<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class="">The Wall Street Journal August 6, 2023</p><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><h1 class=""><font size="4" class="">Is There a Limit to Americans’ Self-Storage Addiction? Billions of Dollars Say Nope</font></h1><h2 class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">As a pandemic-inspired boom ends, entrepreneurs and giant corporations alike are counting on customers to keep accumulating more stuff than they can squeeze into their homes</span></h2><p class="">By <a href="https://www.wsj.com/news/author/ryan-dezember" aria-label="Author page for Ryan Dezember" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/news/author/ryan-dezember&source=gmail&ust=1691431393496000&usg=AOvVaw1M7G7kGU3h_q9Vc4mR6FBb" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">Ryan Dezember</a></p></div><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-storage-addiction-investors-80e0a14b" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-storage-addiction-investors-80e0a14b&source=gmail&ust=1691431393497000&usg=AOvVaw1asJ-rS1zQKR6YsC3xYDWg" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" class="">https://www.wsj.com/articles/<wbr class="">self-storage-addiction-<wbr class="">investors-80e0a14b</a></p><div class=""><b class="">Excerpts </b></div><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">America's storage addiction made Mike Wagner a wealthy man.</font></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">Wagner quit his physical-therapist job the day before he bought his first self-storage facility in 2011. It cost $330,000 and was losing $2,000 a month, but he got it cranking out cash, added units and sold for $1.8 million, the first of several lucrative turnarounds.</font></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);" class="">Stories like this have inspired droves of would-be small investors to try their luck,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> and now the 41-year-old is milking the storage craze in a new way. His investment-coaching business, The Storage Rebellion costs $297 a month to join. He charges $779 for a video-training course, with lessons on lien laws, valuation spreadsheets and partnership agreements. For $995, Wagner will hop on a one-on-one call for 90 minutes, and $2,995 buys a daylong training session at his home office in New York's Finger Lakes region.</span></font></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">There are self-storage facilities around the world, but nowhere have they been more popular to rent and profitable to own than in the U.S., thanks to Americans' propensity to accumulate more stuff than they can squeeze into their homes.</font></span></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);" class="">The bullish case for storage is made by America's pack-rat ways</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. Market researchers estimate that more than one in 10 Americans lease storage space. In June they paid an average of about $165.55 a month, down 1% from records in January, but about 20% more than in June 2019, according to a KeyBanc analysis of debit and credit card data.</span></font></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class="">The storage customer is typically described as irrational, because they are willing over time to pay far more than the value of whatever they are storing. People are often in a pinch when they search for "storage near me." Death, divorce and disaster create demand. So do marriages, babies and new jobs.</font></p><p style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);" class="">Even savvy storage investors become ensnared</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">"I've had one six years,"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> said Christopher Merrill, CEO of $56 billion property investor Harrison Street, which owns 119 storage facilities and is looking for more. "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);" class="">I've probably paid for the stuff six times over."</span></font></p></body></html>