How to read a self-storage investment
Rent collected is where storage income starts, not where it ends. Operating bills, loan payments, and the repairs waiting down the road each take a cut before anything reaches you. Put your own costs in and the calculator walks the money through all of them.
Start with collected rent
In the basic view, units × monthly rent × 12 × occupancy gives annual rental revenue. Read the occupancy field as the share of potential rent that reaches the bank, after vacancy, concessions, and accounts that never pay. Physical occupancy counts rented units, and a rented unit with an unpaid account brings in nothing. If sizes and prices vary a lot, use the detailed inputs and tie the result back to the rent roll and bank records.
Separate the property's income from your return
Net operating income, or NOI, is collected income minus operating expenses: taxes, insurance, management, utilities, marketing, software, and routine maintenance. Cap rate is annual NOI divided by price. Debt-service coverage, or DSCR, holds NOI up against your scheduled loan payments. Cash-on-cash compares annual cash flow with the cash you put into the deal.
The cash-flow result is annual, for the whole facility. Take out reserves and any capital work that isn't in there yet, and handle income taxes on their own. Someone has to run the place, so keep a management cost in the budget even when that someone is you. The expense and financing figures loaded here are example numbers, not a forecast or a loan offer.
Run a softer year before you commit
Pull collections down but leave the fixed bills alone; taxes and insurance don't shrink because units emptied. In advanced mode, keep those costs in dollars and see how much extra cash the year needs. Your move: line that cushion up before closing, and a slow quarter turns into a plan you already have. A full facility can still return very little if the price, the debt, or the repair bill runs too high.
The storage-income walkthrough follows a 200-unit facility from revenue to owner cash. The deal-analysis guide lays out the full sequence, and the valuation calculator turns NOI and a cap rate into a value.
Run the soft year and the good year on the same facility, and you'll walk into the seller call knowing your limit.