Selling an Inherited Self Storage Property

Losing a loved one is never easy. On top of the emotional stress from the immediate loss, there can often quickly be the additional stresses of dealing with settling the estate. If your loved one has left a will, it can make the probate process much easier to navigate. That said, there's still often a lot to handle even if there's a clear plan in place via the will. This is especially true if your family member had businesses, properties, or other investments that now need to be liquidated.

If the person who passed owned a self storage facility, it can be tricky to know what to do or how to handle it. Self storage is a business that involves a lot of customers and can be difficult to decipher if good records haven't been kept. This is especially true if they owned the self storage facility for a long time and may have operated based on memory and handshake agreements.

So you might be asking yourself "How do I sell an inherited self storage facility?" Below we'll discuss some tips on how you can handle selling an inherited self storage facility.

Follow the Paper Trail

The first step is to try and find any and all written records for the self storage facility. This can vary greatly depending on how the business was managed, but start by finding if they had been using any type of management software for the self storage facility. If they had been, you can reach out to the management software company and get the assistance you need in pulling records. If they haven't been using software, you'll want to try and find their "rent roll" or "log book" and see what's available. If they enlisted the help of an accountant over the years, they too may be able to help. Even if information is incomplete, it may be able to help in keeping the business afloat and collecting rents until you can figure out the next steps.

Order An Appraisal of the Self Storage Facility

Another step that can be very helpful in moving towards selling the self storage facility is to have an appraisal completed by a licensed commercial appraiser. This may or may not be required depending on the directions of the individuals will and State where the probate is taking place. An appraisal will look at similar properties in the area as well as the financial performance of the self storage or mini storage property (or at least whatever is available). Based on these inputs as well as others, the appraiser will come up with an opinion of value using a few different methods. They will then reconcile the values of these different methods and come to a single opinion of value for the self storage facility. While any asset including self storage properties are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them, this can definitely help in giving you a starting point. One additional piece to note however, is that appraisals for commercial properties can be quite expensive. It's something that you may want to consider if one isn't required in order to settle the estate.

Listing the Self Storage Property

One option to the self storage facility is to list it with a broker. They can help by giving you their opinion of value and what they feel like the property should be listed for. If you decide to go this route make sure you enlist a broker who has extensive experience in selling a self storage facility! This is absolutely NOT the right time to use a family friend, relative, etc. who may have a real estate license but is used to selling homes. Another thing to keep in mind is that brokers will typically charge 3-6% commission for selling the property and many times will have other fees for marketing, advertising, etc. This can end up costing you thousands of additional dollars just to sell the self storage property. The broker may also want you to do repairs to the facility in order to sell the property. This can cost a significant amount of money out of pocket with no guarantee that you'll ever be able to recoup the expense. Finally, by listing the property you're at the mercy of the market as far as when and if a buyer will be interested in purchasing the facility at the listed price. If the broker is off on their assessment of value, this can cause the self storage property to sit on the market costing the estate money in holding costs and risking the equity if there is still a mortgage tied to the property.

Sell the Self Storage Property to a Direct Buyer

Another option is to find a direct buyer like Sell Self Storage Now who is interested in making you an offer to purchase the self storage facility. There are a number of advantages to working directly with a buyer for the self storage property. First, when working with our company, there are no fees and no commissions to pay! We also can purchase in "as-is" condition. When we buy the self storage facility, there are never any repairs that you'd need to come out of pocket for. Also, even if the records at the facility aren't the best, we can still give you an offer! We're used to deciphering limited information on still purchase properties even when all of the information might not be available. Finally, we can purchase the property quickly. Many times you'd need to wait for months until the property is under agreement to be purchased and then it can often take another couple months to actually close. We have the ability to make the process much quicker as we work directly with you to coordinate every step of the way.

If you'd like to find out more about working directly with us to purchase your inherited self storage property, or any other self storage facility you might own, contact us today! You can give us a call at (717) 687-1883 or fill out our form here and we'll be in touch with you shortly!