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We run 11 storage sites in low income areas. Some things I've learned: Being poor is traumatic. Customers who miss payments are stressed all the time and are really anxious trying to pay their bills. Being poor is expensive. Customers will pay late every single month and willingly pay fees. They think, the bill is due on the first, but I get paid on the 15th so the fee is unavoidable. Paying early / on time is a foreign concept. If they get paid on the 15th, prepaying next month's bill when they have money seems crazy. They know how to play financial defense. They lock their debit cards and unlock only when they make a payment. They chargeback valid charges when they really need money and then apologize and makeup the payment. They rely on friends and family "run this $45 on my son's card, let me see if my brother has some money on his card" etc. You can only fall for a sob story so many times. Customers will say their son's very last toys are in the unit, we will tell them they can grab them today. Then well...they can't come for a couple days, then a week, then their brother is out of town who was going to help them... The only way to deal with low income customers is to have strict SOPs and never make exceptions. Every time we've made an exception for someone it's gone poorly. You become both frustrated by the self defeating activities of some of these customers and saddened by the difficulty going on in their lives. We totally love our customers and are always trying to help them where we can, but if you're the type of person who is used to only dealing with white collar labor / high income friends, you will have some adjusting to do to make your business work in these areas.

Claude is always like: Both of your employees are talking about this project, but there's something nobody's brought up so far, and it's the load bearing thing that could throw a wrench in everything. I can't ignore it anymore: One of the employees has to get lunch.

I asked a city planner what it would take to repaint this sidewalk. He said "we can't do it anymore, we wouldn't even know where to start". Please, really hoping @cd4losangeles and seal team CD4 can come rescue this intersection. Venice and Main St in Culver City

imo these are the standard regional bank terms on small balance CRE these days: 20 year am, 5 year balloon, 80% LTV, prime to prime+0.5%

Today a community bank quoted me a 7 year amortization on a self storage loan. SEVEN

Claude sanity task: Go through my email and find mass broker email blasts I'm on and have them skip my inbox and go into folders separated by asset class

Shot, chaser

You can rent a $2.4 million house in Irvine, CA for $5,700. Let me know how that makes sense. Mortgage payment would be $16,000 a month. Prop tax is $2,580 a month, insurance and HOA is $969. With the cost of maintenance, you basically lose money even if you buy it all cash.

Tenant said hey heads up I'm leaving my car at the facility I'll be back to grab it. Then I get this pic 😅

We recently had a banker go MIA the week of closing and not respond to email or work phone Is it fair game to hunt him down on whitepages and called him on his person cell?

Does anyone know a good hard money lender for a self-storage deal? Around $800k purchase price

Every month half of our customers' credit cards bounce for insufficient funds. It's honestly distressing that half of the population cannot make a $60 storage unit payment. I feel a lot of empathy for our customers and everyone living paycheck to paycheck.

When we sell a property, we interview several brokers, and if we don’t end up picking them, we call them to let them know and thank them for the time. For some reason, almost all brokers get mad at you, tell you you’re stupid and try to discredit whoever you picked

If you think a REIT has high fees and low transparency, just wait for our new VC backed RE ‘democratization’ platform with higher fees, no transparency, and less control over your money

Toured a storage site today with a local / beginner agent. She thought we would easily be able to fill in a nearby river with dirt and build more units on top of the river 😂

Always laugh at these emails: Immediate 1031 buyer need, value add site at existing 8% cap rate or greater in primary markets

Years ago my grandpa (old Kansas farm boy) took me to "a really nice local lunch spot" he knew And drove me to Arby's 😂

The term 'Call for Offers' is hilarious. Someone with no offers on their property is insisting you submit one by a certain date

Oh storage facilities? I hear those are money printers, I’m thinking of doing some vending machines myself

26 of the the most recent 35 'new number' calls to our storage facilities have been Google / Yelp scams where they say your listing is 'unverified' and press 1 to sell you some BS Google reputation consulting It's out of control