This client had recently begun moving into other investment markets and, to continue the transition, he contacted us about selling this asset. We conducted an analysis of his facility and his competitors and found one big challenge in taking this property to market: his unit mix included a section of units that had been hard to lease.

We see numerous self-storage unit mixes every year and are adept at spotting problems in offerings and pricing that diminish a facility's profitability and resulting sale price. We proposed reconfiguring the unit mix to boost revenue so that our client could receive the best sale price possible. The seller was confident in our proposal but was primarily interested in selling and moving on to other investments. He did not want to take the time to reconfigure the property and build occupancy, so we took the property to market as is, with a forecast pro forma (projected income statement) for the reconfigured unit mix. We found many interested parties and received the strongest offer from a buyer who was happy to find a newer project in the Phoenix metro with a value-add component. We guided the parties through the due diligence and escrow phases, which were, for the most part, quick and uneventful.

In the end, both parties were happy with the results. The seller was happy to sell this asset at a favorable price, and the buyer was excited about this value-add opportunity in a major metro area. Our self-storage specialization gave our client an advantage for two reasons. First, our knowledge and experience allowed us to quickly assess the property and identify a value-add opportunity that others might miss. Second, because of our activity in the self-storage market over the years, we have built a large network of buyers and can use it to spark interest in properties quickly.