The Storage Investor Show
Learn how to turn your cash into cash flow with self-storage and small bay industrial. If it has a roll-up door, The Storage Investor Show covers it. Your host, Kris Bennett, will ask the right questions to help you find, fund, and close your next deal. New episodes every Tuesday.
The Storage Investor Show
TOP Self Storage Data Providers You Need to Know (a brief review)
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DESCRIPTION
Unlock the secrets to mastering your self-storage investments by choosing the right data provider. What if the key to your next successful acquisition or operational strategy is hidden within the right data platform? This episode promises to guide you through the landscape of top-tier providers, such as Yardi Matrix and Radius Plus, to ensure you make well-informed decisions.
ABOUT KRIS
Kris has closed $130M+ in self-storage deals and expanded 200,000+ SF since 2021. He hosts The Storage Investor Show, interviewing industry leaders. A guest speaker at UNC Kenan-Flagler, he helps investors achieve financial goals through storage investing.
Follow him at @thekrisbennett or https://storageinvestorshow.com/
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Self-storage data providers which is the right one for you. So I'm going to cover the main storage data providers out there, kind of give you the pros and cons, which one I like to use, and feedback I've gotten from other folks, so let's start with that real quick. So I ran an informal poll on LinkedIn. The question was which platform do you use to evaluate self-storage deals? I gave four options, because that's the limit. It's four. And last place was Yardi Matrix with 13%. Storetrack and Track Q were pretty much tied at 21 and 20% respectively, and then Radius Plus came out way ahead at 46%, had about 128 votes. Also, in the comments, some folks recommended PropRiseai. I've had them as a guest on the podcast in the past, so check them out. I've also had Track Q on the podcast in the past, so check them out. I've also had TrackedIQ sponsor the podcast in the past, so give those guys a shout out and check them out as well. Radius Plus is always so generous with data. Those guys are great providers as well. This video is not sponsored, so let's get right into it, all right.
Speaker 0:So there's a lot of data providers out there. Some have been around for a very long time, some are a little bit more new to the industry. The older ones in my mind are Yardi Matrix that's really one of the older ones and then StoreTrack as well. So Yardi Matrix I've used that for a very long time that is built for acquisitions. The way I look at all these data providers is Radius, tractiq all of them, except for Yardi Matrix. They have a lot of overlap as far as like the data that they provide, like square feet per person, new construction permits in the area. You know a number of other pieces of information. But I look at all the others as built for operations management, where you can look at rates and kind of determine those things really well. I look at Yardi Matrix as more built for acquisitions. They will still have some overlap in the data, but Yardi Matrix sets itself apart because they provide ownership data, meaning the true owner, no LLCs and all that.
Speaker 0:If you know how to look up data, it's a process. How to look up owners, it's a process. If you want to call them, mail to them, whatever. We'll get into that right now. But the point is that Yardi provides that data for you instantaneously. If you click on ABC storage on 123 Main Street, it will have the owner's name, their actual name and their phone number and their address typically their home address and typically a cell phone number and if it's incorrect they will get it for you and correct it within 72 hours. So that's a huge pro of URD Matrix. They also have like loan data as well, which some of the other providers have that information also, like, for example, radius Plus, will provide the LLC information, but they often won't have the actual, true owner information. You still have to kind of search and dig for that. They all have ownership data, excuse me, they all have management data like rates and all that kind of stuff that overlap that will kind of be pretty close Population growth metrics, square feet per person metrics, those types of things. But Yardi has that actual owner information that you can then use to call and send mailers to.
Speaker 0:In my mind, yardi is built for acquisitions and finding deals is built for acquisitions and finding deals. The others are built for operations and finding locations if you want to purchase, and giving some kind of behind the scenes information on rates and all that kind of stuff if you're trying to determine whether a deal makes sense or not as far as your underwriting is concerned. The one interesting thing about Tract IQ is they do provide construction, new construction data, meaning the way I would do it is I would typically go like on Radius Plus and Yardi Matrix look at the square feet per person or the supply, look at the potential demand of like population growth and all that. Their numbers are not always the same. They're very close but not always the same. It's good to get like some varying, some different opinions or some different data on the same area, because you can know if it's, generally speaking, trending in the right direction. In other words, if one data provider says, yes, the population is growing here, and then you look at another data provider and they generally say the same thing, then you know okay, I probably have the right information. What I would then do is go to realtorcom and check the new home construction in the area and see are their homes being built? Is the area actually growing with population? If so, then I can know that, okay, I'm. Is the area actually growing with population? If so, then I can know that, okay, I'm on the right track here with this market, with this location. I do believe the population is growing and I have evidence of that because of new homes being built in the area.
Speaker 0:Track Q takes that a step further, where they give you multifamily data. They give you commercial construction data, all the stuff, so you can actually see where these locations are that are coming to the market and you can kind of put that stuff in your OM, if you like, to your offering memorandum to investors et cetera. So I haven't used StoreTrack quite as much. It's pretty low barrier to entry. I know that I haven't used StoreTrack quite as much. A lot of people swear by it. They rely on that data for their management and their operations. Which of people swear by it? They rely on that data for their management and their operations, which I think makes a ton of sense.
Speaker 0:I would probably, if I could afford it, use more than one data source. All of these data sources are pretty inexpensive, the most expensive being Yardi Matrix. They put you on a year-long contract basically, where the others are not built. Typically that way it's month-to-month, as far as I know, at least, as of the making of this video and podcast episode. So Yardi Matrix, built for acquisitions in my mind, gives you the true ownership data. It will give you the other data like rents and kind of that kind of stuff as well, but it's not quite as robust on that end.
Speaker 0:For that I would use any of the other providers Radius Plus, track Q, et cetera and they can give you that supply and demand information, rental rate information at a really high level and really granular level if you'd like to get that as well. So again, they all have some overlap. Your already matrix bill for acquisitions the trade-off is your already matrix is the most expensive. They lock you in for a year and it is what it is. The others are pretty low barrier to entry either. Like radius plus, you can pay per hour of use, which is great, and the more hours you purchase, the lower the cost. The others are on like a monthly subscription, I believe, if I'm if I'm not mistaken, but they're all like fairly low barrier to entry if you want to use their data.
Speaker 0:So I'd recommend using more than one source so you can kind of double check yourself as well to make sure that you're not missing something. Because I have seen on rare occasion you already let's just give you an example you already might have a location that they're showing as permitted or new construction or whatever, and then Radius didn't have that information, or vice versa. I've had it where Radius is showing something that's you know, under construction or permitted or whatever, and then Yardi Matrix is missing that data. So it's good to use both if possible. And then ultimately, when you're doing your due diligence and you actually have a deal under contract, you can call the planning and zoning department and make sure that you're not missing something just because you're looking at a data provider, because sometimes there could be a bit of lag between where the data hits their desk and when they actually put it into their system so that you can see it on your screen. So hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker 0:But I would go. If I'm looking to buy deals, I'm looking to try and talk to owners and reach out to owners, definitely try to scrounge up the money to uh, purchase a subscription to yarding matrix. If I'm just trying to like review deals that maybe are coming from brokers and I'm relying on the broker network extensively or maybe my own personal network, something to that effect I think going with your radius plus store track one of those guys would be completely fine. With prop rise, I haven't used it yet. Just confess and be straight forward with you guys in this video heard a lot of good things about it PropRise, from what I understand, and having the guys on the podcast, you can basically back into sites.
Speaker 0:So instead of like looking and seeing, like if you pull up Radius Plus, for example, you can see where all the storage is located and you can say, okay, well, we don't want to put it near all these guys, we'll put it in there. All these guys will put it over here. We'll try and find a site over here in this location and you go about it that way. You can go about it the reverse way, where you say, okay, let me put into all my criteria and then you tell me data provider, you tell me PropRise, where I should actually build a facility in these markets, so one of them in my mind. I kind of think of like top down, because I open up the system and I look at the map and I'm like way out here at bird's eye, like Google Maps and I can see all the locations and I kind of drill into a location. The other way that PropRise does it, you can put in all of your data and information, that you demographic information of what you want as far as the trade area and all that, and PropRise will tell you kind of from the bottom up. Here's a great location and then you can kind of zoom out and see where the others are located, your competitors could be located and the rest of the market. So that's kind of how I think of that. So give those guys a try if you're looking to develop or build any facilities across the US.
Speaker 0:So all right, guys. That's it for this video. Hope that helps you out. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. Also, let me know what provider you guys are using Love to hear from you. That's it.