Transcription
[Music] We are back in Englewood, Florida, at our self-storage facility. The last time we were here was fall of 2022, and we were smashed by a hurricane. The roof was ripped off, all the signage everywhere in this whole block was torn down completely.
That's one of the best things about self-storage. I haven't been here in a year and a half, and there was really no reason to come back. The reason we came back now is because our manager is retiring. We're going to change up some of our systems and hire a new boots on the ground to take care of the maintenance and the property, uh, for the day-to-day.
So, this property, when we bought it, there was a manager who was already in place, and we kept them operating the facility. And he would come here and kind of be like the typical manager. We don't really run our rest of our facilities like that. We run our facilities with the boots on the ground, someone who comes by the property, cleans up the place, does the maintenance, sweeps out units, overlocks the properties, lets us know when a new unit is, uh, available. And then we use a call center to handle the customer service. People calling in have questions about their payments, add another unit, whatever they may be.
So, there's like a customer service for the call center, and then a boots on the ground who really doesn't talk to the customers. They will, if, you know, they have an issue or they, they, they get locked out of their gate and he has to cut the lock or something like that. But the majority of the time, they're not talking to anybody, and we're just maintaining the property. But when we had our guy here, you know, pretty much every day of the week, we kept things running the same without all the automation like DaVinci locks and the call center. And because the guy was here every single day.
Now, changing it over to having a boots on the ground and the call center, we're going to be implementing some new things with his boots on the ground. Where, for instance, like this property just vacated today while we're here. This unit is empty. So the boots on the ground guy would come by, he'd walk the unit, walk the property, see, okay, this one doesn't have a lock. He looks at it, it's vacant. He'd do it a little bit, clean up here, sweep it out, make sure it's nice and clean. He would leave an unopened lock in here. Take this DaVinci lock. A DaVinci lock has like a serial code. So he put the lock on here, boom, lock, lock it up. Now it's locked. He'd input this serial number for this unit, unit number six, into the database.
Now, when someone calls to book a unit, they don't have to talk to anybody, and they just get the code. Either way, they could do it online and book a unit, or with the call center, book a unit, get the code, unlock this box. Now they get the code, boom, they're going to rent their unit. They get the code to unlock it, they open it up, they have their lock box inside. Then they take this lock and they return it to the front door where there's a lock box, a drop box where they're going to put the lock inside. So they put the lock inside, and we're good to go.
So that's what they handle. That's what the boots on the ground guy does for us, uh, when he looks at the properties. Then after like the fifth of the month, he's going to also walk around the facility for anybody who hasn't paid. And then the DaVinci locks have red ones, just like this. So, so say for instance, number nine didn't pay rent. He comes over here. Obviously, the gate automatically locks them out, their code doesn't work. But if they go in behind somebody else, they can always sometimes get into the facility. So he would put a red lock right here. He put a red lock over the unit. So now they can't use, uh, just unlock theirs, they're locked out of their unit. So they have to pay before they can get their stuff.
Now, usually before, if they had to, if they paid, you have to call the manager, hey, come meet me over here, you know, to get this lock off. Well, for us, we don't have an on-site guy all the time, and the boots on the ground can't, uh, boots on the ground guy can't drop everything and come over here at the last minute. So using a DaVinci lock with a serial code, they pay the unit, they pay their balance, they get sent the code to unlock the unit. They unlock the red lock. Now they have access to their unit. They take the red lock and they drop it back off at the, uh, Dropbox for the locks. And boom.
And this is how you can automate a facility, eliminate having a manager on site every day, wasting time, wasting money. You know, you want to eliminate your third highest expense, which is payroll. So if you can have someone that's boots on the ground, $500, $600 a month, instead of someone here five, seven days a week, paying them $24,000, $36,000, $48,000 a year for a facility like this, you can save a lot of money on expenses. And that's the name of the game, maximizing your NOI, increase the value of this property.
So, the new manager is coming by, uh, he maintains other properties in the area, kind of the same situation. So it's a perfect, ideal fit. He's not too far away, he's got all the tools, he has the know-how to do it. So we're going to meet him at the property, walk him around, and make sure he's just aware of his tasks. And then he's going to start Wednesday when our new manager retires, and or old manager retires. And then we'll keep the property moving very smooth with the call center taking over the new boots on the ground. Bang, bang, that's it.
So, obviously, this is the property. Not a huge property. There's obviously the, uh, outdoor drive-up, and then everything that's indoor is climate-controlled. And so essentially, what we're just trying to do is just maintain the property, make sure it looks clean and presentable. North. So growing up there, they had recording devices. Even though I'm not Italian, it was still an unusual environment. So what do you expect of somebody like me to come here? Yeah.
So we could walk around, um, essentially. So typically, when they move out, they have to move everything out, right? And we can charge their card, but they might also just cancel their card. So we can't charge them a fee moving stuff out. But if there's a few things in there and you can move it, I don't know if you had, were you the one who said you had a trailer? No, but I have tools and all that crap, and I'm pretty self-sufficient. Bro, I'll put it on Craigslist for free. I'll cut it up, throw it in the dumpster. I'll take a picture. What do you want me to do with this? Want me to get a trailer over here and pay some schmoe $50? You can bring. Exactly. You know, it's, you know, fix that sign over there. I got a leaf blower. Kind of come through, blow everything out over time if you wanted me to, because I have time and I don't really care. You can already tell. I'll even paint those orange or clean those up, make it all nice and neat if you wanted me to. I think I have some extra, uh, orange paint or yellow. I like you already. But like, just things like that to make sure we're good.
Um, say for instance, you're walking the grounds, you see, hey, this one doesn't have a lock anymore. You open it. They moved out. They probably didn't tell us. You know, not everybody tells you, hey, I'm moving out. He just emptied it, and now it's empty. So now you come in, you open it up, you say, hell, it's empty. They have two things in there. Bo, you take it out, you sweep it, you clean it, and you blow it, whatever. And then now you're going to put like a green lock on it that shows it's vacant. And then you enter the code into the software for this unit, 147. Boom. Now, when someone goes to rent the unit, they rent 147, they get the, the code, and they come in here and they get, they unlock the code. And then also, we give them, uh, lock boxes. So the green one is a lock they're going to return. So they take the green, green lock, they return it back towards the front. There's going to be a little Dropbox for it. And then you, uh, when you, before you lock it up with the green unit, you're going to put in a key, um, an unopened lock in there. So they're going to open it, they're going to have their lock inside. They're going to use that lock. They're going to return the green one to the lock box up front. And that's it. Yeah.
There's going to be, and I'll show it to you. It's in my car. I have, I have the lock box, I have the locks, and I'll show you those. And then so like, or for say, you know, it's the seventh, right? And this unit hasn't paid, you're going to take a red lock and overlock his unit so he doesn't, uh, so they can't get in until they pay. So I'm gonna be part of collections. I brought out that's really why I came down here for. Cuz Grand City is a little rough. I'm finding my skills aren't really valuable in Buis. Would you expect me to come here Sundays? This is what I was thinking, clean up the parking lot, make sure everything's fine, blah, blah, blah. I take pictures just for my own benefit. Then if there were appointments, that would be a good day, blah, blah, blah. Then I'm available the rest of the week to. Is that what you would think of? Did you have certain days or it's kind of like on call by appointment?
So it's essentially, if you can, if you can walk the property, you know? Well, sometimes, really, there's not many people that make appointments. The time when people make appointments is like, it's really very rare. It's like if they can't get in or they have a problem or something's going on like that. Most of the stuff the call center can handle or we can handle over the phone.
How many days a week? Um, so it probably varies, probably like 5 to 10 hours a week. It, you know, it's really if there's like a lot of move-outs or, you know, the beginning, the first of the week, the first of the month, the first two weeks of the month are probably the most busiest cuz after the fifth, people are late, then we have to overlock them. And that's really it. So like, it's essentially walking through the property, seeing with your iPad, which is perfect. You walk with your iPad, hey, this unit's late, overlock it. This unit's late, overlock it. This unit's empty, put a green lock on there, put the codes into the system. This unit's late, overlock. It's a red lock. And, and I'll show you those in my car. And then we'll show you the office. And that's it. And I'll give you a key to the office also.
I've got a lot of these smaller storage units that are family-run. Oh yeah, those we need to find some of those. So if you help us find some of those too, I'll give you some, uh, you know, it's, uh, my father left me some of his old corduroys. But these people were left storage units. So these are like the red locks, right? Boom. You overlock. Somebody has a code. You can actually do that. Do, uh, on the app, you input the code to the gate. Hey, number four, this code. Boom. That's it. Like that shouldn't be there, obviously. That one that's leaking and that stuff. Anything you notice that needs. So these are one of the locks that they get the locks for free cuz they pay an admin fee. The lock comes for free. So you just take one of these locks for a new unit, you put it inside the unit, then put the green one on the outside. And then once they rent it out, they don't have to see you, talk to you, nothing. They get the code for the green, you for the green lock that's on the door. They open it, they open their unit. This is in there for them. Boom. Now they use this for their door. They take the green one, return it to the lock box that's it. And you, you have, you, you look.
I'm just a little stunned because I'm so used to dealing with Cesta Key and an older crowd. Yeah. And although they are successful, you usually don't meet any successful people at this part of Florida. Orlando is different because it's a big city, but down here, I mean, if you're the deli manager, Republic Inn, you're 26, you're crushing it. You're crushing it. You know, you're in the parade for Christmas, your kid's going to the high school. So it's very interesting. Pleasure to meet you. I'll send you. Guy, peace out.
So we just finished up with the new guy who's starting, uh, this coming week. Uh, great guy, very proactive. Love how when we're walking around, he's like, hey, I'm gonna fix these signs up. I could paint these parking stoppers for you. You know, if you've ever seen any past videos, I'm walking around, I see trash on the on the ground, I'm picking it up. He was doing the same thing. So I love that him being proactive. He's got all the know-how, the tools, everything we need. So that way we can replace our current manager, uh, with him and the call center. So with that switch over, it should reduce our expenses. It will reduce our expenses and, uh, we're going to maximize the NOI on this property.
So if you're looking for more tips and behind-the-scenes takes like this on how to run a self-storage facility, maximize your income, make sure you hit the like button and the subscribe button and the bell. Hit all the buttons, follow us, and make sure you watch the next [Music] video.