Guides
Where to put a self-storage business when two finalists remain
Choosing between two qualified self-storage sites: three site visits at different hours, what to record, tie-breakers, and the trade you accept in writing.
What to take away
- Screening produces finalists. Choosing between finalists is a different job with different evidence.
- Visit at three different hours. A site is a different place at eight in the morning and at six in the evening.
- Write the tie-breaker down before the visits, or the visit will find one for you.
- Ask what would have to be true for the losing site to be the right one, then check whether it is.
- The finalist you choose should come with a written list of what you accepted about it.
What this stage is not
Screening asks whether a site qualifies. Choosing asks which of two or three qualified sites you want to own for twenty years.
Before the visits, write down the single factor that will decide the choice if everything else comes out level. Do it in advance.
Visit each finalist three times
- Weekday morning. Watch commercial traffic, delivery vehicles, and how the turn into the site behaves when the road is busy.
- Weekday evening. This is when residential customers come. Check the light, the ease of the turn, and whether the frontage reads clearly from the direction most traffic arrives.
- Weekend midday. The heaviest move-in period at most facilities. Watch parking, truck turning, and how much space a customer with a trailer would actually have.
On each visit, stand at the frontage and look at the site the way a driver would, from the lane they will be in. Then drive the route from the nearest residential concentration and time it honestly.
Three visits per finalist
- Weekday morningcommercial traffic, turn behavior
- Weekday eveningresidential customers, light, frontage
- Weekend middayparking, truck turning, trailer space
What to record on the visit
- How far ahead the frontage becomes visible from each approach direction, in car lengths rather than in impressions. Compare against stopping distance: about 10 car lengths at 25 mph and 19 at 40 mph.
- Whether the turn in requires crossing traffic, and whether a median prevents it from one direction. Two lanes posted at 40 mph or more is the case to resolve.
- Where a rental truck would park while its driver is inside, and whether that blocks anything. A 26 foot box truck is the largest common rental.
- Standing water, low points, and the grade at any drive-up door threshold. The ADA caps running slope at 1:20, or 5 percent, and cross slope at 1:48.
- What the neighbors are, and whether any of them generate noise, dust, or traffic that a customer would notice. A typical night limit is about 55 dBA at a residential property line.
- Cell signal at the gate, which decides more about access control options than people expect. A typical working threshold is -85 dBm for a cellular controller, and below -105 dBm is a hardwired job.
The tie-breakers that hold up
Set these out in a table filled for both finalists, with no blank cells.
Typical target
- Visibility
- 10 car lengths at 25 mph, 19 at 40 mph
- Turn
- No left out across two lanes posted at 40 mph or more
- Truck parking
- A 26 foot box truck fits, fire lane clear
- Grade
- Under 5 percent at thresholds, 2 percent across
- Neighbors
- No night source above about 55 dBA at the property line
- Cell signal
- -85 dBm or stronger at the gate
Site A
- Visibility
- 19 off the highway, 3 off the side street
- Turn
- Crosses two 45 mph lanes
- Truck parking
- 40 foot bay beside the office
- Grade
- 2 percent, drains to the street
- Neighbors
- Dock with 4 a.m. starts, 120 feet away
- Cell signal
- -78 dBm
Site B
- Visibility
- 3 off the highway, 12 off the side street
- Turn
- Right in, right out
- Truck parking
- Blocks the first two doors
- Grade
- 6 percent, water stands at the corner
- Neighbors
- Vacant parcels and an office
- Cell signal
- -112 dBm, hardwired controller
Tie-breaker table, no blank cells
Factor
- Competing doors, two largest bands
- Permitted or announced supply
- Rentable sq ft per acre
- Land or rent cost per sq ft
- Attended hours layout requires
- Zoning path
- Utility capacity
Site A
- Competing doors, two largest bands
- Permitted or announced supply
- Rentable sq ft per acre
- Land or rent cost per sq ft
- Attended hours layout requires
- Zoning path
- Utility capacity
Site B
- Competing doors, two largest bands
- Permitted or announced supply
- Rentable sq ft per acre
- Land or rent cost per sq ft
- Attended hours layout requires
- Zoning path
- Utility capacity
A blank cell is not a small problem. It means the comparison is being made on the cells that are filled, which are usually the easy ones.
The question that settles most cases
Ask what would have to be true for the site you are about to reject to be the better choice. Then go and check whether it is true.
Usually the answer involves a size band you have not counted properly, or a barrier you assumed customers would cross. Both are checkable in an afternoon, and both have reversed decisions that everyone was sure about.
Worked example. In the table above, Site A shows 19 car lengths of sightline from the highway and 3 from the side street. Site B shows the reverse.
Ask what would have to be true for Site B to win. The answer would be that most customers arrive from the side street.
That is checkable in one evening. Count turning movements at both approaches in the peak hour. If three of the five nearest complexes sit off the side street, the decision reverses.
Accept the trade in writing
No site wins on every column. Whichever you choose, write down what you accepted about it and what you will do because of it.
Write down the accepted trade
What did you accept about the chosen site?
budget for the consequence from month one
the trade is not yet written down
Poor visibility means a larger demand capture budget from the first month. It belongs in the plan in the order of startup decisions. A tight site means a mix skewed by geometry, not demand, plus phasing constraints that show up later in when to add more units.
Layout also drives the hardware list. A two-building site, or one with a gate far from the office, needs different access control and lighting than a single-frontage site. Price what the building needs installed against the chosen layout, not a generic one.
Price the difference line by line. Count controlled openings and price one reader or keypad each. Set the fixture count from the foot-candle level your city requires, then price the conduit run the two-building layout needs. For staffing, multiply attended hours by the local wage rate and add payroll taxes and insurance, typically 20 to 30 percent.
The wider screening method that produced these finalists is set out in how a site is chosen from first map to diligence.
Three checks before you commit
Accessibility is drawn once, so bring it into the layout conversation now rather than at permitting. The Department of Justice small business guide to the Americans with Disabilities Act covers parking, approach, and counter access in plain language.
Staffing is part of the choice, not a consequence of it. Price the attended hours each layout needs against published wage estimates for your own area using the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage tables, rather than assuming both sites cost the same to run.
Finally, keep the comparison file. The Small Business Administration guidance on market research and competitive analysis describes what a defensible study looks like, and a lender will want to see why the other finalist lost.
Common questions
How many finalists should I have?
Two or three. One is not a choice and five means the screen was too soft, which usually shows up as blank cells in the comparison table.
Should I tell the sellers I have alternatives?
You do not need to say anything. Having a genuine alternative changes how you negotiate on its own, and it is the only reliable protection against becoming attached to a parcel.
What if both finalists have the same problem?
Then the problem belongs to the trade area rather than the parcel, and the right response is to widen the search rather than choose between two versions of the same weakness.
Is a site visit really necessary if the data is good?
Yes. Grade at a door threshold, sightlines from the near lane, and where a truck can stop are not in any dataset, and each of them has cost operators real money.
