» Self Storage Trends

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Many times a dwelling place might not have a garage in its premises. But if one has a car then providing a proper shelter for it becomes problematic. The service of car storage comes as a rescue in such a situation. They not only provide shelter but also undertake the responsibility of the property management and its maintenance. The companies offering the facility to store the car usually have a list of services that they provide as a part of the property management and maintaining of the car. One can choose the services that he wants to avail for his vehicle.
 
Some of these units used for storing the vehicle are of very good quality and are loaded with sophisticated equipment for efficient property management and to maintain the vehicles well. The four-wheelers are kept under round-the-clock vigilance. The units are dehumidified. Some of them have the latest alarm systems fitted so that one can be alerted if there is a burglary attempt. The companies that provide car storage also provide insurance facilities to those clients who want to insure their cars. 

The car maintenance and property management programs are customized to the individual requirements of the car. The maintenance staff is generally very committed and it takes the complete responsibility of keeping the vehicle in topmost condition. The maintenance services that are offered generally involve the following tasks. The first thing is they will wash the car regularly, clean all its components and keep the vehicle in a good condition. The next thing that the car storage staff will do is to inspect the car to assess its working condition. This will include checking the engine, carburetor, fuel tank, tyres, brakes, clutches and the other vital components for consistency and any anomaly that can be a potential source of any hazard. All the doors and windows will be checked to see that they lock properly. The fuel and the anti-freeze levels are inspected.

Apart from the general services the owner of a car can opt for other services as desired. He might want his car to be painted a new color or have a new audio system or air conditioner fitted to his car. Car storage and not car maintenance being the primary service provided by the companies offering shelter to the car, the maintenance services may not be compulsorily and regularly provided. One might have to specify the number of times he would like the maintenance staff to attend to his car on a monthly basis. The owner of the car need not worry that all the time a car is kept in the unit providing storing facilities, it will remain static for a long period of time. The maintenance staff will test drive it now and then to ensure that it remains in working condition.

The company that provides the service of car storage should be checked for authenticity. It is better to opt for some well established companies even though they might charge a wee bit more than the others. One should be on the lookout for registered companies and it is better to go for those companies that can show some formal credentials (like certificates) that stand as an evidence to the quality of services provided. Storing the car in dedicated units has an advantage of storing the vehicle in individual garages when it comes to security and tampering issues. One can locate a car property management and storing service providing company in the locality by doing a bit of research on the internet.

Helotes Storage

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The latest craze in making profit in real estate is flipping houses. It has proven to be the best way gain relatively instant cash. People find great properties to invest in, they sometimes gut the insides, and then completely redo the property making dramatic or sometimes simple changes. Even though many people are involved in this type of profit gaining, it is definitely not the easiest thing to do.

Most people are on their own and they have one or a couple of people to help them. When you are involved in flipping houses, you do not want to have an army of people involved because you will have to split the property with them. You will see these people usually go after one property at a time because they do not want to be caught having two houses to pay for. At the same time, you do not want to miss out on that cash cow property. That is why it is good to have a good method to manage your real estate investments.

Real estate management is not just defined as a group or a team trying to manage a series of properties to maintain their growth. Real estate management also deals with such things ask risk management, the potential growth of the property, and so many other facets. We will take a look at most of them.

With flipping houses, there is always some level of risk involved. What happens if you choose the wrong property? That could be catastrophic. If you do not take the time to get into the house, do an inspection and be extremely thorough with your walk through. It is hard to predict if a property will be that next great flip for you. With the help of a professional or a real estate management team, they can help you figure out if this or any property is a good investment. They have the experience and know how on accessing the potential risk of every property you invest in.

Keep in mind, there is an also software out there that could come to your aid when you are involved in real estate management . The most organized, extremely resourceful person can see an exponential profit in the flipping house business. With this software you can access all the things that we were going to discuss above. It can help you determine the risk in buying the property you are looking for. It can help you analyze the financial outcome of getting the property you are looking for. Most software out there will give you full reports on which property would be the best investment for you. As stated above, one of the reason people get involved in flipping houses is to make the biggest profit possible. You will need help the first couple of times you try to flip that property, but you do not want to pay someone to give you aid. That is where the management software can help you.

In real estate management , you have to have the patience to make the right decisions. You can have one or many different properties to manage. Do not just think that real estate management is just for those who own multiple properties. The different services offered can help you make a profit on the property you are trying to invest in. When you try to flip a house, it is important that you access the risks and make a great financial case before you purchase it. If you do not plan and access all the angles of this potential profit or risk, you could be a in a world of financial hurt.

Olathe Car Storage

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Hey Moms and Dads, school is out for the summer and your college-aged kids are coming home. The peaceful solitude of lounging on the couch and communicating with them long distance by phone and email is over. Your babies are coming home for the summer and you could not be happier. For the past nine months they have been incubating at college and you have been adjusting to their absence utilizing your time to develop those interests you have only have time to think about up to now. Even though your children are technically young adults, we both know they will always be your babies. 

While the kids have their childhood belongings at home, they are sure to be accumulating more and more stuff like, furniture, bedding, new clothes and all those books. Do yourself a favor and assist your kids in organizing their ever growing need for more space. You want to see your kids, not their clutter. 

Invest in getting your kids organized. Get online and search for storage facilities in the vicinity of your kids school. A 5×5 storage unit owned by a property management company will hold the excess baggage your kids are accumulating for a modest monthly fee. College kids do not need to be hauling the contents of their living quarters back to their parents home for three months. After all, accumulating is an ongoing process, when they return to school, more than likely, they will head back with a plethora of more items to add to their own domicile.

That 5×5 storage unit rented out by a property management company is a godsend to the space cramped life of a student. Not only does it help keep them organized, it helps them store items seasonally and by college terms. College is an investment and part of that investment includes books, lots of them. By the time your kid finishes college they will have accumulated a small library all of their own.

If your children are living in a part of the country that offers four distinct seasons, a storage unit is the perfect place to store seasonal wardrobes also. For a nominal monthly fee paid to the property management company, you have given your children the ability to keep their living quarters clear and free of clutter, without having to throw away the accumulation of life items that they and you have invested in.

Consider the benefits of keeping that storage unit all year round during your childrens college career. They will develop the following life skills through utilization of the unit: ongoing organizational skills, packing, storing, sorting and allowing them to throw away what is not important and keep items that are important. 

You can enjoy the return of the kids from college, without the worry of what they are going to do with all this stuff. It can be a time to revisit the family values they grew up with and relax at home – knowing they are not being intrusive in any way regarding their belongings. College kids miss their moms and dads as much as moms and dads miss their kids. What we do not miss is the plethora of clutter.

Allow your kids the luxury of coming home to relax and feel secure and welcome knowing none of their stuff is in mom or dads way. Make it a perfect summer to enjoy the family values and life you all grew up with and love. A simple property management company owned storage unit takes the anxiety of space concerns out of the equation. It is only stuff. Put it where it belongs. A property management company can help your family find peace without clutter. Call you local property management company for ideas in storage.

Oakland Furniture Storage

Storage Concierge is your premier Storage , Storage Unit , Car Storage , RV Storage , Furniture Storage , Boat Storage , Yacht Storage and Self Storage finder .

August 2005 Self Storage Blog Archive

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Have you noticed over the past several years that there has been a decline in customer service? Oh, there are still people out there who greet you kindly when you walk in the door, are truly solicitous as to what your real wants and needs are, and who listen the first time when you ask for something. But mostly these days, it seems as if there has been a dramatic decline in the pride that people take in their work. Why does it have to be extreme? Either married to your job, or hate your job. Can we meet in the middle, enjoying our jobs and taking pride and responsibility in them?

If you have ever gone to a fast food restaurant to order a number 5 with no tomatoes and an extra large soda, and been served a number 6 with extra tomatoes and an extra large tea, you know all about lacking customer service. If you have ever walked through the sliding doors to your local product store and the person hired as the greeter gives you a half glance while she centers her attention on staring out into the parking lot, you know all about the deficiency in customer service. And if you have ever gone through a check out line with your groceries and been treated to silence and downcast, bored eyes as your cashier throws bug spray and apples roughly into the same bag, well, you get the point.

So what has happened to customer service? Is it the current generation? Is it the somehow the new American idea of getting everything we want? Or is it simply that people do not care anymore? Probably all of these things combined help to contribute. But at root, there is a lack of empathy or caring for any other being, or at least caring more than we care about ourselves. Why are we so selfish?

Truly, offering top notch customer service is the easiest thing in the world to do. It only requires a smile, a handshake, a simple so how are you today? Are these little things really what are holding people back? Apparently so.

If you feel that you have been treated unpleasantly, there is always an 800 number to call, a comment card to fill out, a manager to complain to. But these are not the things that will help in the end. Maybe your comment card will get a district manager to pay a little bit more attention on his next round. Maybe the call to the 800 number will get you a refund for your mixed up meal. Perhaps you might even get someone fired if you go to the manager. But it does not start with these things. It comes to these things. What individuals should do is simply watch their own behavior. When you are at work, do you answer the phone with a telling smile in your voice? When you speak with a customer, do you ask how their day is going, and if you can help them in any way? It might be hard to fix the world one little smile at a time, but it is much easier to do it this way than with a frown.

Business owners are not helpless in persuading the customer service attitude. They can hire a business for mystery shopper reviews to help shed some light on the customer experience. Mystery shopper reviews will allow the business owner and employees to see an unbiased assessment of what a typical customer sees, hears and feels. Gaining the customers perspective is crucial to the success and development of any business in any industry. Mystery shopper reviews are the perfect way to see a real life situation through the eyes of the professional.

Mystery shopper reviews are popular in retail, fast food and dining and rental industries. However, they are not limited to those industries and shopping for those industries is different. Therefore, a business owner should be able to customize the criteria evaluated through his or her mystery shopper reviews. Mystery shopper reviews are a guaranteed way to improve customer service.

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Oklahoma Self Storage

W. New York Storage

November 2006 Secret Shopping Blog Archive

Shoe Storage

Self Storage Article Directory – General Information

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Storage in itself encompasses everything the name itself means. The reasons for getting storage is as vast as the people who are looking for it. All around the US and Canada calls come in everyday for information about storage facilities.  Pricing is a big factor, then the amenities. And, add in the location. Mix it all together and you have the reason why we have storage facilities.

With a growing industry comes other niche industries that develop. One good example of how self storage has spun off new markets is the self storage secret shopping industry. As supply catches up with demand in the self storage world, offering great customer service and having good sales skills is important and requires that storage owners use secret shopping for some quality assurance.

From sunny Florida all the way up to Nova Scotia people are looking to store items from bags and boxes to RVs and boats.  There is storage in the biggest of cities to the smallest of towns.  Some people are surprised to know that there is a facility a block or so over because they never noticed it until they needed it.  Some say they drive by the facility on their way home or to work and they only want that facility because it is near them most of the day and they feel safer putting their items in that place.  Others have to get a storage unit because they are moving out of state and, they have to leave some items behind because their new home is smaller.  To them, storage is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

Another aspect of storage that is growing are the people who are staging their homes.  They only need storage for as long as it takes them to sell their home.  And, there are the house flippers.  They also only need temporary storage.  Or, the business person who sells restaurant or pharmaceutical supplies and needs long-term storage because they get the materials they need on a monthly basis.

All those are good scenarios for a secret shopping shopper to use when they are pretending to be a customer. Secret shopping is a sure way to make sure that customers in any situation receive excellent care and superior service.

Storage for the average consumer is primarily household furniture and other miscellaneous items.  When a person calls the facility they are usually full of questions.  What are the gate hours?  Where exactly are you located?  What is the difference between climate control and non climate control units?  Can you park a vehicle inside? What all sizes do you have here?  Will there be a contract?  Is there a deposit?  How long do you have to rent the unit?  How high are the ceilings?  What does the special mean?  Are there any specials now?  Do they have military or senior discount?  Those are just some of the questions potential customers usually ask.

Answers to those questions are what a secret shopping company would look for when conducting their secret shopping program. A typical secret shopping agent would not take too much control of the conversation between himself and the self storage manager. The goal of the secret shopping program is to determine what service the sales associate offers.

Storage for all who need it really is vital.  Think about what you would do if you lived in a 3 bedroom home and had to move into a 1 bedroom apartment.  What would you do with all the belongings you cannot take?  If there was not any storage, would you put it in a friend or relatives attic or basement?  Would you have to put it in your parents utility shed in the backyard?  If there were not any storage facilities the options would be extremely limited.  Thank goodness for storage facilities.  Without them, we would not have many friends or family members speaking to us.

The bottom line with storage is it helps make out lives easier.  The locations of the facilities and the pricing and the amenities they offer helps us make our storage decisions.  Some people just do not care about that.  They just care about the price.  The rest care about the whole package.  All of them just want a secure place to put their valuables. 

This is why a secret shopping program has become necessary for self storage owners and self storage companies. A secret shopping program will ensure that customers receive all the info they need to make an educated decision about where they should store.

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Several years ago when a certain tall robotic like politician warned Americans about global warming during his presidential campaign, most Americans laughed in doubt. Few of these nonbelievers still exist today, but overall if a person ignores to implemented a green design plan at their home or place of business, he or she is looked at as nuttier then a fruitcake. Because scientist have proved that the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and deforestation, for over the past 200 years, has caused the concentrations of heat trapping greenhouse gases to increase significantly in our atmosphere. Somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse, these gases prevent heat from escaping into space. Though greenhouse gases are necessary to life on earth as we know it because they keep the planet’s surface warmer than it otherwise would be, concentrations of these gases continue to increase due to human error. As a result, the ice caps are shrinking, the sea levels are rising, and the weather patterns are going haywire.

The self storage industry has implemented voluntary and incentive base green design programs to help recover from and avoid environmental disaster. Some self storage businesses and self storage call centers have created a contest called Build It Green Design Challenge. Participant property managers are asked to submit an idea or design on how to make their self storage facility more environmentally green. It is a modest effort, but if every business in every industry challenged themselves with a green design program, the movement will become major league.

In this environmental friendly day of age, it is amazing that many local governments still do not have a recycling pick up program in the works. But that doesn’t mean property managers have to succumb to their town’s green design limitations. It is not against the law to put forth your own recycling bins on your self storage property for you and your customers. Collect bottles and cans and bring them yourself to a recycle facility. Some recycle facilities pay good money for aluminum cans. Use that money to improve another green design or give it to a local charity in the self storage business’s name.

With climate change and skyrocketing energy costs, it’s no wonder many manufactures are promoting energy efficient products. Stroll through any major home improvement retailer and you’re sure to find hundreds of Energy Star products. If you want your self storage business  to earn a star, it’s time to create a green design to make the business more energy efficient. Choice of materials and location, indoor air quality, water usage, and emissions all attribute energy efficiency.

If you are not doing your part to save the environment, it is not too late to join. There are many small green design steps you can take that add up to huge differences. Set up an energy target and stay under it; replace broken appliances such as microwaves, air conditioners, and dishwashers with Energy Star appliances; put in energy saving light bulbs and mechanical systems. But the best way to get started is to get educated and become aware of green design  programs.

Written by Kurt Schellenberger

Storage Concierge is your premier Storage, Storage Unit, Car Storage, RV Storage, Furniture Storage, Boat Storage, Yacht Storage and Self Storage Finder.

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Kermit the Frog has made a comeback, not as the lovable Muppet I remember him as, but as a spokesfrog for Green practices and energy efficient vehicles sporting a trendy green leaf icon.

But just what is all this hullabaloo about? Well, we don’t have to see statistics on global warming to know that gas efficiency is what we all want in our next vehicle. With the price of oil rising faster than the Earth’s temperature, it makes sense to relieve some of the strain on our pocketbook. So what about the other areas of our life?

Green building design is much like the idea behind energy efficient cars. The practice of increasing the efficiency of energy and water usage, eliminating waste and reducing the impact we have on our environment by improving building designs and construction.

StorageMart has taken the initiative to make the self storage industry a leader in low-impact construction and raise the bar for business owners to follow. StorageMart’s Build It Green Challenge will announce the Green Design concepts they’ve chosen among a pool of design entries later this year. It’s not too late to offer your contribution by sending your submissions today.

While I can’t say the rest of the clan of beloved childhood friends has a future in Green advertising, I remain hopeful that Miss Piggy can resume her role as a Hollywood Diva and find her niche in today’s global awareness.

Written by Sarah Little, TQAS Director

PA Storage Unit

Self Storage Article Directory. Visit our Self Storage Advertising and Marketing Section.

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Property managers and self storage owners are always looking for new ways to make money for their property. And while money is not everything, sometimes besides the money some managers and owners try to please the customer in addition to making the big bucks. Some ideas/services that self storage facilities put on site are; business centers, kid friendly play areas, car washes, selling moving and packing supplies, shipping centers, and PO boxes.

In the spirit of the New Year and more people thinking Green thoughts and idea I had for a self storage property was to offer a small piece of ground that would become a compost pile. Self storage tenants could provide the necessary matter to start the compost and as the pile aged, then the self storage tenants could use the compost in their own gardens and flower beds. Here in our town in Missouri, we have community gardens for those people that do not have the room at their residences to have a garden. These people can then apply for designated garden spaces throughout the city limits. So, I do not think the compost idea is that far out, let me know if you like it. Let us think more Green design ideas in 2008; it will not hurt the Earth to do so.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS agent.

District of Columbia Storage units or Florida Storage units

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A current popular start up business is document storage. Many business that have lots of paperwork, charts, documents, records, and healthcare data are in need of specialized storage to maintain these document while providing a safe and secure area for them to be stored. Some document storage companies will even help organize your current paperwork or data and index and store them appropriately. These companies must be able to store older paper or electronic data as well as some current materials that might be needed for a consultation or meeting.

Another side business to the document storage business is shredding and destruction of confidential paperwork and data. This business must be able to provide the most secure and guaranteed service to those clients wishing to destroy or shred important legal or financial documents or data. If you are a smaller business then some shredding businesses will come to your office or place of business to do the shredding. This allows for no transportation of any documents or data and the misplacement of said work. Storage for documents is not a new business but it is becoming more widely used to safeguard businesses of any size. Even self-employed people can purchase a shredder for their own document destruction.

Written by Natalie Thomas, TQAS agent.

Self Storage 

Self Storage Article Directory. Visit our Climate Controlled Storage Section.
 

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Christmas is different around the world and even here in Florida the season is different than back home in Missouri. There is no snow on the ground, and barely cool at night. The grass is green and the air conditioning is running. Even Christmas parades are different here. Boat parades are how some Florida residents enjoy the season. They deck their boats out with lights and music and folks having a great time. It is really something to see, boats coming down the channel with reindeer, dolphins, palm trees, hammocks, and Santa Claus of course.  It is fun for the whole family standing by the waterway, and watching the lighted boats go by. People on the shore wave and clap for each vessel and the people on the boat wave back.

Lots of boats equal the need for finding storage for boats. Many people dock their boats, but many want their boats stored out of the water. Boat storage is very popular in places where there is an abundance of boats and boating crafts. Yacht storage is another storage option for those who have a different kind of boating vessel. Yacht storage is specialized boat storage, with the storage areas allowing for the different structure of the yacht.

Written By Natalie Thomas, TQAS agent.

Self Storage

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