I bought my first self-storage facility the way most people do, with a broker's rosy pro forma and a spreadsheet I half-trusted. It took an hour to underwrite each deal and it still hid the things that mattered: the gap between physical and economic occupancy, the rate increases the last owner never sent, the three new facilities about to break ground down the road.
That first deal taught me the difference between a property that looks good and a property that pays. The seller's numbers were technically true. They were also arranged to flatter. Every line I did not verify myself turned into a surprise after closing, and the surprises were never in my favor.
So I started building. First a better storage calculator, then a market map so I could see saturation before I drove three hours to a site, then a way to track every deal I was chasing without losing half of them in my inbox. Each tool came out of a specific deal where I did not have the answer fast enough.
The habit that changed my results was screening more and agonizing less. Most deals are not close calls once you see them in the same format. When a screen takes a minute instead of an hour, you can run forty properties in a week and spend your real attention on the two that deserve it.
Everything here comes from operating, not theory. I still own the assets, still send the rate increases, still handle the delinquency calls. The thresholds baked into this model are the ones I use with my own money on the line, and I adjust them when a deal proves me wrong.
This calculator is where it all started: the exact model I use to screen a deal in about a minute, free for you to use as often as you like. No account, no export limit, no upsell before you get an answer.