Every apartment manager or landlord is looking for some way to make the most out of the space on their property. It only makes sense, every foot of your property could potentially be making you some money. One popular way to go about this is using bulk storage solutions.
But what exactly is this kind of storage? You’ve probably hearda people in the industry talking about what a godsend they are at some point in time or another, but it can be hard to know for yourself exactly what these units can do for you without knowing.
This kind of storage can go by a lot of different names, for example:
- Tennant storage
- On-site storage units
- Tenant lockers
- Apartment complex storage
- Parking lot lockers
There are probably a whole host of names for this kind of storage that we haven’t even heard because of slight regional variations in the way that we speak. Whatever they’re called where you live, today we’re going to be looking at why they’re so great so you can decide whether or not they’re good for your property.
In our opinion, most properties could benefit from something like this in the vast majority of cases. That being said, let’s take a look at exactly what makes these tick so you can make that choice for yourself once and for all.
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Tennant Storage Solutions
People have things. This is just a fact of life. There are entire multi-billion dollar industries that exist simply to help people store their things, move their things, get more things, and get rid of things. Every year people spend around fifty billion dollars just to store things, and that’s not even accounting for the other things that we mentioned.
People have stuff, and a lot of those people don’t have enough places to store said stuff. This is especially true for your average person that lives in an apartment. If you own or manage an apartment complex, you’re probably well aware of the amount of space that your tenants have.
That being said, storage solutions are necessary for a lot of these people. Many people buy things that they need or use but don’t need or use on a daily basis. The best example of this is winter coats.
Winter coats are expensive, especially if you want a good one that will actually keep you warm throughout the winter. That means that you can’t just chuck your winter coat every time the weather starts getting warm to buy a new one when winter hits.
It wouldn’t make any sense for the vast majority of people’s budget’s to do so. That being said, winter coats take up a lot of space in people’s closets, and that’s why they like to store them away during the warmer months. It frees up closet space for more season-appropriate clothing.
If you have a storage solution on-site for your tenants, there’s a good chance that they’ll want to take advantage of this kind of offer. It’s convenient for them to not have to leave the property to store their off-season clothing items, but that’s not all people use this kind of storage for. For example:
- Guest bedding and furniture, such as air mattresses.
- Toolsets.
- Non-perishable foodstuffs.
- Collectible items that they can’t fit in their apartment.
- Electronics.
- Odds and ends.
People will often even use storage for all sorts of other things. It can really vary from person to person because everyone has different tastes and ideas of what is worth getting a storage unit for. People have different things in their house, as well, as you probably know.
Having something onsite allows for tenants to keep their things close by so they don’t have to make the trek to an off-site storage facility, and that can make a huge difference in their lives. Many tenants will even be willing to pay a fee every month for the opportunity to use these storage units.
That means that you can make your money back simply by charging your tenants for the use of the storage units no matter where on your property you put them, and once the units are paid off that’s straight profit added to your property’s yearly profit.
Security
No one likes it when their things are stolen. You don’t like it, your tenants don’t like it, it’s not a fun experience for anyone. You first have to go and discover that your things were stolen then after that you have to talk to the police and file a police report.
Whether you’re a fan of the police or not, it’s not fun when you have to talk to them right after your things were stolen, even if it does mean a higher chance of your things being returned. That being said, having study lockers that aren’t easy to steal from makes a difference.
The thing about the vast majority of thieves is that they’re lazy and opportunistic. By far the most common form of theft is something that is commonly referred to as a smash and grab. It’s when the thief quickly breaks into something, grabs what they can, then they leave.
Don’t get us wrong, there are professional thieves that plan a lot more than that, but odds are they aren’t going to target your apartment complex when they know that their skills can get them guaranteed higher payouts.
In fact, in the modern-day, most major thefts are committed online because it’s a lot easier for thieves to take a substantial amount of money and disappear without a trace. Going through the effort to get into a fortified storage unit just isn’t worth the risk for most people.
That’s why solid storage lockers are such a good idea. Really, you just need something sturdy enough to not be entered in a matter of seconds. Many companies that offer tenant storage sell very tough units that can’t be broken into that quickly.
In fact, the nicer units are made up of metal doors and solid concrete, or similar material, walls. They’re not going to be compromised in the amount of time that a petty thief would be interested in them, and that’s going to make your tenants feel a lot safer about them.
The Downsides of Tenant Storage
While there are many positives of adding tenant storage to your property, there are a couple of downsides that are worth talking about before we end this article. They could or could not be enough to make or break the idea of installing these for you, depending on your property.
The first one is that you do need some free space in order to install them. It’s, unfortunately, physically impossible for you to pull more space out of thin air. If you don’t have much extra space, it might not work out for your property.
That being said, you don’t need a whole lot of space in order to get some units. Most companies that offer this offer a variety of sizes, meaning that you could get a few small units for your property and just have a small space for tenant storage.
The other downside is that there’s a possibility that your tenants won’t want to use them. It would be incredibly unlikely for no one to want to use the storage because most people want to store their things, storage is a multi-billion dollar industry, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.
There are a few types of tenants and the way that they interact with this kind of storage differs a lot. For example:
- People with a lot of stuff that want to store things.
- This is probably going to be your key demographic.
- Minimalists that want to keep things stored away so they can maintain their aesthetic.
- This will be your second most common demographic.
- Highly-organized people that like keeping some things stored.
- Again, this will be a group that storage units are popular with.
- Die-hard minimalists that don’t have enough stuff to justify extra storage.
- These people probably won’t want to use your storage.
- People, regardless of the amount of stuff that they have, that don’t feel like paying for storage is worth their money or they can’t afford it.
- These people are the least likely to want to pay for your storage.
Odds are your tenants are going to be a mix of these kinds of people, which means that you should still be able to rent out most if not all of your units. That being said, there is a small chance that all of your tenants will fall into the last two categories, however unlikely that might be.
Storage Solutions for the Future of Your Property
Getting storage for your tenants can change their lives while inflating your bottom line. It can be easy and relatively cheap to have done, but it can change a lot of the ways that your tenants interact with your property.
Whether you only own a single property or your portfolio ranges tens of cities and several states, your properties could probably use the extra storage to add that bit of cash flow to your yearly income.
