What Is My Self Storage Facility Worth? A Complete Valuation Guide
Key Takeaways
- Self storage facilities are valued primarily on income, not just square footage or replacement cost.
- The most common method is the income approach: Value = Net Operating Income ÷ Cap Rate.
- A 40,000 NRSF facility generating $270K in NOI at a 6.5% cap rate is worth approximately $4.15 million.
- Four distinct valuation methods exist, and serious buyers will look at all of them.
- Occupancy, location, condition, expansion potential, and lease-up status all move the needle — sometimes by millions.
- A professional valuation from someone who knows self storage (not just a general appraiser) is worth every penny before you go to market.
If you own a self storage facility and you’ve ever wondered what is my self storage facility worth, you’re not alone. It’s the most common question we hear from owners — whether they’re thinking about selling next month or just want to understand where they stand.
The problem is that self storage valuation isn’t as simple as looking up your Zestimate. There’s no Zillow for storage facilities. The value of your property depends on how much income it produces, where it’s located, what condition it’s in, and who’s buying in your market.
We’re the team behind The Storage Brief, and we’ve spent years helping self storage owners understand what their facilities are actually worth — not what they hope they’re worth, and not what some online calculator spits out. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the four valuation methods buyers and appraisers actually use, show you worked examples with real numbers, and help you understand what drives value up or down.
Let’s get into it.
The Four Methods for Valuing a Self Storage Facility
There are four approaches to determining what a self storage facility is worth. Each one tells a different part of the story, and sophisticated buyers will consider all of them before making an offer.
Method 1: The Income Approach (Cap Rate Method)
This is the gold standard for self storage valuation — and it’s the method that matters most to buyers. The income approach values your facility based on how much money it makes.
The formula is straightforward:
Net Operating Income (NOI) = Gross Revenue – Operating Expenses
Property Value = NOI ÷ Capitalization Rate (Cap Rate)
That’s it. Two formulas. But every number in those formulas matters, so let’s break them down.
Gross Revenue includes all rental income from units, plus ancillary income like late fees, admin fees, merchandise sales, tenant insurance commissions, truck rentals, and any other revenue the property generates. Buyers will look at your trailing 12-month (T-12) revenue, not just what you did last month.
Operating Expenses include property taxes, insurance, management fees (even if you self-manage — a buyer will assume professional management at 6–8% of revenue), payroll, utilities, repairs and maintenance, marketing, software, credit card processing fees, and any other costs required to run the facility. Operating expenses do not include debt service (mortgage payments), depreciation, or capital expenditures. Those get handled separately.
The Cap Rate is the rate of return a buyer expects on their investment. It varies by market, property quality, and buyer type. We cover cap rates in depth in our separate guide, but for now, think of it as the market’s pricing mechanism. A lower cap rate means a higher value. A higher cap rate means a lower value.
Worked Example: Income Approach
Let’s say you own a 40,000 net rentable square foot (NRSF) facility in a suburban market in the Southeast.
| Line Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross Rental Revenue | $420,000 |
| Ancillary Income (fees, insurance, etc.) | $30,000 |
| Total Gross Revenue | $450,000 |
| Property Taxes | $38,000 |
| Insurance | $18,000 |
| Management Fee (7% of revenue) | $31,500 |
| Payroll (1 part-time manager) | $32,000 |
| Utilities | $14,000 |
| Repairs & Maintenance | $16,000 |
| Marketing & Advertising | $8,000 |
| Software & Technology | $5,500 |
| Credit Card Processing | $7,000 |
| Miscellaneous | $10,000 |
| Total Operating Expenses | $180,000 |
| Net Operating Income (NOI) | $270,000 |
Now apply the cap rate. If buyers in your market are transacting at a 6.5% cap rate:
$270,000 ÷ 0.065 = $4,153,846
Your facility is worth approximately $4.15 million.
Notice what happens if the cap rate shifts. At a 6.0% cap: $4.5 million. At a 7.0% cap: $3.86 million. A single half-point move in cap rate swings the value by several hundred thousand dollars. That’s why understanding cap rates matters so much.
What About “Pro Forma” Valuations?
You’ll sometimes hear people talk about valuing a property on a “pro forma” basis — meaning what the income could be if occupancy were higher or rates were raised. Buyers will absolutely consider upside potential, but they’re not going to pay you today for income you haven’t achieved yet. Most offers are grounded in actual trailing income, with adjustments. If your facility is at 75% occupancy in a market where stabilized properties run at 90%, a buyer will see that upside — but they’ll discount for the lease-up risk and the time and capital it takes to get there.
Method 2: The Cost Approach (Replacement Cost)
The cost approach asks: what would it cost to build this facility from scratch today?
This method considers:
- Land value — what the parcel is worth as vacant land
- Hard construction costs — site work, concrete, steel buildings, unit partitions, doors, paving, fencing, gates, lighting
- Soft costs — architecture, engineering, permits, impact fees, legal, financing costs during construction
- Depreciation — deducting for the age and condition of existing improvements
Worked Example: Cost Approach
For that same 40,000 NRSF facility:
| Component | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Land Value (3 acres) | $600,000 |
| Hard Construction ($55/NRSF) | $2,200,000 |
| Soft Costs (15% of hard costs) | $330,000 |
| Total Replacement Cost (New) | $3,130,000 |
| Less: Depreciation (15 years old, ~20%) | ($506,000) |
| Depreciated Replacement Cost | $2,624,000 |
In this example, the income approach produces a value of $4.15M while the cost approach produces about $2.6M. That gap tells you something important: this facility has created significant value above and beyond its physical cost because of the income it generates. That’s the power of a well-run, stabilized self storage property.
The cost approach is most useful as a floor — if the income approach produces a value below replacement cost, that’s a signal something is off (low occupancy, poor management, or a weak market). It’s also useful for newer facilities where there’s less depreciation to estimate.
Method 3: Sales Comparison Approach
This is the method most people instinctively understand — it’s what residential real estate agents call “comps.” You look at what similar self storage facilities in your area (or similar markets) have sold for recently and use those transactions to estimate your value.
The challenge with self storage comps is that there are far fewer transactions than residential real estate. In any given market, there might be only a handful of self storage sales per year. And every facility is different — different size, age, unit mix, occupancy, location, and condition.
When we pull comps for a client, we’re looking at:
- Price per net rentable square foot — the most common comparison metric
- Price per unit — useful for comparing facilities with different unit mixes
- Cap rate at sale — what return the buyer accepted
- Location and market similarity — a facility in downtown Nashville and one in rural Tennessee aren’t comparable just because they’re both in the same state
- Timing — a sale from 2021 isn’t necessarily relevant to pricing in 2026
Typical Price Ranges (Sales Comparison)
As a rough benchmark in 2025-2026:
| Property Type | Price Per NRSF |
|---|---|
| Class A (newer, climate-controlled, metro) | $120 – $180+ |
| Class B (well-maintained, mixed product, suburban) | $75 – $120 |
| Class C (older, drive-up only, rural/tertiary) | $35 – $75 |
| Lease-up / Below Stabilization | Significant discount from above |
For our example 40,000 NRSF facility, at $100/NRSF (solidly Class B), the sales comparison approach would suggest approximately $4.0 million — which is consistent with our income approach estimate of $4.15M.
When all three methods converge on a similar number, that gives you confidence in the valuation. When they diverge significantly, it’s a signal to dig deeper into why.
Method 4: Price Per Square Foot (Quick Screening)
This isn’t really a separate valuation method — it’s a shortcut that brokers and buyers use for quick screening. You take the total sale price and divide by net rentable square footage.
Price Per NRSF = Sale Price ÷ Total NRSF
Using our example: $4,150,000 ÷ 40,000 NRSF = $103.75 per NRSF
This metric is useful for quickly comparing properties, but it’s dangerous to rely on alone. Two facilities with the same square footage can have wildly different values based on income, location, and condition. A 40,000 SF facility with a 50% expense ratio is worth a lot less than a 40,000 SF facility with a 40% expense ratio, even if they have identical revenue.
Use price per square foot as a sanity check, not as your primary valuation tool.
What Affects the Value of Your Self Storage Facility
Now that you understand how to calculate value, let’s talk about the factors that push it up or down. These are the levers that matter.
Occupancy Rate
Occupancy is the single biggest driver of value, because it directly impacts revenue and NOI.
- 90%+ occupancy = “stabilized.” This is where you want to be. Buyers will pay a premium for stabilized assets because the income is predictable and proven.
- 80–90% occupancy = solid but with room to grow. Buyers see upside. You’ll get fair offers but probably not top-of-market pricing.
- 70–80% occupancy = lease-up territory. Maybe you’re a newer facility still filling up, or maybe you’ve lost tenants. Either way, buyers will discount for the risk and effort to get to stabilization.
- Below 70% = significant discount. Something is wrong — management, pricing, competition, location — and buyers will reflect that in their offers.
Here’s the math that makes this tangible. Take our example facility with $10.50/SF annual rent. Every 5 percentage points of occupancy equals roughly $21,000 in additional annual revenue. At a 6.5% cap rate, that $21,000 translates to about $323,000 in property value. Occupancy matters. A lot.
Location
Location affects your facility in two ways: it drives demand (which drives occupancy and rental rates), and it determines which cap rate buyers will apply.
A facility in a growing suburban market with strong population density, limited competition, and high barriers to new development will command a lower cap rate (higher value) than an identical facility in a declining rural market with flat population and no barriers to entry.
Specific location factors buyers evaluate:
- Population density within a 3- and 5-mile radius
- Population growth trends
- Median household income (higher income = higher willingness to pay for storage)
- Visibility and access — Is the facility on a main road? Easy to find? Easy to get in and out?
- Competition — How many competing facilities are within the trade area? What are their occupancy rates?
- Barriers to entry — Is it hard to build new storage in your area (zoning restrictions, land costs, community opposition)? If so, your facility is more valuable.
Condition and Age
A facility that’s been well-maintained commands a premium over one that needs significant capital investment. Buyers will walk the property and assess:
- Roof condition — Roof replacements on a self storage facility can easily cost $200K–$500K+ depending on size. If your roofs have 3 years of life left, that’s coming out of the sale price.
- Pavement and drainage — Cracked asphalt, standing water, and deteriorated concrete are red flags.
- Doors and hardware — Functioning, modern roll-up doors vs. old, rusty swing doors make a difference.
- Security systems — Cameras, gate systems, fencing, lighting. Modern systems add value; outdated ones are liabilities.
- Building envelope — Leaks, rust, structural issues. These scare buyers.
- Climate control systems — If you have climate-controlled units, the HVAC systems need to be in good shape. Replacing them is expensive.
The takeaway: every dollar you defer in maintenance comes out of your sale price — usually at a discount, because buyers will over-estimate repair costs to protect themselves.
Expansion Potential
If your property has room to add more units, that’s a meaningful value driver. Buyers — especially institutional ones — love expansion potential because it’s the cheapest way to grow: no new land acquisition, existing infrastructure, and a built-in customer base.
Factors that create expansion potential:
- Excess land on the parcel that’s zoned and suitable for additional buildings
- Ability to add a second or third floor (if the existing buildings support it or if there’s room for new multi-story buildings)
- Conversion potential — adding climate-controlled units within an existing drive-up building
- Underutilized space — office areas that could be converted, parking areas that aren’t needed
If your facility sits on 5 acres but only 2.5 are developed, that extra 2.5 acres could represent significant upside value. A buyer might pay a premium today for the right to expand tomorrow.
Lease-Up Status
Where your facility sits on the lease-up curve fundamentally changes how buyers think about value.
- Stabilized (3+ years at 85%+ occupancy): Buyers trust the income. They’ll underwrite based on your T-12 financials. This gets you the best pricing.
- Recently stabilized (just hit 85%+ in the last year): Buyers are encouraged but want to see the trend hold. Slight discount.
- Lease-up (newly opened or re-positioned, below 80%): Buyers are pricing based on projected income, not actual income. Significant discount — often 15–30% below what the property would trade for if stabilized.
- Certificate of Occupancy (CO) facility (brand new, no tenants): This is essentially a development sale. Pricing is based on replacement cost minus a developer profit margin, or on projected stabilized income with heavy discounting for lease-up risk and time value of money.
Revenue Management
Buyers pay close attention to how you’re managing rates. Two questions they’ll always ask:
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Are you pushing existing customer rate increases (ECRIs)? If you haven’t raised rates on existing tenants in years, there’s embedded upside. That’s good — but buyers will only pay a partial premium for it, because they have to do the work and absorb the move-out risk.
-
Are your street rates at market? If your rates are 20% below the competition, a buyer sees easy upside. If your rates are already the highest in the market, there’s less room to grow.
Sophisticated revenue management — using dynamic pricing software, regularly testing rate increases, optimizing unit mix — adds value not just through higher income, but through buyer confidence that the income is well-managed and sustainable.
When Should You Get a Professional Valuation?
There are three situations where a professional valuation is worth the investment:
1. You’re thinking about selling in the next 12–24 months. You need to know your number before you go to market. An unrealistic asking price wastes everyone’s time and can actually reduce your eventual sale price — properties that sit on the market too long develop a stigma.
2. You need to refinance. Your lender will require an appraisal, but you should have your own valuation done first so you know what to expect and can push back if the appraisal comes in low.
3. Estate or partnership planning. If you need to establish fair market value for tax, estate, or partnership purposes, a professional valuation is essential.
A word of caution: not all appraisers understand self storage. General commercial appraisers often struggle with the nuances of the asset class — unit mix optimization, revenue management, lease-up curves, and the way institutional buyers price differently than private buyers. If you’re getting an appraisal, find someone with specific self storage experience.
Better yet, talk to a broker who specializes in self storage. We can give you a realistic market value assessment based on what buyers in your market are actually paying — not just what an appraiser’s spreadsheet says.
Common Valuation Mistakes Owners Make
After years of working with self storage owners, we see the same valuation mistakes repeatedly:
Overvaluing based on replacement cost. “I spent $4 million building this facility, so it’s worth at least $4 million.” Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. If the facility isn’t generating enough income, it’s not worth what you spent. Markets don’t care about your cost basis.
Ignoring deferred maintenance. That roof you’ve been patching for 5 years? A buyer’s inspector will catch it, and the cost to replace it comes straight off the top of any offer.
Using gross revenue instead of NOI. Your facility does $500K in revenue? Great. But if you’re spending $250K to operate it, the NOI is only $250K, and that’s what drives value.
Not accounting for market management fees. If you self-manage your facility, you might think your expenses are low. But buyers will underwrite a market-rate management fee (6–8% of revenue) because they need to pay someone to run it. Your NOI for valuation purposes should include that expense whether you currently pay it or not.
Comparing to the wrong comps. A Class A climate-controlled facility in Dallas is not a comparable for a Class C drive-up facility in rural Oklahoma, even if they’re the same size.
The Bottom Line
Your self storage facility’s value comes down to how much income it produces, the reliability of that income, and what return buyers in your market expect. The income approach (NOI ÷ Cap Rate) is the primary method that drives pricing, but the cost approach and sales comparison provide important context.
Understanding your valuation isn’t just about knowing a number — it’s about understanding the drivers of that number so you can make decisions that increase value over time.
Ready to Find Out What Your Facility Is Worth?
Want a precise valuation? Get a free, confidential assessment from our team. We’ll analyze your financials, pull relevant comps, and give you an honest opinion of what your facility would sell for in today’s market — no strings attached.
Whether you’re planning to sell soon or just want to know where you stand, knowing your number is the first step.
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