If you've owned your facility for ten years or more, you already know something most people don't:
Running a self-storage business sounds passive from the outside. From the inside, it never really is.
There's always something. A gate that needs fixing. A tenant who's three months behind and you can't bring yourself to lock them out because you've known them since their kids were small. A rate structure you haven't touched in years because raising prices on people you know feels wrong — even when you know the numbers don't add up anymore.
And somewhere underneath all of it, a question you haven't said out loud to very many people:
Is there a way out of this that doesn't cost me everything I spent a lifetime building?
The brokers who've called you don't have that answer. They have a commission structure and a closing timeline. The REITs sending you letters don't have it either. They have a formula — and you're a line item in it.
What nobody has done — until now — is sit down with you and lay out every legitimate option available to a long-time owner. Not to sell you something. Not to rush you toward a decision. Just to make sure that whatever you decide, you decide it with the full picture in front of you.
That's exactly what this guide does.
And there's one option in particular that most owners in your position have never had properly explained to them — one that can create reliable monthly income for years, dramatically reduce your tax exposure, and let you walk away from the day-to-day responsibility of that facility without walking away from the financial security it represents.
It's called seller financing. And by the time you finish reading, you'll understand exactly what it means for your situation — in plain English, with real numbers, and no pressure.
- The three realistic exit paths available to long-time storage owners — including the honest pros and cons of each one that brokers never volunteer
- The tax ambush that blindsides most owners who sell outright — and the little-known IRS provision (Section 453) that legally spreads that liability across years instead of crushing you in a single filing
- Why carrying the note yourself often puts significantly more total money in your pocket than a traditional cash sale — with real numbers, not vague promises
- Exactly what happens if a buyer ever stops paying — and why a properly structured deal means you never permanently lose what you built
- The reputable third-party servicers who handle every payment, statement, and year-end tax form — so a monthly deposit arrives in your account without you lifting a finger
- The conversation you may need to have with your children about the facility's future — and how to have it honestly, without guilt, without conflict
Here is the only thing on this page that carries any urgency — and it has nothing to do with a deadline or a limited-time offer.
It has to do with what waiting actually costs.
Every month you continue running the facility at below-market rates — and most long-time owners are, because raising prices on people you know feels wrong — is money that doesn't come back. Every month the decision gets deferred is another month of gate calls, tenant disputes, and mental overhead that you have been carrying, quietly, for years.
The market that existed in 2021 and 2022 — when self-storage facilities were trading at historically unusual multiples — has corrected. It is not coming back to those levels, at least not soon. Waiting for it to return is a strategy, but it's worth knowing clearly that it is a gamble, not a plan.
What seller financing offers is something the 2021 market never could: a structure that doesn't depend on perfect timing, a hot market, or a lump sum you then have to invest wisely in conditions that aren't exactly predictable.
It offers income. Consistent, monthly, hands-off income — for years.
The guide is free. It costs you nothing to read it. But the decision you make — or keep putting off — has a real price attached to it.
My name is Dave Torres. I'm not a broker. I'm not a REIT. I'm not a corporation sending you a form letter with a number and a deadline.
I'm a recently retired elementary school teacher — 32 years in the classroom. For three decades, my job was taking complicated things and explaining them in plain language until the person across from me actually understood. Not sort-of understood. Actually understood.
That's still my job. It just looks different now.
You figured out the hard part already. You built something real, something that runs, something that has value. What I do is help long-time owners like you exit that asset on their own terms — with clarity, with the right structure, and without leaving money on the table.
The one completed transaction I'll point to involved five co-owners — all of them in their late seventies and eighties. The facility had stopped producing income. It had become a burden none of them knew how to put down. I kept the deal together when it got difficult, and every one of them walked away with exactly the price I had promised.
Your situation is likely nothing like that. Your facility probably still runs. You're not in crisis — you're just trying to figure out the right exit on your own terms.
If I could get that done, I can certainly help you with this.
If you want to sit with the guide for six months before you call me, that's fine. If you want to share it with your children or your accountant first, please do. If you want to pick up the phone just to ask questions with no obligation whatsoever, I welcome that too.
The facility you built deserves a serious, thoughtful buyer. And you deserve someone who isn't just chasing a commission.
I'd be honored to be that person.
Whether you work with me or anyone else, here is what a properly structured seller-financed transaction must include. If a buyer can't confirm every one of these, walk away.
- ✓A purchase agreement reviewed by your own independent real estate attorney — not the buyer's attorney
- ✓A promissory note specifying exact payment terms, interest rate, and duration
- ✓A deed of trust or mortgage recorded against the property — so your financial interest is legally secured for the life of the note
- ✓A third-party loan servicer handling all payment collection, statements, and year-end tax documents
- ✓A meaningful down payment — typically 10 to 20 percent — ensuring the buyer has real skin in the game from day one
- ✓Clear default provisions — so you know exactly what your remedies are if payments ever stop
I include all of it. In writing. Before anyone signs anything.