After a successful run of its Beta website through the end of 2009, StorageFront is going live with its new self-storage search engine and Web-marketing service on Feb. 1.
 
StorageFront launched last year as an independent online marketing resource for the self-storage industry. A bilingual search engine and marketing portal, StorageFront serves storage owners and renters with an advanced directory comprising more than 40,000 U.S. storage facilities.
 
For owners, the website offers robust Web-marketing tools. For consumers, it provides a simplified user interface, advanced search options and geo-relevant results. The search engine shows all facilities that fit a renter’s criteria, sorted by proximity. It also includes a growing library of tools, tips and checklists.
 
Subscription packages range from free for a Basic listing to $29.95 per month for a Priority listing and $69.95 per month per facility for a Priority Track marketing suite. Optional premium services (such as Google AdWords management or virtual tours) are bid by project.
 
The Basic package includes a directory listing and a Web page including address, phone, map and driving directions. Owners can opt to “verify” a listing by confirming accuracy by phone. They can also tag their state and national association affiliations for added credibility.
 
Priority listings rank higher in the directory and show more detail: logo, tagline, map marker, and up to 10 amenities that feed the advanced search function. Subscribers’ websites include particulars such as property photos, unit sizes, descriptions, hours of operation and coupons. Prospective renters can inquire, reserve, get directions, print or share with one click.
 
With the Priority Track suite, a unique phone number is assigned that times and records calls. A facility owner can log in from anywhere and listen to entire sales calls on his PC or iPhone. Web data such as unique-visitor traffic and call-to-action buttons are tracked, and then charted graphically in a marketing statistics dashboard. Owners can even opt to be notified via e-mail the moment a new Web lead or call comes in.
 
A product chart comparing Basic, Priority and Priority Track is available at Storagefront.com/owner-benefits.
 
For the facility owner, setup is easy, involving no design or coding experience to get a custom page up and running. The owner selects a design template that suits his brand, uploads a logo, and fills in the blanks. For owners of multiple locations, a “super admin” area supports control over many sites, including employee-permission settings. Once the page is up, StorageFront drives local search engine optimization and pay-per-click.
 
According to StorageFront, its usability test results were very positive, with renters and owners saying the site is clean, accessible and informative. Respondents showed particularly positive reactions to the frank yet cartoony “Web 2.0” look.
 
StoreFront said visitor traffic to the website has climbed at a rate of 290 percent month over month since the October Beta launch. The company credits the climb to intricate search-engine optimization techniques, plus a targeted Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign executed in the Texas test market.
 
Following the February launch, StorageFront will continue to progress its offerings in an effort to maximize renters’ search experience and owners’ online visibility. Enhancements slated for the first quarter of 2010 include an advanced space-calculation widget that helps renters accurately select a suitable unit size, and a Spanish-language search engine for the burgeoning Hispanic self-storage niche.
 
Based in Kansas City, Kan., StorageFront employs several specialists in the development, sales and marketing disciplines.

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Bancap Self Storage Group Inc. brokered the sale of the Five Star Storage property in the city of Vallejo in Solano County, Calif.  Carl Touhey and Jason “Jay” Allen were the exclusive agents for the property.  No other brokers were involved in the transaction.         

The property sold for $4.5 million in an all-cash transaction. Both the seller and buyer were private parties in the local area. Five Star Storage has 81,664 net square feet of self-storage space with 483 units. The single-story project was built in 1980 and is located on Lemon St. The property was approximately 90 percent occupied at the time of the sale.

The sale was the eighth self-storage deal California Bancap Self Storage Group completed in the past 12 months. Bancap Self Storage Group has completed more than $850 million in self-storage sales, including many lender-owned properties, numerous portfolio sales, and a record-setting single-property sale at more than $31 million. 

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Self-Storage Talk: Real Estate Listings and Investment Opportunities

PFM Capital Inc., a private equity and venture-capital management firm, has agreed to allow two of its investment funds make an equity investment in StorageVault Canada Inc. Subject to certain conditions, the commitment would involve two private placements.
 
In the first, the funds will acquire 7,142,857 common shares of StorageVault at $0.28 per share for total gross proceeds of $2 million. The placement is subject to the negotiation of a joint venture between StorageVault, CanStore Self Storage LP and CSS Holdings LP. The funds may provide an additional $2 million in equity to StorageVault, priced at $0.32 per common share, subject to PFM being satisfied with the financial and operational benchmarks established by the joint venture and other conditions.
 
The net proceeds from both private placements will be used by StorageVault to fund the joint venture as well as for general working capital purposes.
 
StorageVault owns and operates Canadian PUPS portable storage in Saskatoon, Trans Can Mini-Stor in Regina, and Kenaston Self Storage in Winnipeg. The Regina and Winnipeg sites are traditional self-storage facilities operating in conjunction with portable-storage franchises. The company intends to grow through the acquisition of self-storage properties and the development of portable-storage facilities in Canada. Its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Saskatchewan, Canada-based PFM Capital manages $300 million in private equity in West Canada. The company has been managing private equity and venture-capital investments since 1993, and currently holds 38 private and publicly traded companies in the portfolios of its managed funds.

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Memphis, Tenn.-based Liberty Building Systems promoted Robert Major, former Liberty district sales manager, to self-storage business development manager.

In his new position, Major will be responsible for developing a self-storage sales strategy for all BlueScope Buildings North America brands utilizing Liberty self-storage. He has 17 years of experience in the metal-building industry.

“Robert is very diligent and professional when it comes to his relationships with customers,” says Anthony Idle, Liberty’s general manager. “We are very excited he has taken on this new role with Liberty and are confident in his ability to grow our self-storage business.”

Liberty Building Systems, a division of BlueScope Buildings North America Inc., engineers and supplies metal-building solutions for agricultural, commercial, industrial and self-storage applications.

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Portable On Demand Storage (PODS), a moving and storage company that provides portable-storage containers, welcomed James Hwang as director of call center operations at the firm’s corporate headquarters in Clearwater, Fla.

Hwang will direct sales initiatives and develop new strategies for long-distance moving and local moving and storage sales, as well as customer service to ensure a competitive edge for the firm.

“PODS offers a unique service and the customer satisfaction scores have always been fantastic. I hope to continue that excellence while implementing some additional best practices,” Hwang says.

Most recently, Hwang served as vice president of operations at Scicom Inc., and has held leadership positions with Bank One, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and the Home Depot.

In addition, PODS recently filled several positions in its central call center with the appointment of an additional manager and four supervisors to better align call center teams and improve coaching, training, call monitoring, work flow definition and scheduling.

The company recently announced it plans to hire 255 customer and call center representatives at its corporate headquarters in Florida and in cities across the United States and Canada.

Founded in 1998, PODS currently provides service to a population of more than 239 million consumers, and moving and storage services in 48 U.S. states, Australia and Canada. To date, the company has completed more than 200,000 long-distance relocations, exceeded one million deliveries and has nearly 140,000 PODS containers in service.
 
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Last week Randy Witter, lobbyist for the Illinois Self Storage Association (ISSA), met with Senator James Meeks to discuss a bill that could potentially add a 6 percent sales tax to self-storage services in the state. The association has been taking measures to battle the tax since Senate Bill 750 was revived a year ago.
 
Senator Meeks was the original sponsor of the bill, intended to fund education. Though SB750 never moved from the Senate, when House Bill 174 reached the floor, Meeks added to it an amendment including the sales-tax language from SB750. HB174 passed the Senate and returned to the House for concurrence, where it currently sits.
 
Witter met with Meeks when the legislature was in session last week for the Governor’s state address. According to ISSA, Meeks indicated the association is “ahead of the curve” in its effort to remove self-storage from the list of services to be taxed. Meeks said he felt confident HB174 would not see any movement until after the general election in November. However, other variables must be considered, such as the primary election in February.
 
ISSA said it will remain constant in delivering its message to legislators during the spring session of the General Assembly and will continue to keep its members informed.

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In an effort to arm local self-storage operators with information to fight terrorism at their facilities, the Illinois Self Storage Association (ISSA) met this week with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The association has now distributed a document, “Communities Against Terrorism,” to all of its members, encouraging them to share it with all employees and become familiar with its contents. The document outlines measures for Identifying potential indicators of terrorist activities related to self-storage. It will also be posted to the ISSA website at www.illinoisselfstorage.org/images/upload/StorageFacilities.pdf.

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More than 600 customers of Waikiki Self Storage in Hawaii are waiting to hear if they need to move their belongings out of storage due to possible eviction of the facility. Tenants received a call on Monday indicating the facility might be shut down and they should empty their units.
 
On Monday, customers found the storage office completely empty―including the lights―and an eviction notice posted on the door. On Wednesday the company’s corporate headquarters issued a second call saying the facility will stay open; now tenants aren’t sure what to do.
 
Facility manager Jenny Rodrigues said the landlord had raised the rent to an amount the owner couldn’t afford, and negotiations to downwardly adjust the rent had failed. Corporate had instructed the staff to vacate during the weekend, but now another self-storage company is willing to partner with Waikiki and help the facility pay rent.
 
Rodrigues and customers are awaiting final word on what will happen. In the meantime, customers debate whether to vacate.
 
Waikiki Self Storage has been in business for five years and has one more year left on its lease.

Source: Hawaii News Now, Chaos and confusion in self storage shake-up

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Selling or disposing of the stored belongings of a delinquent tenant is one of those responsibilities no self-storage owner enjoys. It’s also an action fraught with potential liability if you fail to do it according to the law. All property is not created equal, and you may need to take special precautions when dealing with vehicles or other titled items.

Know the Law

Your right to lien, seize, sell and dispose of property belonging to tenants is spelled out in statutes beyond the language of your rental contract. Applicable laws include state lien laws, consumer-protection statues, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and other consumer-protection vehicles. Add the fact that consumer protection is a complex and evolving issue that may take various forms depending on your state and individual circumstances, and it becomes clear that you must carefully consider your right to sell and dispose of property stored in your facility.

When it comes to deciding whether to act on your lien against a delinquent tenant’s property by selling or disposing of it, it’s strongly suggested that you do the following: 

• Consult with your attorney and insurance agent
• Obtain a copy of your state’s lien laws and consumer-protection statutes
• Prepare a timeline for the statutory notice requirements to your delinquent tenants
• Follow the statute conservatively in implementing your rights under your storage contract

The consultation with your attorney and insurance agent should be ongoing, not merely for a certain time period or a particular circumstance. The law dealing with consumer rights is continuously being refined by the legislatures and courts, and it’s important that you keep abreast of developments that may affect the manner in which you do business. 

The Risk of Lawsuits

Lawsuits are a real concern in the wake of a sale and disposal action. Many people store personal items in their units such as heirlooms, memorabilia, photos and important documents. As a result, the sale and disposal of this property may be seen as a personal assault, and tenants often become upset when their items are auctioned to strangers. The current economic climate may be an aggravating factor for potential litigation. Tenants who are struggling to make ends meet may be particularly sensitive to perceived wrongdoing on your part and seek legal action in response.

Additionally, if you have commercial tenants storing business-related articles on your premises, you run the risk of exposing their clients’ business records and personal information in the auction, thereby inviting additional claims not only from your tenants but also their clients. This is not the forum for a discussion of privacy issues in this country, but you need to be aware that, should it be alleged that someone’s identity was stolen as a result of an auction, there will likely be adjunct lawsuits against you arising from people with whom you have no contractual business relationship.

Avoiding lawsuits is in your best interest since they can be expensive and expose your business to a costly legal judgment. Plaintiffs who’ve had their belongings seized and auctioned will generally appear sympathetic to a jury. The emotional effect on a jury is always a risk and cannot be underestimated. Items that may not have been worth much while in storage suddenly take on a sentimental attachment under the scrutiny of a legal proceeding. To avoid being perceived as insensitive, the defendant (self-storage owner) must demonstrate complete adherence to the notice requirements and timeframes prescribed by state statutes for such actions.

For consumer-protection claims in general, including sale and disposal claims, the courts require careful documentation of the defendant’s actions prior to the sale or disposal in question. Your state’s lien laws and consumer-protection statutes normally include specific legal requirements and timelines for these sales. It’s critical you be aware of these requirements and comply with the law regarding your right to place a lien on and sell a tenant’s property. Also be sure to comply with the requirements spelled out in the statute regarding your duty to notify your tenant of your intentions and his obligations.

How important is it for you to follow these laws and discuss these issues with your insurance agent and attorney? In financial terms, it literally pays to be cautious. The risks for violating your state’s consumer-protection laws may be extremely costly. In many jurisdictions, penalties are contained in the language of the statute and may include triple the plaintiff’s claimed damages (or more) in addition to paying the plaintiff’s (customer’s) legal fees.

If you were to find yourself in a case where your customer alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost property, such a jury award may well exceed the limits of your sale and disposal liability insurance policy. As a result, your facility would be responsible for paying the balance of the judgment not covered by your policy. 

An Alternative to Lien Sales

Since the laws governing liens on property and sales of such property may seem to provide more benefit to the plaintiffs than the defendants, you should be aware of an alternative available in virtually every state that may obviate lawsuits deriving from lien seizure and sale: your state’s eviction process. This article is not intended to provide a step-by-step guide to eviction, and there have been very scholarly and informative articles on the subject written by people who have experience and knowledge in such matters. However, the eviction process is available to self-storage facilities just as it would be to apartment owners and the like.

While the process may differ in various jurisdictions, in most cases, it follows a pattern requiring the facility owner to file an eviction order with the court which, if granted, can be given to the local police or sheriff to execute. The potential benefit of this alternative is that once an eviction is filed and granted, the facility may become once-removed from the process by involving the court and the police or sheriff. At that point, a lawsuit filed solely against the facility becomes much less likely and far more difficult to prosecute.

Once again, this article is not intended to be construed as advice to use this option. However, it may be in your best interest to discuss this alternative to traditional lien sale and disposal auctions with your attorney and insurance agent. 

Special Considerations for Vehicles

When your lien sale includes vehicles, beware. When faced with auctioning a boat, car, truck, motorcycle, RV, trailer, etc.—essentially any property for which ownership is demonstrated by a title filed with the authorities in your state—it’s important you know and understand your legal obligations regarding the sale of such items.

Some insurance companies have defended cases in which the insureds have been sued by people who purchased vehicles at lien sales. In these cases, the purchasers discovered the vehicles they bought could not be titled to them because they were under lease and, therefore, not owned by the tenant who was in arrears.

In the event that you intend to conduct a lien sale involving a motor vehicle or any other form of titled property, contact the proper authority―whether it’s your state’s motor-vehicle department or other agency―to obtain and understand the local rules regarding such a transaction. Most states have notice requirements that may be far different from those contained in the state’s self-storage lien laws. In addition to the lien laws and consumer-protection statutes, the motor-vehicle regulations may impose completely separate but required rules regarding these transactions. 

Dealing With Abandoned Records

If you find a unit that appears to contain records, immediately consult with a knowledgeable attorney or the appropriate state agency prior to selling or disposing of any boxes or documents. As a self-storage owner, you don’t want legal liability imposed on you for personal or sensitive information that falls into the wrong hands.

In today’s economic uncertainty, it’s always wise to consult an attorney and your insurance agent to ensure your sale and disposal practices comply with applicable laws and limit your exposure to potential claims and lawsuits. Good risk-management practices contribute greatly to protecting your business and your bottom line. 

This article is not intended as specific legal advice and should not be substituted for the advice of an attorney who specializes in the self-storage industry. 

Michael Rice is the manager of claims for Phoenix-based MiniCo Inc., which provides specialty programs for self-storage businesses including property and casualty insurance and tenant insurance. For more information, call 800.528.1056 visit www.minico.com.

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