A Storage Conversation 25 Years in the Making:
Sunday night I had dinner with an old veteran of the self-storage industry.
I won’t name drop, but if you’ve been around Arizona storage long enough, you know the name.
Back in the day he was one of the people helping drive the industry forward.
He was also one of my mentors when I first started in storage while he was on his way to retirement.
Naturally, both our wives were bored out of their minds while we talked about storage for two straight hours.
The main topic?
Remote management.
He told me about a trial he ran in the late 90s where they attempted to remotely manage several properties.
The concept worked… but one problem killed the project.
1099 boots-on-the-ground maintenance staff.
His words stuck with me:
“If you give someone with no skin in the game the option to do less work and get paid more for it… most people will take that option.”
The real challenge wasn’t just performance.
It was visibility.
When you’re not physically on site, it becomes incredibly difficult to tell the difference between:
• the person doing great work
• the person doing the bare minimum
• the person sitting in their truck for half the day
Eventually the frustration outweighed the benefits and the whole remote management experiment was scrapped.
Then we talked about what’s possible today.
Live camera access.
AI that can identify people and activity.
GPS tracking that shows someone walking every aisle during a property walkthrough.
Today a remote manager can literally watch the difference between:
• someone sitting in their truck
• someone moving a couch
• someone completing a full site inspection
And when owners ask where the payroll hours went?
You can show them.
Not a guess.
Not a story.
Actual activity.
Play by play.
What fascinated him most was that the biggest barrier he faced 25 years ago, boots on the ground accountability, is now something technology can solve.
Sometimes progress isn’t about new ideas.
It’s about finally having the tools to make the old ones work.
