Volunteers of America is a national, nonprofit, faith-based organization dedicated to helping those most in need rebuild their lives and reach their full potential. Volunteers of America’s nationwide organization of over 16,000 professionals and 70,000 volunteers has established itself as one of the nation’s largest providers of a broad and diverse range of quality human services. We serve more than 2 million people in over 400 communities each year through hundreds of Volunteers of America human service programs.

Since 1896 Volunteers of America has supported and empowered America’s most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, the frail elderly, low-income families, homeless individuals and families, women and children escaping domestic violence, and those seeking affordable housing solutions.

In fact, today, Volunteers of America is the largest nonprofit developer and provider of affordable housing in the nation. Their work “touches the mind, body, heart – and ultimately the spirit – of those they serve, integrating their deep compassion with highly effective programs and services.”

We think they are pretty amazing. Alongside our facilities we will be collecting shoes and clothing for them from now until the end of June.  Our last Winter Collection Drive with them brought in over 2,000 items.

Give them a call at 717.236.1440 to find out how you can get involved.

The Pennsylvania Self Storage Association was formed in 1998 and is a group of self storage owners and operators whose purposes are to:

• To provide leadership and open lines of communication on issues that affect the self storage industry;

• To define and assert standards of excellence in the self storage industry within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;

• To provide opportunities for their members to increase their knowledge of the self-storage industry through research, discussion and the exchange of information;

• To support, communicate and cooperate with the National Self Storage Association (SSA) as a chapter affiliate; and

• To protect their members from adverse self-storage legislative actions and monitor all legal cases involving self-storage in the state.

Something else that is great about the Pennsylvania Self Storage Association is their strict adherence to their Code of Ethics. This Code of Ethics “establishes and promotes the highest standards of professional service and ethical business conduct among the members of the Association in all their dealings with their self service storage customers, their colleagues in the Industry and the general public.”

If you are thinking about joining PASSA we would highly recommend this. PASSA represents your views and the views of the self-storage industry and works alongside the national Self Storage Association. Together they provide proactive self-storage legal protection with its watchdog service and financial reserve. They also strive to have a website chock full of informative self-storage articles, vendor affiliations and a networking platform. Something else that is important to PASSA is their focus on self-storage education and putting forth an informative newsletter.

To find out more about them, check out their website here. We hope to see you at the next meeting!

Self-storage companies, which are in the business of renting units to businesses and residents alike had one of the best risk-adjusted returns among 10 U.S. real estate investment trust indexes in the past ten years, per the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking. They had the highest total return and the third-lowest volatility, for a risk-adjusted gain of 10.6 percent. What businesses were hurt the most by price swings? Offices, hotels and warehouses fared the poorest.

Check out the rest of the the Bloomberg article here and see what the latest on the self storage REIT’s are.

If you are looking to invest, now is a great time. Check out our listings here or give us a call at 717-779-0804.

If you haven’t already, check out their calls:

CubeSmart. CubeSmart will release its quarterly financial results on May 3. Their conference call will be at 11 a.m. ET on May 4. If you are interested in viewing a live webcast of the call visit the investor relations page of CubeSmart.com. The dial-in numbers are as follows: 877.317.6789 for U.S. callers and 412.317.6789 for international callers.

CubeSmart owns and/or manages 479 self-storage facilities across the United States. They also operate the CubeSmart Network, which consists of approximately 825 additional self-storage facilities.

Extra Space Storage Inc. Extra Space Storage will release its quarterly-earnings results on April 30. The conference call will be at 2 p.m. ET on May 1. The call will be presented by CEO and Chairman Spencer Kirk. Also present will be Scott Stubbs, the executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Karl Haas, the executive vice president and chief operations officer.

The call agenda includes discussion of first-quarter performance, recent events and an allotted amount of time for question and answers by registered financial analysts. The phone number for the call is 866.314.9013 for U.S. callers and 617.213.8053 for international callers. The conference ID is 75181361. You may check out the conference call live on the investor relations page of ExtraSpace.com and up to 30 days after.

Extra Space Storage owns or operates 882 self-storage properties in 34 states and Washington, D.C. The company’s self-storage properties comprise approximately 585,000 units and approximately 64 million square feet of rentable self-storage space. Extra Space Storage operates out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Public Storage Inc. Public Storage’s quarterly-earnings will be released on May 3 and their schedule conference call will be May 4 at 1 p.m. ET. To listen to the live conference call, the domestic dial-in number is 866.406.5408. The international dial-in number is 973.582.2770. The conference ID number is 70705313. You can access the live webcast on the investor relations page of PublicStorage.com, which will be accessible until May 11.

Public Storage has interests in more than 2,056 self-storage facilities in at least 38 U.S. states with approximately 131 million net rentable square feet. They operate out of Glendale, CA under the Shurgard brand name.

Sovran Self Storage Inc. Sovran Self Storage will be releasing their quarterly results on May 2. Their company conference call will be on May 3 at 9 a.m. ET. The call can be accessed at 877.407.8033 within the United States or 201.689.8033 internationally. Registered financial analysts will be able to ask questions. The webcast may be listened to at UncleBobs.com for up to 90 days. A replay will be available for up to 72 hours after by calling 877.660.6853 and entering codes 286 and 392038.

Sovran Self Storage, operates self-storage facilities under the brand name Uncle Bob’s Self Storage, and has over 430 self-storage facilities in 25 states.

Have any questions?  Give one of our self storage brokerage experts a call at 717-779-0804.

If you are thinking about joining the NJSSA we would strongly urge you to. Here is a little history about them.

The New Jersey Self Storage Association was started in 1993 after a legislative proposal was introduced that would have adversely affected the rights of self storage operators to sell tenants’ goods after default. A group of individuals banded together to fight this legislation and actually won. This achievement led to the realization of how teamwork could make a difference in the industry and thus the NJSSA was born.

NJSSA’s victories have impacted every self storage facility’s operations. Their legislative efforts defeated the above referendum, stopped the attempt to require interest on self storage security deposits, and blocked the arduous environmental testing of individual self-storage units. The NJSSA’s membership and influence has built up throughout the years.

Here are a few of their noble purposes:

• Promote a Code of Ethics that encourages good business practices and customer service.
• Protect the existing lien and tax law status that has fostered industry growth in New Jersey.
• Sponsor regional “grassroots” seminars periodically to educate those in the industry about legal issues and other topical concerns.
• Conduct an Annual Educational Seminar/ Convention that brings together New Jersey self storage owner/operators to share common experiences and learn from the industry’s top experts.
• Publish a periodic newsletter to keep members and their staffs current on industry issues and to promote thought and discussion on subjects of interest.
• Promulgate recommended procedures such as the Model Occupancy Agreement, Auction, Decedents’ Estate and Bankruptcy procedures, Late Fees and Delinquent Payment Plans.
• Function as the industry’s VOICE to promote self storage, to defend your rights as independent business persons and to represent the interests of the NJSSA whenever we can!
• Support, communicate and cooperate with the National Self Storage Association (SSA) and other state Self Storage Associations.

Please visit their website to get more info on them and how they can help you.

The Self Storage Association Show is the most popular Self Storage Trade Show in the industry for industry veterans and newcomers alike. They offer self storage education, industry info, various business resources, and tons of networking opportunities. If you are looking for more profitability and how to better run your storage operations start here and learn from the best and brightest in the self storage industry.

We are also very excited for the opening session from Pete Sheahan, famous author, founder and CEO of ChangeLabs™. ChangeLabs™ is “a global consultancy delivering large-scale behavioral change projects for clients such as Apple and IBM, Peter Sheahan has worked with some of the world’s leading brands in the area of innovation and change.” Peter is “recognized internationally as a leading business thinker and has advised executives and leaders for clients that include Google, Goldman Sachs, Hilton Hotels, Harley Davidson andGlaxoSmithKline through his thought leadership practice.” We loved his “FLIP! Creative Strategies for Turning Challenge into Opportunity and Change into Competitive Advantage” book and look forward to hearing his session in person.

Please join self storage brokers John and JB at the show, and be sure to stop by the Investment Real Estate table for all the latest and greatest brokerage and development info.

Did we mention this takes place in sunny Orlando?

Please visit the Self Storage Association website here for more info.

This is a cause that is extremely close to our hearts here. If you would like to help please visit our facility pages below and “Like” them.

Moove In Self Storage – York Area

Moove In Self Storage – Lancaster Area

Moove In Self Storage – Huntingdon Area

Sierra’s Glen Self Storage – Harrisburg Area

Harrisburg Self Storage – Harrisburg Area

Thanks for your help in making a difference!

While there was some lamenting about ongoing challenges, we are happy to report there was an even larger sense of optimism and hope. It seemed that the general consensus was the self storage investment industry is stabilizing and growing again.

The caliber of the workshops and educational opportunities were stellar and there was something for everyone- whether you were an owner, a Property Manager or a vendor. We hope if you were there you had a chance to hear our President and self storage broker John Gilliland speak. Attendees were pleased to learn about the latest property values and cap rates, how buyers are looking at self-storage and the returns they’re demanding, the major stumbling blocks to self-storage transactions today, the loan amounts and terms being provided by banks and other financial institutions and the overall outlook for self-storage financing. “We got great feedback on my Self-Storage Market Update: Property Values, Financing and Loan Restructuring talk, which is always nice to hear,” says John Gilliland. “Overall the show went really well and there was a ton of great networking.”

Even the exhibit hall was jam packed with attendees standing elbow to elbow waiting to talk to the vendors present. We were really happy we attended. It was really great to see everybody in the industry come together and overall we are thinking 2012 is looking pretty good.

The words improving your investment are often music to an investor’s ears.  What may surprise you is that some of ways to maximize your self storage investment require little time and money.  Even better.

Check out John Barry’s “10 Things Owners Can Do to Improve Their Investment Today” published in Inside Self Storage.

Here is a sneak peak at #1 on the list:

1. Raise Rents – Carefully review your management reports and specifically the rent roll to determine the rent variance. The rent variance is the difference between your standard rental rate per unit versus the actual rent being paid by a customer. Don’t let customers get a bargain rate any longer. Try to increase those customers up to the standard rent and you should make thousands of dollars more per month and of course, annually. Since the average customer stay is about 10 months, try increasing the rent after 6 months, then annually thereafter. If you miss the 6 month opportunity and they stay for 10 months, you never get the opportunity or the benefit. Do this at least a year in advance of selling. If you do it right before you go to market, buyers will not give you the dollars you deserve since the new income is not part of your trailing twelve months of revenue. Result – an additional $3,000 per month at a 10% cap rate equals $360,000 in property value.

Check out the rest of the list.  Some of the suggestions might surprise you.  Who would have thought things like making minor repairs and putting on fresh coat of paint could really help take your self storage investment to the next level.

See the full article here.  

Want some customized advice? Call an expert 717-779-0804 and get a free self storage valuation of your property.

Self Storage has always been known to be a bit of a recession-resistant industry but last year’s self storage REITs results are outstanding. “This recession resistance can be attributed to the growing sophistication of self storage operations in general and the observation of lower risk in the market today. REIT’s outperformed all other commercial property types,” John Barry, self storage broker at Investment Real Estate said.

Wow! That is pretty impressive all things considered.

Check out this great article that delves into Investment Opportunities in Self-Storage: 5 Keys for Owners/Sellers and Investors/Buyers.