How to Hire, Train, and Manage Virtual Assistants for Self-Storage Deal Acquisition

In today’s competitive self-storage investing market, off-market deals are where the true value lies. And while many chase listings on LoopNet or Crexi, StorageLife has built a better strategy: leveraging trained, focused, and high-performing virtual assistants (VAs) to find off-market deals before anyone else sees them.

If you're serious about scaling your portfolio and mastering how to invest in self-storage, this blog will walk you through the exact steps to hire, train, and manage VAs who can drive your deal pipeline forward, so you spend more time closing and less time chasing.

Why Virtual Assistants Are Essential to Off-Market Success

The competition in self-storage investing has never been higher. But most investors look in the same places: listings platforms, brokers, and wholesalers. That’s not where we play.

At StorageLife, led by seasoned self-storage mentor Cameron Barsanti, we focus on building relationships directly with facility owners, and that starts with cold outreach.

Our VAs make over 300 calls a week, dig into skip tracing, manage CRMs, send follow-ups, and surface real opportunities that others never even see. It’s a grind, yes. But it’s one that pays.

And guess what? Most of those deals Cameron has closed, 17 of them and counting, came through a VA-assisted acquisition process.

Step 1: Hiring the Right VA for Storage Acquisition

Not all VAs are built the same. You need someone who isn’t just reliable, but who thrives in the niche world of self-storage investing.

Here’s what to look for:

• Experience with real estate lead generation (cold calling is a huge plus)

• A confident, clear voice that sounds local or neutral to U.S.-based sellers

• A detail-oriented mindset for data entry, skip tracing, and CRM tracking

• Emotional resilience to handle rejection and repeat tasks

StorageLife makes this easier by offering a sister company that provides pre-trained, turnkey self-storage virtual assistants. These VAs already understand the unique language of storage, how to talk to owners, and what a high-value facility looks like.

If you're not using one of our VAs, make sure you vet thoroughly, request call samples, and conduct a live roleplay interview.

Step 2: Training for Targeted Performance

Once you’ve hired a VA, your next priority is onboarding and training.

Cameron’s golden rule: "They are only as good as your direction."

Many investors under-train and over-assign. This leads to confusion, errors, and burnout. Instead, do this:

1. Keep it simple. Break up tasks into distinct categories (cold calling, skip tracing, CRM logging).

2. Use SOPs. Record video walkthroughs and written processes.

3. Repeat your criteria regularly. Don’t assume they remember it all.

4. Start with one focus: train on skip tracing first, then move into outbound calls.

Bonus tip: Have your VA work on priority leads first, facilities without websites, in secondary markets, with signs of mom-and-pop ownership.

Step 3: Managing for Consistency and Results

Hiring and training your VA is only half the battle. Managing them is where the real ROI comes in.

At StorageLife, we use a simple but powerful management framework:

1. Daily and Weekly Check-ins

• A short message every morning (e.g., "Good morning, starting my shift.")

• A weekly Zoom call to review challenges, leads, and provide feedback

2. Tracking KPIs

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. We track:

• Dials made per day/week

• Owners reached

• Quality of conversations

• Follow-ups scheduled

• Verbal offers made

• Written offers submitted

This data tells us what’s working and what’s broken, so we can pivot quickly.

3. Incentives and Rewards

• We give bonuses for leads that turn into deals (up to $1,000)

• Holiday bonuses and random spot rewards keep morale high

• Recognition in team chats or on Zoom goes a long way

4. Performance Reviews

Listen to call recordings. Audit their skip tracing. Catch mistakes early. This isn’t micromanagement, it’s coaching.

Step 4: Giving Them the Tools to Succeed

Your VA’s success depends heavily on the tools and systems you provide.

Here are the essentials:

• CRM platform (Airtable, Monday.com, or HubSpot)

• Power dialer (Mojo or similar)

• Call tracking (CallRail for recording and analytics)

• Google Sheets for KPI tracking

• Script library for common objections and follow-ups

Want to go a level deeper? Pair your VA with a skip tracing service and tools like OutScraper or GMap Extractor to find hidden opportunities.

Step 5: Creating a Culture That VAs Want to Stay In

Here’s what most investors get wrong: they treat VAs like plug-and-play robots.

At StorageLife, we treat them like family. We host holiday parties, check in on their lives, and make them feel like part of the mission. That’s why our best VAs stick around, outperform, and reinvest their loyalty into our success.

You don’t have to go all out. But even a 10-minute chat, a thank-you note, or a small birthday gift can go a long way.

And when your VA sees that your self-storage investing mission is one they believe in, they'll work harder and smarter to help you achieve it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Overloading your VA. Let them master one area before expanding their role.

• Not listening to their calls. You can’t fix what you don’t hear.

• Ignoring your KPIs. Without tracking, you’re flying blind.

• Failing to follow up. The follow-up game is everything in self-storage investing.

• Letting VAs drift. Check their search areas, filter lists, and lead quality regularly.

Why This System Works

This VA framework is the reason StorageLife can find off-market opportunities when others can’t.

It’s how we stay ahead of the self-storage broker list, how we uncover assets in overlooked markets, and how we build rapport before anyone else even makes a call.

We’re not guessing. We’re executing.

And if you want to learn how to buy a self-storage facility without overpaying or relying on brokered deals, this is the blueprint.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're learning how to start a self-storage business, or scaling with self-storage syndication, having a trained and committed VA team gives you leverage others don’t have.

It turns prospecting into a process, removes the manual grind from your day, and helps you focus on closing the right deals.

At StorageLife, we not only teach this strategy through our self-storage mentorship and self-storage investing course, but we live it every single day.

If you want to build a portfolio that produces strong self-storage return on investment, stop waiting for deals to come to you.

Train a team that finds them for you.

Ready to scale with trained virtual assistants? Apply to StorageLife’s mentorship program or tap into our VA network to start stacking deals, not to-do lists.