Thursday, 11 of March of 2010

Unit Mix

If you decide to build your self storage facility in phases, it is important to track your occupancy rates.  We made the decision to begin construction on a new building when we reach 80% occupied on the last building.  However, as time went on, we realized this was not an effective way to make our decision.  Why?

It is not effective because it does not take unit mix into consideration.

Not only do you want to know your overall vacancy rate, but you will want to know the vacancy rate on each unit size.  You may find that your 10×10 units are filling up quickly, but your 10×20’s are sitting vacant.   If this is the case, you may decide to go ahead and build (more 10 x 10 units) even if your overall numbers are not yet at 80%.

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Comments RSS TrackBack 3 comments

Luke12321

in October 2nd, 2008 @ 22:12

It makes sense if all of one size is filling up quickly to go ahead and build even if the overall occupied rate isn’t what you think it should be to start expanding. All about $$$ per sq. ft. Great info!


Paul Reynolds

in June 20th, 2009 @ 17:57

I completley agree with your comment. In my expereience with apartment buildings when you want to buy another building in the same area you need to understand the average length of tenancy and lenght of time to rent out. However I have just started my study of self storage. I thought that there were several software programs for management and my fleeting impression is that most track rent by unti size; average vacancy rates and gaps between rent outs. Am I incorrect in that impression?


Self Storage Millionaire

in July 23rd, 2009 @ 13:20

Paul,

Yes, you are correct in that assumption. I have now used three different management software programs. While the quality differed, each of the programs did have some reporting capabilities that allow for tracking unit statistics.


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