The Big Decision

Is now the time to sell your self-storage facility?

By Mel Holsinger

You're theproud owner of a self-storage facility and have been for several years. But now you havereached a point in your life where you are contemplating the luxury of living off thefruits of your hard work and investment. You are faced with the critical question: Do I ordon't I sell my facility? Each of us who participates in the ownership of a self-storagefacility will at some time be faced with this decision. How and when we approach it maydetermine the highest value we will be able to receive for our operation.

So, when is the best time to sell? Is it when your property is running at highoccupancy? Is it when you have been unable to achieve high occupancy? Should you sell wheninterest rates are low and financing more easy to obtain? Do you wait until all the newcompetition around you has filled up? What will you do with the money from the sale? Doyou have a place and/or the ability to invest your money and avoid capital gains? Theseamong other questions all need to be considered when the time comes.

The first decision that needs to be made is whether or not to use a qualified broker.In most cases, the answer is absolutely, positively, "yes." Note that I said"qualified." This is important because there are a lot of brokers who know andunderstand self-storage and, in many cases, that is the only property type they deal in.They are by far the most qualified to find the right buyer for your property. (For moreinformation on this subject, refer to the November 1999 issue of Inside Self-Storage,"Self-Storage and Brokers and Sales," by Maurice Pogoda. See also this month'sarticle by R.K. Kliebenstein and Neal Gussis.)

Potential Sales Outcomes

Now, let's talk about your property. Using the following as an example, you can insertyour own numbers and get a feel for where you may fall in terms of value. For thisdiscussion, we are going to assume that your property is 10 years old, has 50,000 squarefeet of rentable space, has averaged 85 percent economic occupancy over the past year, andaverages $.50 per square foot in rent. You have a mortgage balance of $1 million at 9percent interest, which has no prepayment penalties and is assumable to a qualified buyer.The income from rents averages $21,250 per month or $255,000 per year. We would be able toget some value from fees and other income but, to keep it simple, we are going to use onlyrental income for this example. Let's also assume your expenses are $90,000 per yearincluding off-site management services. Thus, your net operating income is $165,000. At a10 percent capitalization rate, your property would be worth $1.65 million. You haveagreed to pay your broker a 5 percent commission on the sale. Therefore, if you sold yourproperty for your asking price, you would receive the following:

Without calculating the taxes you will have to pay (please see your accountant for thatinformation), you may end up with as little as half of the proceeds, or you may be able tokeep all of them.

Let's change the scenario a bit. Let's say you decide to hold on to your property foranother year, become aggressive in the marketing of your facility, and are able toincrease the economic occupancy to 92 percent and increase rental rates by 7 percent, onlyspending an additional $5,000 in the process. Now you have a property collecting $298,080per year in rent. Your expenses are $95,000; your net operating income is $203,080; andyour property is now worth $2,030,800 on a 10 percent capitalization rate. Let's look atthe new results:

You can see that by increasing occupancy by 7 percent, increasing prices by 7 percentand spending a little more money to get there, you can effectively increase your netprofit by $361,760--in addition to realizing the cash flow from an additional year ofoperations.

Perhaps you're thinking, "But I've been unable to get my occupancy up and increasemy prices over the past year. How do I do that now?" There are several ways toaccomplish this:

In other words, there are solutions. You just need to identify which one is best foryou.

The Information Package

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you have followed our second example andare ready to sell. The following is some of the information you should expect to impart toa potential buyer. I would put this package together before you see your broker:

Once this is prepared and the buyer has the property under contract, expect the buyerto conduct the following:

A prudent buyer will then do the following:

Ready to Sell

Once youdecide to sell, you'll need to have your property ready to change hands in a time periodthat may take as long as the following:

It is difficult in such limited space to go through all the steps and decisionsinvolved in selling your facility. This article is merely a summary of a few of the mostimportant considerations. In addition, you should read the industry trade journals, talkto several brokers and speak to management companies that have been involved with buyingand selling self-storage facilities. You should also talk with your accountant and legalcounsel who have experience in these types of transactions as well as other owners whohave sold their facilities.

All in all, the decision to sell is a tough one. The more information you can gather onthe subject, the better off you will be at making that critical decision. Good luck.

Mel Holsinger is the executive vice president of Executive Self Storage AssociatesInc., with offices in Tucson, Ariz., and Denver. Over the past 13 years, both Mr.Holsinger and company President Joe Niemczyk have assisted numerous clients in acquiring,developing, managing and selling self-storage properties. The company currently managesmore than 50 self-storage properties throughout the country.