Self-Storage Facilities Program (Insurance)

Jun 02, 2010

The Self Storage Facilities Program provides tailored property and liability insurance coverage for owners of self-storage facilities. Lexington Insurance Co., a Chartis company, is working with All Risks Ltd.’s National Specialty Programs unit to serve this growing niche.

The program is designed to meet the coverage needs of facilities that rent storage space to individuals and businesses. It includes Lexington’s property, general liability, equipment breakdown and crime coverage, and also provides coverage for sales and disposal liability, as well as customer-goods legal liability. Coverage is provided via a package policy, but also available on a stand-alone basis.

Chartis is a property-casualty and general insurance organization serving more than 40 million clients in over 160 countries and jurisdictions.

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A-1 Self Storage Collects School Supplies for Military Children

Jun 02, 2010

A-1 Self Storage, an operator of self-storage facilities throughout California, has been designated an official drop-off location for the “Back-to-School Brigade” campaign, which is collecting donations of new school supplies for children of military families through July 18. The initiative is run by the Southern California Chapter of Operation Homefront, which provides emergency assistance and morale to U.S. troops, the families they leave behind, and wounded warriors.

A-1 is assisting with collecting donations throughout San Diego and Orange County, Calif. Some of the basic school supplies needed include: backpacks, calculators, crayons, glue sticks, pencils, rulers, scissors, etc. Children of all ages who participate in the program will be able to pick out their own backpack and fill it with the supplies they need for the school year.

For more information or to sponsor a backpack for a military child, visit www.a1storage.com/operation_homefront.

A-1 Self Storage has 17 locations in the greater San Diego County area and more than 40 locations across California. It is the self-storage division of the Caster Cos., a third-generation, family-owned company headquartered in Southern California since 1959.

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ISS Blog

Your Self-Storage Rental Agreement

Jun 02, 2010

While we’ve always been a litigious society, lately it seems the courts are working overtime to hear the lamest cases ever. Case in point: A Utah woman is suing Google for damages for giving her bad walking directions after she walked onto a busy highway sans sidewalks and was struck by a vehicle. Yes, you read that correctly. She walked onto a highway. She’s also suing the person who hit her, of course.

While the story is a bit more complicated, (read just one of many articles on the Web here) it seems common sense didn’t play a role in this unfortunate incident. And while you would think common sense should play a role when it comes to signing a self-storage rental agreement—which is a legal contract—you can’t bet on it. So rather than just hoping your lease is solid, know for sure, and keep yourself and your business from being dragged into a silly court case.

If you haven’t taken a hard look at your lease since it was drafted, you need to. Not only do state laws change constantly, but verbiage can become outdated, too. Rental agreements from a decade ago also contain a lot of legal jargon no one wants to read. Many businesses—and even government entities—are now using “plain language” in their contracts so everyone can clearly understand what’s involved. Yes, you’ll still need some legal stuff in there, but the overall language should be easy to comprehend. Here’s a great article on revamping your rental agreement to include plain language.

Or perhaps you’d like to make some minor changes to the rental agreement. Legal expert Jeff Greenberger points out in this recent article that you can make small changes to your lease without making substantial modifications to the landlord/tenant relationship. Jeff’s example in the article is clearly defining “written notice” of an address change. But perhaps there’s another small change you’d like to make without the hassle of overhauling the entire document.

Is your tenant lease on your website? There’s a debate on Self-Storage Talk right now on this subject. Some operators have found making the lease agreement online gives prospective tenants more time to review the agreement. Most managers agree going over the rental agreement during leaseup is often rushed for a variety of reasons. The tenant could be in a hurry, may have kids with him, or the manager could have several people vying for his attention.

Others feel the legal document should be restricted to those serious about renting a unit and be completed face-to-face in the self-storage office. You can add your two-cents on this hot topic here.

Regardless if your rental agreement is available via your website or only by walking through your door, it needs to be up to date and protect your business. Here are a couple of other articles from the ISS archives on creating your best self-storage lease.

If you have more questions about your lease agreement or other legal issues, join us at the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in New Orleans, Sept. 29-Oct. 1. Consider signing up for the add-on workshop Legal Learning Live, a four-hour seminar led by Jeff that highlights several of the industry’s most prevalent legal challenges including lien sales, abandonment of goods, vehicle storage and protecting tenant information. Read more about this workshop and get the full agenda at www.insideselfstorageworldexpo.com. We hope to see you there!

Five Questions With Brandon Braud, Vice President of Sales for upickstorage.com

Jun 02, 2010

For many people seeking self-storage, the Internet is becoming the go-to place to peruse facilities and pricing. There are now a number of companies providing storage operators with a gateway to customers beyond their own facility websites.

Inside Self-Storage recently spoke with Brandon Braud, vice president of sales for upickstorage.com, which offers third-party reservations to customers looking for self-storage online. Braud talks about the benefits of online reservation companies, what customers want, and what’s on the horizon for this new business portal.

1.Tell us about upickstorage.com and the Virtual Storage Manager.

Two years ago, Arlen Braud and Michelle Gallagher, co-founders of upickstorage.com and co-owners of Storage Depot, were looking for new ways to find renters. After hours of conversation, Arlen asked, “What about a site like those travel sites? The customer could pick the price he wants to pay for storage.” The “pick-what-you-want-to-pay” concept behind upickstorage.com was born.

Their goal was to create a site that was appealing to customers and effective for facility owners. They also wanted a site that provided more than just leads. In the beginning, they encountered some resistance from facility owners who were fearful of creating a discount mentality among potential renters, so they implemented Buy-Now Specials and the Virtual Storage Manager (VSM).

The company wanted to create an eBay-style interface between the customer and facility owner. Buy-Now Specials allow facility owners to showcase specials, hard-to-place inventory or regular rental rates. But the jewel in the crown is VSM, a versatile software application that’s like having a manager on duty 24 hours a day. VSM can privately import all pricing and inventory information from a facility’s management software and relay it to customers. Customers get the answers they’re looking for as if they were talking to a person.

2.What benefits do third-party reservation systems offer self-storage operators?

This is an opportunity for smaller facilities to compete with big advertisers. These marketing sites act like a cooperative pool of advertising dollars that give every facility owner the opportunity to compete at the highest levels on the Internet.

Another advantage of partnering with marketing sites online is it increases a facility’s profile on the Web. If you’re looking for quality back links for your website to increase visibility for search-engine optimization, these sites help make that happen. Lastly, any time you allow your facility to be accessed from more than one outlet, you raise your chances of renting to capacity.

3.What are consumers looking for, and how do online reservations fit in?

The old ways of advertising are no longer effective. Many facilities are downsizing their Yellow Pages ad and putting the savings into Internet marketing. The goal of self-storage marketing websites is to inspire new renters to the industry and provide a functional interface from which a renter can reserve a space at the facility. Marketing websites are providing not only the name and number of the facility, but hours of operation, company descriptions and credos, inventory and pricing information, and even live interaction with facility managers.

4. What are the costs for the operator?

Depending on the marketing-website partnership, a facility owner can expect to pay anywhere from $19 per month to $99 per month for advertising. Some sites have even come up with inventive cross marketing that makes advertising free. For example, upickstorage.com introduced a self-storage retail product line.

Realizing that most facilities offer product for resale, upickstorage.com offers those product staples at a competitive price and also as a one-for-one trade for marketing services for anyone who orders product from upickstoragesupplies.com. It’s the same price and quality as the other supply sources, but with added benefits.

5. What’s on the horizon for online reservations?

Eventually, these marketing sites will be so comprehensive they’ll not only schedule a reservation for your facility, but will enable you to upload your lease agreement for the customer to complete and bring with him at move-in.

Travel websites had it easy. Due to federal regulations, there was an existing flight schedule matrix for sites like Priceline, Travelocity and Expedia to access flight information. The same is not true for a fractionalized industry like self-storage. Eventually one site will prevail as the industry standard, and all facility information will be standardized and accessible via the Web. There are many self-storage search sites online, but the more comprehensive ones will be the ones that last.

Related Articles:

Online Comparison-Shopping Tool for Self-Storage Customers: By upickstorage.com

Offering Online Reservations to Self-Storage Customers: Knowing the Options, Choosing a Partner

The Internet as the Best Self-Storage Storefront: Online Payments, Rentals and Account Management

Building and Marketing a Successful Self-Storage Website

San Jose Self-Storage Fire Damages Nearly 70 Units

Jun 01, 2010

A three-alarm fire at a self-storage facility Sunday in San Jose, Calif., burned for about six hours and caused damaged to at least 68 units.

The blaze at Bay Area Self Storage at 6020 Monterey Road was reported just before 7 p.m. Sunday but wasn’t contained until about 1 a.m. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place warning Sunday night due to heavy smoke from the fire, according to the San Jose Fire Department. Anyone within a half-mile of the storage facility was advised to stay indoors. The warning was lifted early Tuesday morning. An officer complained of a headache and sore throat, but no other injuries were reported.

San Jose firefighters Monday finished locating and extinguishing hotspots and remaining smoldering debris. Forty-eight storage units were damaged by flames, and another 20 had smoke and water damage, according to fire officials. The facility has about 470 units total.

Investigators believe the fire may have started in a unit, but the cause has yet to be determined. Tenants are being advised to set up an appointment with Hunter Properties, which owns Bay Area Self Storage, to access their units and determine if any belongings are salvageable, said San Jose Fire Capt. Charles Rangel.

Source: CBS,Crews Mop Up 3-Alarm Fire At SJ Storage Facility

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Luxury Condo Office May Be Converted to Self-Storage in Portland, Ore.

Jun 01, 2010

A $2 million office originally built for luxury condo sales in Portland, Ore., may be converted to a self-storage facility. Built in 2004, the “Discovery Center” was shut down after condo sales flopped; but the residents of the condos that did sell need a place to store their stuff.

Built in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood, the property was developed by Gerding Edlen Development and Williams & Dame Development and designed by Ziba Design. Hennebery Eddy Architects has filed preliminary plans to build a 110,000-square-foot storage facility on the site. The land is still owned by a company affiliated with Gerding Edlen.

Williams & Dame is building another storage facility across town, on the fringe of the Pearl District. It is designed by Holst Architecture.

Source: OregonLive.com, Former South Waterfront condo sales office could become self-service storage

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Canadian Residents in Donald Oppose Self-Storage Project

Jun 01, 2010

Residents in Donald, Ontario, Canada, are opposed to the development of two self-storage buildings behind an old distribution center being renovated, claiming it would alter the flavor of the hamlet.

The proposed development would require a rezoning of the property to “highway commercial.” But residents are worried self-storage units would industrialize the neighborhood.

Along with the proposed self-storage units, owner Jim O'Connor has partnered with Leora Berman, who is heading up a contractors' and green builders co-op to run out of the old distribution building.
The Standard Chemical Co. closed 65 years ago, yet the stigma on the town remains, residents said.

Source: The Echo, Donald Rezoning Will Alter Hamlet: Residents

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The restaurant property is zoned for business use, but surrounded mostly by residential properties.

Source: Herald Standard, Steward Township Self-Storage Business Receives OK

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