Inside My Self-Storage Acquisition Pipeline: How I Find, Track, and Close Deals
- StorageLife
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read

If you're trying to crack the code on self-storage investing, you’re not alone. Whether you're just figuring out how to start a self-storage business or you're deep in the weeds scaling a portfolio, building a smart and scalable acquisition pipeline is critical. At StorageLife, we coach investors through this every day in our self-storage mentorship programs—and in this post, we’re breaking down our exact process.
Cold Calling Still Dominates
Let’s start with what’s working right now. Believe it or not, old-school cold calling remains the most effective way we find deals. Despite all the digital strategies available, nothing beats a real voice-to-voice connection when you're trying to build rapport and create opportunities.
Our funnel looks like this:
Market Selection – Choose target markets using cap rate data, competition, and demand trends. (Need help? Our self-storage cap rate by state guide is a great starting point.)
VA Skip Tracing – Virtual Assistants gather phone numbers and ownership info.
Cold Calling – Calls are made during optimized hours (2–4 PM is our sweet spot).
Lead Categorization – Leads are tracked in Podio as cold, warm, or hot.
Acquisition Follow-Up – Hot leads get escalated to our acquisition lead, Michael, who works the deal until it's either closed or dead.
Roles That Drive the Pipeline
Our team at StorageLife includes:
Michael (Head of Acquisitions) – He handles hot leads, builds strong seller rapport, and negotiates offers. Michael’s strengths lie in phone presence and deal structuring, a key component of self-storage investing.
VAs (Virtual Assistants) – They call owners, collect info, input leads into Podio, and maintain contact notes. We constantly train and refine their scripts through our self-storage mastermind.
This team setup keeps our pipeline moving and ensures that high-potential leads don’t fall through the cracks.
Podio CRM: The Backbone of Our Process
One of the best upgrades we ever made was moving our tracking from Google Sheets to Podio CRM.
We customized Podio to handle every stage of the deal:
Leads → Interested → Offers → Closing
Built-in task reminders and follow-up prompts
Future drip campaigns (texts/emails) ready to deploy
Internal cap rate calculator set to 7–9% standard (generally)
This upgrade has helped automate tedious data entry, prevent dropped leads, and dramatically improve how we analyze a self-storage deal.
What’s Working
Here’s what’s clicking in our system:
Strong phone rapport and offer negotiation
Clear process for qualifying and closing hot leads
CRM automation handling follow-ups and notes
Our best deals often come from owners who initially “wanted too much.” After consistent follow-up, many became reasonable - and we closed 6–7 deals last year through this exact approach.
Where We’re Still Improving
Every system has its weak points. Here’s where we’ve struggled:
Inconsistent follow-up: Missed follow-ups have cost us deals in the past. Podio helps, but only if we use it.
VA turnover: Training new VAs from scratch slows us down.
Limited marketing diversity: We haven’t fully leveraged websites, emails, or retargeting ads yet.
We’re fixing this by testing more outreach strategies, improving onboarding, and applying lessons from our self-storage investing course to tighten the system.
Cold Calling by the Numbers
Cold calling is more than just deal hunting - it’s long-term data building.
We’ve compiled a growing list of “mom-and-pop” facility owners.
Some said no at first but became future sellers after seeing our persistence.
We use every call to improve our understanding of self-storage as an investment in that market.
If you're wondering how to invest in self-storage without capital, cold calling and wholesaling deals can be a great entry point. We talk about this a lot in our self-storage investing course.
Marketing Beyond the Phone
While the phones still crush it, we’re now treating every owner touchpoint as part of a full campaign:
Mailers: A great self-storage marketing letter can warm up leads before the call.
Email Drip Sequences: Soon to be automated via Podio.
Website: We’re building a simple site with deal examples, video intro, and lead capture.
Gifts & Personal Touches: Sometimes we send gift baskets after a great call. Relationship capital matters.
The point? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. What worked three years ago might not work tomorrow.
Keep the Follow-Up Flowing
The #1 mistake in self-storage investing? Dropping the ball on follow-up.
A simple but consistent process will beat a complex, untracked one every time. Our follow-up system includes:
Weekly review of hot leads
Auto-reminders to check in
Texts and emails for leads who go dark
You don’t need fancy tools to do this. Just be consistent. Follow-up is where trust is built—and deals are closed.
Lessons for New Investors
If you’re just learning how to buy a self-storage facility, here’s what we recommend:
Focus on one or two strategies (e.g., cold calling + mail).
Don’t worry about perfection. Track everything and improve weekly.
Build systems around your strengths - if you’re not great on the phone, hire someone who is.
And of course, get plugged into a self-storage mentor community. Whether that’s our self-storage mastermind or another group, don’t do this alone.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Keep It Moving
Success in self-storage investing isn’t about having the most complicated system. It’s about building a repeatable process, tracking every step, and showing up consistently.
If you can do that - whether you’re using Podio, a spreadsheet, or sticky notes—you’ll outpace 90% of the people who want to get into this space but never commit.
And if you want to shortcut the learning curve, we’ve got resources to help:
Our comprehensive self-storage investing course
A self-storage broker list to connect you with top agents
Guidance on risks of self-storage investing and how to avoid them
Let’s go find your next deal. Or your first.
Comments