Selling a Self-Storage Facility in Ohio

Six markets, none dominant

Most states have one metro that sets the tone. Ohio has Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Akron and Toledo — six mid-sized markets with genuinely different demand bases, and a large number of smaller cities besides. Columbus has grown steadily and attracted the most new storage development; Cleveland and Dayton have not; Cincinnati sits between.

For a seller that means state-level or even metro-level data is close to useless, and it also means institutional capital has covered Ohio unevenly. Plenty of good facilities here have never been approached by a buyer who actually understood the submarket.

The opportunity is in rate, not occupancy

Ohio has an unusually high proportion of facilities built in the 1980s and 1990s and held by the original owner or their family ever since. Many are physically full — occupancy in the mid to high nineties — while charging street rates that have barely moved in a decade and running no revenue management at all.

A valuation approach keyed to occupancy reads that as a mature asset with nothing left to give. It is the opposite. A facility that is full at old rates has upside that has simply never been taken, and the size of that gap is often the single largest component of what the asset is actually worth.

We underwrite it explicitly, and we would rather pay you for it than acquire it quietly. If your rates have not changed in years while the submarket has, say so — it improves our number rather than weakening your position.

Property tax and closing costs

Ohio property tax is levy-driven and varies substantially between taxing districts, so two facilities in the same county can carry quite different burdens. Reappraisal and update cycles are set at county level, which means where a facility sits in its cycle affects whether the current bill is representative.

On transfer, Ohio charges a state conveyance fee with an optional county permissive addition. The combined rate is low relative to most states, and closing costs here are not a significant factor in net proceeds.

Delinquencies

Ohio’s self-service storage statutes govern liens and disposal of stored property. Delinquencies in progress are not a problem — we underwrite economic occupancy, so there is no reason to run an auction cycle before selling.