfectly to buy a boat and RV facility because you need to be— you need those types of relationships and those skills in a boat and RV facility.

Yeah.

You had a tenant I believe, who hadn't paid in 2 years and called to pick up their belongings. How do you handle those situations as a new owner with no playbook?

Honestly, it's trying to just get whatever you can. We still have maybe 2 or 3 tenants that are a little behind, and they give us something each month. So it's a struggle. That part I will say, I think Adam is hard on me for, which I have that soft spot in my heart that I'm like, oh, it's okay. You just, just $700 is fine, you know? So I kind of, it's kind of good cop, bad cop.

So it's okay while you have vacancy.

Right.

It's not okay when you don't have vacancy.

Exactly. And that's kind of where our head's at. And I am kind of just coasting it. But as, as we fill up, it'll, I will definitely start putting my foot down more. And I do threaten and say, I'm going to call my boss, or my boss is hounding me, which is Adam. So I'm like, Adam, you might have to call them and pretend that you're my boss.

That's funny.

No, I feel like we're in a lot better position than where it was. Joe, I mean, when we took over the facility, I want to say there was only 2 or 3 tenants that were on recurring billing. We're at a little over 50% now.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And the delinquencies were horrible too. So I mean, we cleaned. I mean, that's what the first couple months was, is A lot of cleanup, right? Um, cleanup. Yeah. So yeah, we're in a lot better spot.

That's, that's— I'm so happy for you guys. So the broken website, missing phone, 2 Google profiles— none of that, by the way, folks, is a $625,000 problem. That's a week of focused work, or a couple months even in this case. The operators who figure that out fast are the ones who hit their year 1 numbers, and the ones who don't spend 6 months wondering why the phone isn't ringing. And you guys obviously figured it out fast. True or false? Your Google Business Profile drives more new tenant inquiries than any other single marketing channel for self-storage. I would say true. Yeah. True. 70% of self-storage renters start with a Google search. Your profile is the storefront. And when it's broken or you have 2 fighting with each other under different names, you're, you actually become invisible to people actively trying to give you money. And you know what the The best part about the Google Business Profile is, Kirby, what?

Uh, the reviews.

It's free.

Oh, that too.

It's absolutely free. Yeah, uh, reviews are important, uh, switching up your pictures every 6 months is important, uh, but it's free. It's the best marketing you can do, and that's where you should spend your time. Yep. Um, I want to ask you about the support system, not as a pitch here, but because one of the biggest fears first-time buyers have is feeling like they're doing it alone. Adam and Kirby went— weren't doing it alone. And being specific about what that actually looks like matters. So as you heard in the beginning, they came through the Storage Academy training and mentorship program, and they brought in outside help for the facility transition. Uh, from Chris and Rod Blunk, who are now also part of, uh, Storage Moguls. Um, and their kids are part of the operation. And I want to understand what each of those pieces actually contributed in real terms, not in theory. So, um, what specifically from the academy, uh, or the training mentorship did you actually lean on? Not the curriculum in general, But the specific things that mattered when the deal got hard?

I mean, like we had mentioned before, just when we were going to possibly, you know, walk away, I think just that guidance was super helpful. Just you telling us that you can do it. But besides that, I also think just Rod and Kristen, the way that they helped us with our transition. Like Rod had actually physically came out and We walked the property and he told us, he was telling us things that we would've never have thought of if he wasn't there, like raising these questions and showing us things, like just because we've never owned a facility before. So we had no idea what we were looking for. So that was super helpful.

Adam, is there anything specific on your walkthrough that Rod pointed out that helped allay a fear, or did you negotiate, or you were able to plan for that you didn't see?

No, it was, it was really just the, the information again that you don't know, right? So it was just like, how did, um, opening up a door— okay, this door is, is hard to open. Okay, well, I know, you know, you should put lubricant on it, but like, just even down to the different products, right? I remember him putting together a list for me of like Hey, this is what you need to get. You need to get this garage door lube. And hey, these latches are all rusting because obviously it's an older facility. Get this Rust-Oleum stuff. This stuff is next level. So it was just stuff like that where you're like, okay, I wouldn't have done that or thought of that, even though I am more of a hands-on guy. Yeah, it was—

He offered to fix it at night because he had stayed down there and he was like, it's pretty dark. You need to fix lighting. And we were like, oh my gosh, like, we weren't, we weren't even thinking about it at night because obviously every time we go, it's during the day. So it didn't even kind of like bring us, you know, to think of something like that.

Yeah, that's, that's always go at night when you're visiting. And if you can, after it rains, you want to see where it's puddling. Yep. Um, Kirby, I'm going to you for this one because you're the homeschooler. And apparently the sweatshop manager. I love that the kids are involved though. What do they actually do day to day? And what has it meant for your family to build something that they're a part of?

Yeah, so they actually are involved a lot. They, so another thing that Rod and Kristin taught us what to do is to clean out a unit. So they help us, our kids help us, you know, sweep it out, clean it. Sometimes we have to spray, you know, accordingly. We throw a new lock in there, we tab it. All the things that Rod and Kristen taught, we kind of passed down and told our kids how to do that. How old are they? They are 7 and 9.

You got 7 and 9-year-olds cleaning out units?

Yeah, and they love it. I mean—

I love it. I love it.

Our son loves to use the blower, you know? And then we made some door hanger flyers, and it's kind of like a little family fun activity where I'm driving, And I'm following Adam and the kids and they're hanging the door hangers in like these new developments and like townhouses. And I'm just, you know, stalking them behind them and they're running from house to house and they're loving it. Like it's, you know, exercise, you know, so we're getting some physical education in there, some, some business, you know, we're learning a lot. Um, and then, yeah, they're just, they help me stuff envelopes. A lot of people, um, like that hard copy invoices. So, um, they'll be stamping, you know, Stuffing envelopes, going to the post office, checking our PO box, just little things that it might not seem like a lot, but they are learning a lot.

That is awesome.

The flyers were great until I got kicked out of a church parking lot.

So, well, that's a great segue because I want to ask this question too. What, what does the, what does the Sanford community know about Lemon Springs Self Storage now compared to what They knew about it before you took over. Besides that, you'd like to put flyers on cars.

I was about to say, whether they want to know us or not, they kind of do by now because we've gone through easily 500 just putting them everywhere. I'm not kidding. It would be a Sunday morning. I've actually proposed— you're going to get a kick out of this, Joe. I was trying to do this last Sunday. There's a church that actually is across the street from our facility. And they have their service 9 AM on a Sunday morning. And I wanted to go to that church. I just wanted to like, I'm like, what better? I mean, these people are right across the street from us. They have to live right in this community. I'm like, let's go meet them. Let's go to church there. Let's see what this church is all about. I'm still working on that. The kids seem to be down for it, but I'm getting a little pushback from Kirby.

Maybe stay out of the parking lot. But yeah. Yeah, maybe offer, uh, offer coffee and donuts across the street, you know, put a big sign or something.

Yeah.

Um, no, this is great. So, so the tools matter, the education matters, the people around you when the deal gets hard matter, but the thing that actually closes the gap between knowing and doing, that's a decision. And, and I want to congratulate, congratulate you guys for making it, um, because you made that decision even when it got really hard. You guys made the decision to, to continue forward because you did the math, you analyzed the data, the, the facts in front of you, and, and you took action, um, based on that. So I want to congratulate you guys.

Thank you.

Um, last question, and I want you to actually think about this before you answer. All right. There's a book called Be Your Future Self Now. Have you read it?

Audioed it.

I have not.

You audioed? Okay. Well, that counts. I listen to them too. That counts as reading. You have not, Kirby? Okay.

I have not.

It's, the beginning of the book is really, the book is about MrBeast, but he's the begin— he's, it's not about him, but he's the reason for the book. And the idea is that you don't wait to become the person you want to be. You start acting like that person today, right now, from where you are. Adam listened to the book, read the book, so he knows what MrBeast did at 17 years old, which is what made him today the most followed human being on the planet. No one has more followers than him, and he's only, what, 27 or 28 now? Um, so my question to you, 5 years from now, what are you doing? Not what do you hope you're doing? What are you doing? Where are you? What does your portfolio look like? What does your life look like? And what are you doing right now today to make sure that's exactly where you end up? Who's going first?

Man, that's a loaded question. Go ahead, Adam.

Adam's getting all fired up over there.

He's got a vision board already planned.

So, I mean, I've said it from day one, uh, you know, our 5-year plan is to have 3 to 5 facilities. Um, um, I would love, I would love to pick one off a year, but, you know, at the end of that 5 years, if I only have 3 or 4, I'm, I'm good with that.

Um, no, no, no, no, that's not how this works. 5 years from now, you, you need to tell me this is who we are, this is how many facilities we have, this is where we're living, this is what we're doing, blah blah blah, and this is what I'm doing today to make sure that happens.

So for one, I am now in the self-storage industry. I've been trying to do that for the last 6 months, uh, working for Storable, and that's been going phenomenal. So I've been trying to— my first step is to try to submerge myself into that industry that I'm invested in, passionate about. And honestly, that's where my focus is right now. We started looking at second facilities here in the new year, but honestly, we pulled back a little bit because we ended up investing with one of Scott's private deals over near Dubai. Earlier this year, so we sunk some money into that and took a step back just to be like, let's not forget what we have here already. We have Lemon Springs that's not stabilized yet. Let's really let's really get that to a point where we feel good. It's stabilized, and then basically start hunting for the second one. And all all along the way, I'm talking to storage operators and owners. On a daily basis, learning new things every day on different markets throughout the country of what they're implementing. It's very cool of where I was at 2 years ago to where I'm at right now. I'm super happy with what that looks like. And honestly, Joe, that goes back to books. And when I was really struggling mentally, Kirby can attest to it. Every morning I would go out for a walk and I'd be listening to audiobooks and I would come home and I'd just be amped up, ready for the day. I'm like, this guy's got me motivated. My head was getting in the right spot because I just had way too many negative thoughts going through my head. So that really centered me to be able to focus to go forward. But 5 years, I hope we're living on 5 to 10 acres out in the deep country away from everybody. Um, I hope we have 3 to 5 facilities, uh, somewhere around, uh, not hope.

I, I, I, I can't listen to this anymore. Kirby, you wanna— do you wanna save him? Kirby, where are you in 5 years?

I was gonna say, Adam and I have the same goals. We talk about it almost daily. Um, like he said, we will be living on Thank you. 5+ acres in the country, um, all of the farm animals, doing it the homeschool homestead way, um, as well as owning 3 facilities plus an RV and boat storage.

I love it. And, and I'm gonna need you to make sure he stays on top of what he's doing today.

Yes.

To make that happen. Yep, absolutely. I always tell him. I heard a lot of wishy-washy in his answer there. Yeah, I know.

I tell him constantly, act— just say like it's already happened. You can't say like, I hope.

She didn't even read the book yet, Adam. You read the book and she's giving me the correct answer. Yeah, I don't need to read the book.

I've already got it.

Yeah, she's very good. You're right. If you say it's going to happen, you will start acting that way today.

Exactly.

That's the whole point of the book, and that's what you need to do. And that's why I asked this question in my closing. I want you to leave this interview, this podcast interview, with a, with a new perspective. If you— it, well, maybe you don't need one, Kirby, but a reinforced perspective, which is we are going to become what we said we would in 5 years. So that's, that's a homestead. That's— I forget how many acres it was, 5 plus.

Yes.

With the animals, maybe some goats, whatever it is.

Yep.

Right? 5 years. And if you know that's what you're going to become, then you know you have a very clear path of how to get there starting today or starting yesterday.

Yep.

So that's why I asked this question. And that's what I want, that's what I wanna tease out of everybody. And I, and I hope, you know, anyone listening is thinking about that for themself as well. What am I doing? Where do I, where am I going to end up and what am I doing today? So folks, here's what I want to take you— want you to take away from today. When Adam and Kirby closed in Lemon Springs, the facility was a 40% occupancy. The seller had checked out, the website was broken, the phone went to voicemail, and they had a contract clause that would have put every dollar of their deposit back in their pocket, although they would have lost about $20,000-$25,000 in sunk costs. Today, because they analyzed the facts, They stayed in the deal. They knew they had the guardrails in place today, and they're, and they're executing today. They're at 70% occupancy and climbing. Their year 1 projections have been hit. They're already looking for deal number 2, which I think should be a boat and RV facility. And the gap between those 2 pictures isn't luck. It's the ability to tell the difference between a market that doesn't want you and an operator who stopped trying. And that's a learnable skill, and that's exactly what we teach here. That's what we cover each week. Self-storage, boat and RV storage, pro storage, industrial outdoor storage, truck parking, small bay flex, all of it. Guests, deals, operators, lenders, the full picture straight from the people doing it. If you're not already at storagemuggles.ai, you should go there. You can start for free. There's not even a, we don't even ask for a credit card. It's no trial period. That's just where you're gonna find out if you can do this. Uh, please like, subscribe, and share this podcast. When you share this episode, you're telling everyone in your network that you're in this business, and that signal goes a long way. Your next partner, your next investor, your next deal may come from someone who saw that you shared this podcast. Share something specific that hit you today. Adam and Kirby, thank you so much for joining me. I was super excited to have you guys on.

Thank you.

Like I said, you're one of the inspirations Um, you're one of our, our very first, um, students that came through successfully, even through all the trials and tribulations. And look at you now. I could not be happier for you. And I'm looking forward to following your career and your portfolio. And I'm looking forward to an invite on a 5-acre homestead somewhere 5 years from now. Did I get that right? 5 acres?

Yes, you did.

Thank you. Those 5, 10, you know, whatever.

Who's counting?

Exactly.

And by the way, Kirby, I think you should read the book because if you do, what you'll find out is that MrBeast hit all of those goals way earlier than he thought he would because he knew what he was going to become in that timeframe. And therefore it made the path so much clearer and easier. And so he blew away his goals. So I might be visiting you in 3 years on your 5 to 10 acres.

Let's do it.

All right. So hopefully you'll be back after you close deal number 2. Yes. And certainly, maybe we'll even do the podcast from your homestead.

That would be amazing.

That would be cool.

Folks, there's a seller out there right now who's ready. So stop watching and start moving. Drive for Dollars. Send the LOI. See you next week.