In a perfect world we could have all of the benefits of rental property like cash flow, equity accumulation; wealth building without the one big headache…tenants! Are you like me, sometimes I feel that when some people become tenants they lose all ability to think for themselves. And why is that the toilet seems to always overflow at 11 PM?

That’s why I have been looking for something to replace rental houses (because I couldn’t figure out a way to get someone to pay me rent, but not actually live in the house). I think I found the rental property for the perfect world!!

I am talking about self storage units. I recently met a guy that has focused his entire portfolio on self storage units and he told me: “The self-storage industry has been the fastest-growing sector of the United States commercial real estate industry over the last 30 years, and it continues to grow at a steady pace. Nearly one in 10 U.S. households are actively renting one or more self-storage units.”   That’s why I have been so interested. It’s an expanding market with plenty of demand already.

Even Inc. magazine recently said that self storage is one of the best industries for starting a business right now and 90% of them are owned by small business entrepreneurs. This is not one of those industries where only the big-boys get to play and make money.

The wonderful part about self storage units is that you don’t have all of the typical tenant hassles. Sure, technically your customers are “tenants”, but they don’t live on the property. There’s not much that can go wrong when you’re just renting 4 walls with a large door. If the tenant doesn’t pay, you don’t have all of the eviction issues. You simply wait the prescribed time in your state and then you sell off their stuff.

The cash flow is significant and you can pick up properties from motivated sellers just like you can with regular Single Family Houses and make even more money.

I’m going to do some more investigating, but this sure seems like the right way to go to build cash flow and equity. What are your thoughts on self storage units? Are you interested too?