This past week at a Scott Meyers Mastermind meeting, I was reminded of the importance of having another set of eyes (usually multiple) look and ask questions about the projects and opportunities I’m working on.
If you don’t already know, Scott Meyers is the top self-storage expert in America. He has been working in real estate investing since 1993 and owns over 7,000 self-storage units. His training, The Self Storage Academy is the largest self-storage mentoring group in the country. He also has a high-powered Mastermind group of a few dozen operators, of which I am honored to be a part.
Needless to say, Scott and his group bring a lot of experience and expertise to the table. That’s why, when we were talking about our current self-storage project in Birmingham, it was no surprise when he asked questions I hadn’t even thought of. His perspective was extremely valuable in that it was different from ours and made us take a step back and see things from a different angle.
All of us are always better than one of us.
You Never Can Be Too Careful in Investments
On our very own team we have a wide range of knowledge and expertise from various industries. For example, Jennifer Copper from Storage Structures brought up a concern about the configuration of a door that none of us, not even the architects, engineers or contractors, caught. She saw something we didn’t see, and her perspective helped us improve our plans tremendously.
Another example: our civil engineer, Derek McCarty asked about moving dirt and storm water retention in our facility. It may come as a surprise to you, but orthodontics school doesn’t exactly cover storm water retention. So without his unique background, we wouldn’t have even known to ask these questions.
Our property management team asked about lease ups, while our banker, Brandon Freeman was concerned with the timing of the phase two building.
Ken Hayes, general contractor has proven valuable on multiple issues, including how to pave the drives. Plus he is already eyeballing our “next” storage facility.
Randy Britton, our architect, saw something in the footing design from the storage company and questioned it. I would have never thought on such a granular level as Randy. And that is exactly why he is so valuable.
I couldn’t possibly keep track of and think so critically about each aspect as my team does.
You Can’t Be An Expert in Everything
Bottom line: don’t be embarrassed to ask for help. Real estate investing is a team sport. You have to involve experts from different arenas and bring them together to make your projects stronger. You won’t accomplish anything without a team effort — remember, you can’t be an expert in everything!
If you want to learn more about our self-storage team, check out our previous post: Meet the SAO Storage Team.
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