Investing in Real Estate and Self-Storage with Stacy Rossetti

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate show home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne and I’m Attilio. And if you have any question just give us a call at 7999596 or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO: 
Our guest today is a real estate investing expert and coach. She has over 10 years of experience in the real estate industry covering financing, construction, management and acquisitions of self storage facilities and residential properties as well as moving removing chains from the game.

ADRIENNE: 
Today she owns and operates our REI USA, StorageNerds and the Storage Fund of America. Together with her husband Pete they currently own and operate 12 storage facilities throughout Georgia and Florida. Please welcome our guest, Stacy Rossetti!

ATTILIO: 
Hi, Stacy.

STACY: 
Hi, how are you guys?

ATTILIO: 
It goes good. I know. I know I asked you on the other show, but you’re not a professional hoarder or you

STACY: 
know what I know. My husband, he would say I’m one of those ones like every six months or like spring cleaning.

ATTILIO: 
There you go. You know, I just did this the other day, I took everything off a shelf in my garage, throw it all on the floor of the of my garage, but all the stuff back then I really use them one. And then the rest of it. I dropped it off and kidneys, whatever Donation Center. It was very, it was very

STACY: 
glad to do that. It’s like this

ATTILIO: 
moment. But alright, so storage. Everybody in America has either either got something in storage, or they’ve had something in storage at one time or another. We have a lot of stuff as American. Yeah, that’s what the forgot the comedian who said that.

STACY: 
America has a disease. It’s called consumerism,

ATTILIO: 
consumerism. And there’s no vaccination for it, you know? And so how did you get into this business?

STACY:
So actually, I rehabbed home for five homes for five years. And then I did 100 homes during that time, so I was like, wandering around like a crazy person. And then I got pregnant. And when I got pregnant, I was like, Okay, there’s just no way I’m gonna do this with this little baby, and I really just wanted to stay home and just be with her anyways. Yeah, so I started looking around for passive income, and luckily, my robes or he found a storage facility that was like, like, 20 minutes away from my house. Like I do that. So I drove over, and I took a look at it. And the facility, the very first facility that I bought, was like, when you drove up to it, there was like a mountain of tires sitting on the outside. And then when you looked into the facility, I looked into it. And there were like, cars just parked randomly, wherever there was trash wherever. And I was like, and I was thinking to myself, Man, this looks good. I was there like a storage facility for so long.

ATTILIO: 
And buzzard circulated above.

STACY: 
Yes, yeah, there were there was like it was it was actually we I called the EPA, when we bought the facility I called the EPA and I was like, Look, I think we have a disaster here. We got like tires everywhere. And it took them like it took them like a year to come out and take a look at the facility and there were like they had counted like 1000s of tires that were just dump all around the storage facility. So the owner had totally mismanaged it. In the end, they came up and they cleaned every single tire up.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, you know, and eight bucks per tire disposal fee.

STACY: 
Yeah, you gotta call the EPA

ATTILIO: 
called EPA next time, EPA, called EPA. You are and you still need storage units today.

STACY: 
Yeah, so we own that storage facility. That was a very, very good deal. So I picked that bill up for $250,000. Nice, and it’s now worth $1.5 million.

ADRIENNE: 
Wow.

STACY: 
That’s a very good deal. Yes. And that Sure I haven’t been to that facility in two years. My husband goes on like my cousin goes on a quarterly basis. basis, but I haven’t been there in a couple of years.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. People running it is cash flowing. What’s the cap on that?

STACY: 
No. So we bought it out like, so we bought it at probably like a negative two cap, because it was it’s a hunt. It was 120 units. Yeah. But it was only making like, $20,000 a year. So now it’s making like, $120,000.

ADRIENNE: 
Good job by turning that around, Stacy.

STACY: 
Yeah, that’s, that’s what we do that was like we buy like crappy storage facilities and fix them up.

ATTILIO: 
Now, let’s talk about all the other resources that you Okay, so how many of these you own already? How many of these you bought?

STACY: 
So we actually have 13. So we own 11, personally, and then we have two in our fund. So far, we’re working on trying to pick up two more.

ADRIENNE: 
So let’s talk about this fund, and how maybe if our listeners are, you know, wanting to dabble in this storage facility investments, how they can also how can they get involved and owner? Oh, and

ATTILIO: 
by the way, for your listeners, we never let you know, very, our rule of thumb is we always like to give advice, we follow ourselves. And what do I mean by that? Regarding this, Adrian?

ADRIENNE: 
Oh, that until you and I are investors with Stacy, that we’ve given some money towards this storage funds? And, yeah, I’m really

ATTILIO: 
excited to share the benefits of it with our listeners.

ADRIENNE: 
So let’s talk about

STACY: 
that. Yeah. Yes. So we Yeah, so we have the fund where it’s called the Self Storage Fund of America. And basically, really what it is, is just because in the storage industry, there’s three different types of facilities, there’s like a million dollars or less. And then there’s a million to $3 million facilities. And then it’s like $3 million, or more, and the three to $3 million or more, there’s like the huge big players and are going and buying 50,000 square feet of building and they got lots of money, and we got the newbies that are coming in, and they only have like, you know, $100,000 we’re buying a little tiny facilities. But you have this like this, like this, like, sweet spot in the industry where there’s like one to $3 million facilities that sometimes are even mismanaged facilities like the ones the one that I told you, I bought the first one. And, and but they can’t get funded, because like a bank is not going to fund them because they need too much work or they’re not producing what they should be producing, you know, and in storage, it’s really asset based lending, you know, it’s based on what the property can, can make. And so we created this fun, because we come across so many types of these facilities, that you know, we need money, we need cash in order to buy these so that we can stabilize them. And then once we stabilize them, we can refund them out, if we fire them out. And so that’s the purpose of the fund is to is to really just buy them with cash stabilized and refinance, refi them out and then hold on to them for a couple of years before we dispose of them.

ATTILIO: 
Gotcha. And for your listeners out there, if you invest today, or sometime in the future with with Stacy, she’s gonna send you a hat and all that hat is gonna say, making storage facilities. Great Again.

STACY: 
already great. I don’t know what the value they’re already great.

ADRIENNE: 
Yeah. But you take those ones that are not great. And you make them great.

ATTILIO: 
Yes. No, that’s what

STACY: 
I’m saying. Yeah. So that’s why I think I’ve been storage is like the best kept secret in the industry. But don’t tell anybody about it. Okay, please. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
So all our listeners, just lower the radio down. Turn it down, turn the podcast down. Don’t share this with anybody on social media.

STACY: 
This is keeping our secret.

ATTILIO: 
Yes. So great opportunity for people to invest what

ADRIENNE: 
you have some room for additional investors for these other facilities that you’ve identified, correct?

STACY: 
Yes. Yes, of course. Yeah, we’re trying to raise I’m trying to raise $8 million, we have actually two more facilities we’re trying to raise money for one of them is a $1.4 million facility that we’re going to be able to just all we’re going to do is just increase the price or increase the rents and take it to 3.3 million. And then the other one is 2.4 million, but we’re actually going to get this one owner financed, which is really cool. And so we need the down payment for that. It’s $700,000. So I’m going to raise the money for the 700 Grand and then the owner is going to finance it himself. So I don’t even have to go to the bank. You know, because going to the bank, you know right now obviously everybody knows interest rates are high. So sometimes bills are just harder to be met. So when the owner can finance it themselves, that really kind of helps out. So he’s financing this one. And we’re going to take it from two point 4 million to 5.6 million. And that’s gonna take, it’s gonna take a little bit more work than just raising the rents. But it’s actually it’s an indoor climate control facility in Florida. Super, super nice.

ATTILIO: 
And then the bigger fund this 70 million, that’s first off, you go out there and identify stuff and pick them up right away.

STACY: 
Yeah, so we’re just like, the goal for this year for the fund is to, to buy between four and six facilities. So we have the two right now. And then we’re raising money for a couple more as well. Yeah. The fund is four. So

ADRIENNE: 
where Stacy, where can our listeners go? To find out more about your availability? I know every Monday you are doing some kind of a training and you know, the anyone can ask questions. So where can they go to get more information about what you’re doing?

STACY: 
So go to Stacyrossetti.com. And when you go to stacyrossetti.com, you’ll see like, I do a free, I basically teach people how to invest in self storage. So if you’re listening right now, and you’re like, you know what I really want to get into storage, and hop on the Monday night sessions, and I just teach for free. All right. And then also also on that website is the fund information. So you can just click on the fund, and you’ll see the Salesforce front of America there. And then there’s all buttons, there’s a whole bunch of other goodies there. There’s all kinds of free stuff, free trainings, you can do that as well. So I think Stacy was ready.com is just like the place to go to.

ATTILIO: 
You were saying this, and this sparked a memory in my mind, Adrienne and I remember we were at a mastermind in San Diego. And then everybody was going around the table sharing what the one guy share.

ADRIENNE: 
Oh, like he talked all about buying storage storage facilities, RV parks,

ATTILIO: 
stuff like that. But storage facilities was the big thing he was talking about. Do we act upon it? That was like before COVID

ADRIENNE: 
I was like, right before COVID I want to say it was like 2019 Maybe 2020? Do we act upon it? No, but we wanted to it was like the you know, in our own but

ATTILIO: 
here’s the point. Here’s the point. It’s like you go see Arnold and Arnold said, How do I get big muscles? Like you know, then he goes, all you got to do is pump iron. Then you just walk away? No, you’re gonna gonna look like it. That’s it. That’s all the advice even though Arnold looks like he does and you need more information like that. You need guidance. You need feedback. You need coaching. You need Steven Stacy Rossetti. That’s right storage nerd of America.

STACY: 
Torture Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so yeah, if you’re if you’re like listening, you’re like yeah, I want to learn how to be a storage nerd then just just check out like Stacyrossetti.com or check out storage nerd. That’s my coaching program. Nice. And I can guide you and show you what to do. Really?

ATTILIO: 
Yeah.

ADRIENNE: 
Now I know that you’re it’s limited. You only take 20 students at a time. Yeah, right. And it’s only going to be open in the next few days. So this is not something that you just you know, if you don’t act upon it now you might not get a spot for this.

ATTILIO: 
I also noticed people are thinking oh, there’s hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of dollars UFC you got like hey, somebody can come in and come into it. 25,000 All right.

STACY: 
Yeah, no, it’s actually it’s just like it starts at $6,000 Oh wow, not that expensive

ATTILIO: 
you know why that’s a family of five going to the movies $6,000 Yes, we hours of Avatar or invest in a storage you know, storage fund. I think you should invest in the storage funds get the movies this weekend.

STACY: 
Yeah, yeah. And then you can Yeah, so actually will the coaching glasses as a coach and coach is always clear, the coaching program is $6,000 Invest in yourself $25,000 Yeah. So either one but you know, you can always just contact contact us and we can clear it up for you if you’re having questions.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. And 20 That’s not that much. I mean, people are racking that up on their credit cards if they stopped doing that put the money aside and get out of that hole folks, we’re giving you a very simple easy solution we’ve we’ve vetted out Stacy because we’ve been we’ve personally invested and we’re excited to be in partnership with her and tapping into her expertise and you know, she’s like the president of the Hair Club for Men not only she’s a president she’s a member because she owned storage facilities

ADRIENNE:
and she’s also an investor in the fine investor. Yeah, so yeah, she has skin in the game we’re all

ATTILIO: 
in this boat together called Making storage facilities great again yes, if you run for president I’ll be your campaign manager. But

STACY: 
you’re gonna die you’re gonna create the hat design the house yes.

ATTILIO: 
Yes. And the it’s a war on storage in America

STACY: 
it’s not the Storage Wars, the war on storage that’s

ATTILIO: 
it. That’s just convenient always say you know, all these presidents they always do like a war and everything and then it’s still going because it never really was a war on drugs, war on poverty. Or in storage. Yeah, maybe she’d do a piece on war. Peace on war would have already worked better.

STACY: 
Yeah. Yeah, I’m gonna like make love now. or

ATTILIO: 
that’s it. So you know talk about recession proof of these storage units because it seems like no matter what’s going on with the economy people got stuff in storage

STACY: 
it’s like what it’s called we call it was we don’t see recession proof, we think recession resistance. Right. But like basically an upturn, you can make money in storage and and also in a downturn, and it really do that just by adjusting your prices, you know, and then, you know, just as long as you don’t overpay for a facility, you know, really, you know, you know, really, really, you’re pretty sound and the investment, right? I haven’t heard that. But I rarely ever, like you rarely, rarely ever hear of like storage facilities going into foreclosure. Yeah. Like you never hear of this at all. And I’m gonna like one time, like, I think maybe five or six years ago, there was like a, there was one facility that came up for auction. And everybody was like, everybody in their town was like bidding on this thing, you know, but that was like the only time that’s ever heard of like, an off like a storage facility coming up for auction.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, because you can you can, I mean, you can make money right? I mean, it’s a box and people throwing stuff in it. And what you found is that you get in that you identify these local for me because I know as to your you’re not you’re not picking up these corporate on one or these franchise on one these are like yeah,

STACY: 
yeah, there’s a mom and pop. Yeah, they’re just little tiny ones are not like super big ones or whatever. So I’d be I cater, I cater to like the secondary market or the tertiary market. We’re not in any primary market at all.

ATTILIO: 
I think people you know, you didn’t want to end foreclosures. Bobby, the kids inherit intellect. We run in that thing. There’s like, 5000 tires down there.

STACY: 
Right, exactly. And, you know, and then he was like, the owner, he’s because he had the very first one that we bought, he had it listed for $500,000. And he was trying to sell it. He’d been trying to sell it for 500. And I told them, I told the guy his name was his name was Butch. And I was like, gorgeous, like, nobody’s gonna buy this for 5000 or $5,000. Yeah, all right. Nobody’s gonna buy. I was like, so I’m gonna give you an offer. And it’s gonna kind of hurt a little bit. But you know, this offer, I think, you know, it’s gonna be a good offer for you. And so he said, What is it? And I said, 250 grand? And he was like, No, I’m not doing that. And then he called me back later. And he said, Stacy, he said, I talked to my wife and she really wants to move to Florida. So we’re gonna take her to her degree. Wow.

ATTILIO: 
That’s it never know. Right to offer. Wow. Well, you offer an offer. I’m hearing all you people are listening to this, you know, it’s like a million bucks for average home here. So I know what they’re thinking right now. They’re gonna be like, I’m gonna call up Stacy. I’m gonna buy one of these storage facilities. And then I’m gonna live in it because it’s just gonna be like a house with a 6060 garages,

ADRIENNE: 
although some of them do. Some of them do have residential.

ATTILIO: 
Second floor, they got the

STACY: 
the one that we bought in the fund, the very first one that we bought, it comes with a house and an apartment. Be surprised that people would be like, where’s the house out live in the apartment or something?

ATTILIO: 
That’d be like, I mean, Alabama, Airbnb. 30 bucks a night. Secure room.

STACY: 
Secure, way too many Airbnbs on the market.

ATTILIO: 
I know. When you start air being being storages, we got a big problem. But that’s like

STACY: 
something they’re gonna do. That’s what they do in California.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. The prices they’re so crazy. I wouldn’t be surprised. I don’t know. I see as I go running by this one storage unit. I see people out there. Like they’ve got the chair set up. It’s like they’re picnicking in front of their storage.

STACY: 
Right. Yeah. But yeah, there’s a Yeah, we have some crazy stuff going on. And some in our storage facilities, you know, some music cameras and stuff. But we’ve had some crazy stuff. It’s pretty funny. Yeah, we, we finally we got, we bought one where that one, like somebody was living in one of the units, then we had to kick her out. And we felt like really bad because she didn’t have any place to go. So we found a place for her to stay like, like a home, like, whatever, a home or whatever. But I tell my husband, he’s like, super nice. But um, you know, and actually, people are just, you know, people are really, like, people are just getting a little bit desperate to like, they’re just having a hard time. Like, they don’t know where to stay. And we had one. We had one storage facility where like, my husband pulled up, manages all of our facilities. So he pulled up to the facility. And there was like two people just like, oh, they hadn’t they had one unit open. And they were just like, going through everything. Yeah. And he was like, What are y’all doing? And he was like, Oh, he was like, Oh, I thought we could just come in and take this stuff or whatever. And he’s like, this is somebody’s stuff. Yeah. And the lady was there, like a lady was there and she was like, I told you, we shouldn’t be here. And he was like, look what’s going on. He’s like, okay, we’re just trying to find some stuff that we could sell or whatever. He’s like, why don’t you do this? He’s like, why don’t you put all this stuff back into this? Storage, everything even at your car, everything, put it back into the storage so I can lock it back up. And then if you need money, you can come over here and pick all this trash up that I need over here and I will give you some money for picking that trash up.

ADRIENNE: 
And they are when when all the trash

STACY: 
dump trailer so that he can take it on.

ATTILIO: 
We got more we’re the bar for this country in the world. We’ve got more people incarcerated than any other nation. So thanks for being part of the solution. Well, you know, so thanks so much for being on the show. People can invest in the fun people can get some coaching. You know, our stuff goes all over the mainland. So if you

ADRIENNE: 
can attend the webinars every Monday help bird dogs. Yeah.

STACY: 
Or they can invest like especially all because you guys are I mean, I’m telling you, we’re buying facilities for like, I just picked up one and the fund was $375,000. And it’s going to be worth like $2 million when we’re done with it. You know, so you guys, if y’all have any extra money over there,

ATTILIO: 
let’s go folks. No time. Go time for the storage units. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show.

STACY: 
Thank you guys. Y’all take care. Okay, you too. All right.

ATTILIO: 
So it’s Stacyrosetti.com Stacyrossetti.com. If you need more information, you just just Google team Lally will point you in the right direction. And because maybe you need a house to sell to get into this storage units and you’re tired of the land the tenants or, or maybe the family that’s living there, they’re not paying the rent. But anyway, speaking of family, we want people to join but you’re going to read a review.

ADRIENNE: 
Yes, before the show ends, we want to talk about a recent client that we helped Candace Decker and her review, I would, I would highly recommend Team Lally and Lee Williams to anyone seeking a home in the islands. When our family decided to accept a new job transfer to Hawaii. We reached out to Team Lally because we knew interested Adrienne Lally from our time in the military together. She introduced us to Lee, who immediately won our trust and put us at ease. In the home search process. She helped us to determine what we needed and wanted in a new home and set up a search and gave us a strong list of possibilities. Then when Shawn came out on a 10 day house hunting trip, she had made all the arrangements to see the houses found further info neighborhoods, routes to work and other details that allowed us to make a better informed choice. When we made offers team Lally and their business partners put together offer packages financing insurance needed, and other things so smoothly. We had didn’t need to stress even when the initial purchase failed at the last minute. At no fault of the team, they advise us on other options helped us find the right place at the right price even as the market conditions were changing drastically. And Lee was a constant source of encouragement as we started to get disheartened from our lengthy search. When we found our new home Lee and the other members of Team Lally plus the financing and title company representatives worked hard to close the deal. Mahalo

ATTILIO: 
All right. That was a really long review. Thank you, Candace. I think maybe your fingers are cramping up with typing that up. But we really appreciate that because you very rarely get those long reviews like that and very detailed, very detailed. There was a heartfelt transaction. Thank you, Lee for giving the awesome service that team Lally does All right.

ADRIENNE: 
Thank you for listening and thank you to our sponsors.

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