For those of you that don't get the Journal, here is an interesting story as to whether the storage industry is as recession proof as once thought:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121072071760289933.html

We, too, noticed that article this morning. Got it through Google news alerts. We're really interested in hearing people's thoughts on this. Of course, it's not the first time these theories have been bandied about. Always a lively conversation.

I was pleased to see WSJ contacted Ray Wilson of Self Storage Data Services for some insight. Ray has been a big supporter of ISS over the years, and we are proud to have him on board as a columnist for Inside Self-Storage magazine and as a speaker/instructor for our expos and Self-Storage Training Institute. I thought his comments were spot on. We're hoping Ray will share the results of his ongoing research with ISS readers.

I gotta say it bothers me, self-storage being posited as this vulture circling over the corpses of foreclosed houses. I was glad to see Dean Jernigan point out the service side of storage.

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Teri Lanza
Business Development Manager/Ed Director
Inside Self-Storage

Perhaps it would be good to get some members ideas of what they are doing to combat this economic slow down. I would be interested to see how various parts of our country are doing this year compared to last since food, fuel, etc have all risen considerably.

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Mel Holsinger, President
Professional Self Storage Management, LLC
3434 E. Kleindale Ste. E
Tucson, AZ 85716
O: 520.320.9135
F: 520.320.9435
www.proselfstorage.com

I have to say we are in Michigan and I am getting a lot of people that have lost there homes put stuff in storage. I also am having some problems of these clients paying.
We are lower then we have been in the past 6 months. We are at 84% by units. We are getting ready to do some new marketing hopefully that will bring us back up around 90%.

Cooleen

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Mason Mini Storage
Mason Michigan

We here in Florida are also getting a lot of people that have lost their homes. I'm also getting quite a few that were renting homes or condos, and got little or no notice from the banks that they had to vacate their rental property. Seems the homeowners rented out the homes, collected the rent for months on end, signed a lease with the tenant, then didn't make the payments. Didn't tell the tenant they were getting close to foreclosure and the tenant is finding out when the eviction notice arrives and they have 48 hours to vacate.

Not having too much trouble with the evicted renters paying their storage rent, but the evicted homeowners seem to be driving up my delinquency somewhat. We are also almost full, so I'm sure that's having an impact on my delinquency as well...more occupancy = more opportunities for delinquency.

well we are in Tampa on a very busy road with alot of competion. We are still struggling as well as a cpl of our sister sites. However our delinquencies are down as we work hard on this. We hate lien sales. Is there anyone else in Tampa having a hard time bring the % up? We have other sites all over Florida who rents 15-20 units a week sometimes a day, we are struggling with 4-6 per week. UUGGGHHH We market everyday and talk to everyone,even our kids(who are homeschooled) talk to people about our storage as they see our work everyday. And we talk about our #s all the time. What gives here in Tampa???
We have seen the pple who get the move in specials either move out when the full month is due or just not pay and then we have to become debt collectors(no one likes to do this). Then they tell us what difference is it to you. You are making more money off me. We tell them we are not in the business to be debt colletors & we value each tenant and would like to see them save the Lien Fees for gas or groceries.

Wow that must be a big facility that rents 15 to 20 units a week. We are small here only 307 units. What is your move in special?

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Mason Mini Storage
Mason Michigan

Yes they are larger units one has about 650 the other has close to 1000. Plus there are in upper class neighborhoods. They have a lot of snow birds who come and go. It is our referral program that helps the most.
We have 350 units i wouldn't want much bigger then what we have here

We have 661 units. We moved in 93 last month, moved in 60 so far this month.

It's not how many units you have, it's how transient your customer base is....how many move in/out each month. We only have 30 empty units right now out of 661, but we will have another 30 or so move out around the end of the month before the rent is due again on the first.

I would say that the biggest "move-in special" is our free company truck. Of course not everyone who moves in gets to use it, because it is available to whomever reserves it first, but it bring a LOT of customers in our door to begin with.

Does anyone have the full article. I do not have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and really other than this article don't want one...lol, if you have it could you fax it to me or e-mail it/ I would greatly appreciate it. 251-626-4014 or sndrsummer@yahoo.com

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Lovin it.