The Post That Landed Me A Podcast Interview
TOPICS OF THIS POST: An origin story, Wholesale deals, Scaling your business, VAs.
Hey Rebels!
Just wanted to drop in here and reintroduce myself and share a couple things that might benefit the community that has given so much.
My name is Kevin Bell. By day Iâm a police officer but by night Iâm a storage rebel working to build an empire for my family. Itâs been a wild ride so far! Weâre not in the green yet, but day by day weâre moving the needle forward.
Im working on a presentation for the group (sorry Chris Michaels! đŹ) but we have been trying to close on a facility in KS and itâs been a grind with some zoning issues.
Seriously though, If I can do it, I GUARANTEE you can too. I really donât have this all figured out to be honest!
Note: This isnât clickbait. I promise. I genuinely started out as a rebel. We now have multiple facilities and a team of VAs that have helped us work ON our business. We are very much still in the grind. We own and operate as well as wholesale deals that we arenât purchasing ourselves.
The following is:
How to get started
make the most of the rebellion
First hand experience of how to build a system that scales
Watch ALL the videos on this platform and ask all the questions you can! Dive headfirst into storage. Michael Wagner couldnât have made a better place for us. Truly!
This is where the fun begins. From one connection in the group to another, the goal should be to network with anyone and everyone you can. Through these connections youâll find partners and even investors that will become sort of your all star team!
It was from this experience that I found my partner. Both of us very like-minded and eager to build⌠but also both of us with full time w2s and family men with businesses, not businessmen with families.
We realized quick that if we truly wanted our vivid visions to become reality, we needed more hands on deck. And as Mike and everyone preaches, if you find the deal, the money will find you. ITâS TRUE!!
With that mindset, we knew we needed to first build an acquisitions system ourselves and then replace ourselves.
Here is the exact ways we found and continue to find our facilities. (All of which are ways that Mike has taught so well)
Pick a market to deep dive into. Ideally a growing population by 1% or more annually
Start by dropping a pin in that market and searching nearby self storage
Look for facilities without websites, poor websites, poor google page, no google page, etc. those are being mismanaged (most likely by an older owner)
Put those all into a spreadsheet with all the data you collect. Your spreadsheet columns might start like this
Facility name
Address
Phone number
Website (yes/no)
Under 10k sq/ft
Over 35k sq/ft
Later youâll be able to go back and use apps like neighborwho, crexi intelligence, Propstream or other services to find the owners name, phone number, email and age. Among other things.
Call those facilities that you find and let them know who you are and that youâre interested in purchasing.
This is where things get good; you need to leverage the authority of this group or the other groups youâre in. You might not have anything right now, but you know a lot of people in this group that do. Even people that might be willing to offer proof of funds. đ°
All you need to say is âI work with a group of investors with facilities across the US and we are looking to expand our portfolioâ. You can even throw in there a little southern drawl and mention that youâre a family run business. Mom and pop owners will love that!
If you donât want to be that upfront, just call and ask if youâre speaking with the owner (if you are, thatâs a good sign) and say:
âsorry to bother you but Iâm on a little bit of a wild goose chase here, Iâm currently working on closing a deal in BLANK town down the road and caught wind that another facility is for sale. Iâve been calling all around, you wouldnât by chance know of which one that might be, would you?â
And just like that, the conversation starts.
Fast forward, my partner and I knew that we needed to scale. Taking a leap of faith and trying to essentially buy back our time, we brought on 3 VAs in order to turn this system we had built into an acquisitions MACHINE.
The book âWho Not Howâ is a MUST read.
It honestly felt like we were building the plane while we were in the air. But here we stand with 5 VAs under us now, and leads coming in DAILY with our exact criteria.
When we became crystal clear on what we were looking for and accepted that we would do whatever it took to get where we wanted to go, the pieces fell into place.
We could then teach our staff exactly what we needed from them based on all that we had done ourselves prior. This helped us paint the picture of where we planned on taking the company.
Through leveraging / borrowing the authority and experience of others, we slowly but surely have become an authority ourselves. In our minds at least đ⌠but so can you.
If youâve made it to the end of this, I know youâre in it to win it. Seriously, I had ZERO real estate experience coming into this group. NONE. Iâm still at my w2, still prioritizing family over everything. But brick by brick, building that cathedral!
I give all the credit to every single person that allowed me to âpick their brainsâ. From MANY MANY messages to late night long phone calls, thank you. And PLEASE, if you have any questions, any at all, feel free to pick MY brain.
If you are interested in any off market deals that we find and want to wholesale, Shoot me an email at đ Kevin@chronoscapitalus.com.
Side note, there are SO many bada$$ wholesalers and owners on here. Take advantage of this place! This is definitely the hidden gem đ of storage.
Lastly, if you have any questions at all about VAs or storage. Id love to talk with you!
Best,
Kevin Bell