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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson speaks with Chris Long, founder of Long Yards Storage, who shares his journey in real estate since 2012. Chris discusses his unique approach to industrial outside storage (iOS), the challenges of finding and acquiring properties, and the lessons learned from rapid growth. He emphasizes the importance of cash flow, the versatility of his hybrid model, and the entrepreneurial spirit needed to succeed in the industry.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Chris Long (00:00)
I had two duplexes with four tenants and on my one property in Canada, I have 10 acres with around 70 tenants and I have less work and less headaches with those 70 tenants because of the laws and just the nature of the business than I did with four. So it’s sometimes intimidating for people, but you know, on the other side, life is not a lot greater. I used to make two grand a month profit. Now I make 24,000 a month.from one location.
Micah Johnson (01:57)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m speaking with Chris Long, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate since 2012. Chris, welcome in man. Glad to have you.Chris Long (02:09)
Thanks, Micah, excited to be here.Micah Johnson (02:11)
Yeah, no man, I’m excited to have you today. I think our listeners are really gonna take something away from your approach to real estate. There’s this hybrid model that you’ve worked on. There’s a book possibly coming out in the future, hear about it. And I have found it super interesting in our discussion so far. So let’s dig in there, man. First off, people who may not be familiar with your world, give us that short version, more about who you are and what your main focus is these days.Chris Long (02:33)
Right, so I’m Chris Long, I’m the founder of Long Yard Storage and I turned $47,000 to an eight figure business doing contractor storage yards and what’s iOS. So happy to dive into it. That’s the short form and there’s a long form to it, but yeah, I’m basically bringing that awareness to the world. It’s industrial outside storage with a self storage twist.Micah Johnson (02:52)
Love that, man. So, all right, I’m excited to dig in there, but let’s take a step back real quick. What got you where you are today? So you got cranked up in 2012. What were you doing then, and then what’s led you to where you are now?Chris Long (03:03)
Yeah, to be honest,like, I don’t know what it was. It was like a bug. worked with my grandfather at a young age and we were doing tin banging, which I hated. And, you we got the lights on for a family and I was like, I instantly fell in love with rewarding work and making change. And then the real estate bug, I wasn’t really, I didn’t really grow up with anyone around real estate. just, truthfully I grew up kind of poor, but it was like, I don’t want to be poor. you know, I was like, how do I get out of this?
So I just combined, you know, the only skill sets I knew, which was like work with my hands, carpentry and real estate. So as quickly as I could become an apprentice, work on the weekends, I always worked two, three jobs, saved up money, bought my first house, turned to a duplex, did it again, turned to a duplex and then got a commercial property, quickly learned I love real estate, love tenants. In Canada, especially, tenants have all the rules. So I played the game differently and that’s what led me to the new venture of Contractor Storage Yards in what’s called iOS Industrial Outside Storage.
Micah Johnson (03:56)
Love that man, all right. The single tenants weren’t the thing you wanted, now you adjust, which is why I love real estate, man. It’s got a big umbrella. Rarely do you keep doing the same thing that got you in most of the time. You always, there’s, find your personality in it. That thing that lines up with you that not only pays that financial paycheck, that is very, very important, but it also pays that emotional paycheck like you were talking about. That moment you turn the lights on for that family, boom, it just hit like, oh my God, this is amazing. I see what this does.And it gives a whole different reason to just why you’re doing what you’re doing. Each nail, each screw, each hour, it adds up to that. And that’s what fills you up and pays that paycheck, man. I love that. So let’s dive more into the iOS model. For those that don’t know what that is, take us through it. What are you doing today?
Chris Long (04:46)
All right. Sowhat is iOS? iOS is very commonly known if you’re in that world, but it’s newer term coming out. It’s like industrial outside storage and a lot of big money’s going for towards it. Typically you’ll see like JP Morgan. There’s a lot of larger institutional players and they’re just gobbling up a lot of the main iOS properties in and around major cities. And there’s different layers of iOS. So just a quick high level, what is iOS does industrialized storage? There’s like single tenant, which is here’s a warehouse and three acres.
there’s here’s five acres and five large logistic company tenants. And just to be clear, it’s renting dirt, all right? It is the right type of dirt renting. So it’s cashflow, it’s simple. Where my spin on iOS is I bring self storage to it. Where we take the dirt, we carve it up in multiple compounds with fencing cameras, gates, et cetera, and rent them out to small, medium businesses, logistic companies. In a lot of cases, because it’s flexible, we can actually cater to a lot of the larger tenant base as well. So iOS has a bit of a wide net, bigger umbrella.
But for the most part, it’s dirt being rented to logistic companies that contract.
Micah Johnson (06:36)
Love that. It’s simple. who is, how are you going about finding the tenant? So actually let’s go about the property first. said JP and them are gobbling up these style of properties. If you were wanting to get into this, what are you looking at in terms of property? What’s it look like? What’s it zoned as? How do you go about finding it?Chris Long (06:55)
that’s such a great question. And there’s so many different filters. Like the first and foremost thing is this is an extremely scarce asset class. not like flipping houses where you can send in a thousand mailers. It’s like there’s only so many in your area and they’re hard to find. And once you know them, it’s like the red punch buggy. That’s all you’re looking for them. So that’s the first thing. There’s few and that’s what’s driving the value is the scarcity. So that’s the first part you need to understand. And then it goes into likedepending on what model you want to do because the zoning has many subclasses, right? Like for me, for outside storage and contract storage yards, I need to make sure it hits a certain class and a certain rating. A lot of cities will say like, know, Jacksonville as an example is like CCG2, right? So it’s zoning, it’s zoning code, and then the buy box. And the buy box, you need to make sure it hits the feasibility. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to cover all of that, but at end of the day, you need to make sure for what you’re paying, you know, you’re going to bring in enough and that you’re going to lease up like you said you’re going to. So we’ve built out our own internal.
feasibility tools for this which the banks have recognized and approved but it’s very new and a lot of people still don’t recognize it. So yeah it’s it’s those large three acre plus properties usually graveled in and around typically airports around highway corridors that allow outside storage. That’s where you look for.
Micah Johnson (08:09)
Okay, so I definitely I’m picturing Jacksonville. I’m just south of there. used to do a lot of houses up in that area of driven around 295 that more times than I care to admit in a single day just buzzing around. So I’m thinking about all the kind of properties that you’re talking about like close to the airport. Yep. I see those out there. Now are they always gravel like is itHow often is it a seller that it’s just like a normal kind of person? They inherited the property and don’t know what it is. that, you ever find that or are these typically owned by already some sort of institution that you’re getting it from?
Chris Long (08:43)
Well, that’s the funny thing because it is becoming institutionalized very quickly. So a lot of it like self storage at the beginning was mom and pops. And then you started operators started taking them. Then you sort of operators to start gathering up and selling them off to REITs or institutional institutionalizing it. You’re very quickly seeing that with this asset class. So what we categorize when we have our underwriting tools, I talk about tier four, tier one, tier four is like a forest tier one is like your gravel premium lot. I would say most ofIOS or industrial real estate in and around the core has been brought up to tier one from the city and the approvals, but there’s still a lot of tier four that needs improvement to get to a tier one, which is just that gravel base, water detention, anything the city requires. ⁓ So yeah, it’s a, it’s a flux, but for the most part, a lot of them are developed at this
Micah Johnson (09:15)
Okay.Okay, okay. All right, so for you particularly, is there anything extra outside of the normal iOS model because you do it this hybrid way? What’s unique about it for you? Is there something even more in particular that you’re looking for or can you do this on the same kind of lots?
Chris Long (10:26)
That’s a really good question. So we actually have a different playbook and my book is called the iOS playbook, which is coming out soon. Very excited to launch that. But my model is a lot differently because of the type of clientele and the different versatility we do on the property. It allows us to actually like branch off to a few different classes rather than just the strict iOS, which is very unique. So for any listeners, like I’m going to try my best to explain this because sometimes it takes a few times likeBut picture self storage, right? You go to your unit, you roll up the door, you walk in, there’s four walls and roof. Well, mine is the exact same model, except it’s fencing with no roof and it’s your own yard. And you put your equipment, your trailers, your boxes and whatever else. That’s our model. And we actually have more versatility. So, you know, with a lot of iOS, they have different clientels that, you know, they have more restrictions like truck parking. need certain radiuses and weight limit requirements. And then it,
Micah Johnson (11:21)
Mm-hmm.Chris Long (11:23)
it gives you less options for land. have more options for land if it’s oddly shaped. If it’s contaminated, send it to me. I’m pretty sure we can make it work. We could take a look at it. So yeah, we have we have more options to make it work basically.Micah Johnson (11:37)
Interesting, interesting. Okay, so you just sparked an idea. I’m thinking about who’s utilizing these things. There’s a place up the road for me. You drive by it at night. It’s finned stop, has barbed wire around it, and it’s a bunch of FPL trucks. Just parked in here, bunch of stuff. Is that what you’re, that’s pretty much what you’re describing, right?Chris Long (11:55)
That is iOS. That is iOS. Now as I quickly described, there’s like different buckets and that could be one tenant on one property and that’s that is defined as iOS. And what’s very attractive, it’s one triple net tenant. And look at your operating expenses. They’re minimal next to nothing, right? And they pay for everything. So yeah, it’s what can go wrong?Micah Johnson (12:11)
Right.Right. I mean, that’s the thing I find land and how to use it. Very interesting. grew up in farming country, watermelons, pine straw, all kinds of different things. Just watching, like as I’ve grown when I was in high school, I on the FFA team on the ag business management team, which is literally how to run a farm. You’re learning how all this stuff. And so I’ve been interested since young about how you do that. The different ways that you make land, make money and
Chris Long (12:39)
Yep.Micah Johnson (12:40)
It’s fascinating. love learning about this model. I’m fixing to be studying a lot here around my local parts. It’s good. It’s so good. Because that’s the thing, again, personality wise, you don’t just have to deal with tenants living in your home. You don’t just have to deal with short-term tenants. There’s all these different asset classes of real estate where a good friend of mine, he made the jump about a year and a half ago from single family, he had a large single family business sucking the life out of him to that commercial space.And it’s not as big a jump as most people think, right? You get kind of scared by the commercial terms where really, like you’re saying, it’s just a different playbook. You’re just playing a different kind of game. Learn the rules to the game. You’re still dealing with people, the same kind of single family stuff, but just different people, different situation. It’s really just a different conversation, different process. You do got to have cash conversion times you can handle that are longer, typically what you’re dealing with. Now, how about that for you? From the time you buy a piece of dirt to
that thing’s cash flowing, what’s that timeframe for you?
Chris Long (13:42)
That’s a great question. I want to take a quick step back and answer one thing that you said though are just highlighted.I had two duplexes with four tenants and on my one property in Canada, I have 10 acres with around 70 tenants and I have less work and less headaches with those 70 tenants because of the laws and just the nature of the business than I did with four. So it’s sometimes intimidating for people, but you know, on the other side, life is not a lot greater. I used to make two grand a month profit. Now I make 24,000 a month.
from one
So yeah, why are we in this business cashflow and to make money? ⁓ So yeah, I just wanted to highlight that I think it’s important to ⁓
Micah Johnson (14:17)
Right.piggyback
right there for we move on because it’s economy of scale. It’s learning how to because it’s the same problem you’re solving. It’s still the real estate problem. You’re solving a bigger version of it. That’s where knowing how to do those duplexes. It’s not uncommon you start in single family and move over because once you realize it’s the same kind of problem, I can just go solve it this way. Boom.
Now you’re in that’s what the beauty of real estate experience is transferable inside the industry,
the nuts and bolts of it. It’s still just dirt, still just a building, but it’s zoning. Okay. That changes things. Just these other little factors. But like you just said, you have less headache, less time, more money that or less headache, more time, more money. That is what we’re all kind of hoping for when we get into this business, right? Was those particular three things.
Chris Long (15:47)
Yeah. Yeah.And so I’ll go back to answer your other question though. It’s how long until your cash flow positive? Well, it really depends because what you’re seeing in like the different layers of iOS, you could just buy an existing iOS facility with a long term triple net tenant. Boom, you know, your, your cash break even day one, you got a debt leverage coverage ratio that’s positive. And now on the flip side, if you’re doing development with like the my model, well that you have a little more lease of time. And that really depends on the size of the property and everything else. There’s too many factors to give you like a black and white.
Micah Johnson (15:54)
So.Chris Long (16:24)
But traditionally, you’re probably anywhere from like the eight to 16 month range, giving yourself a three month development. But that can really change depending on the tier of land. Like I said, tier four is a forest. Well, you could have this whole development lifecycle where tier one is ready to go. We just have to go in there and do like infrastructure. But in fact, the only you’re underwriting with your carrying costs and we help everyone kind of look at that so they know what they’re getting into. But you know, it’s heavy hitting cashflow day one or you build a thing and do value.Micah Johnson (16:41)
Bia.Which one do you find yourself doing more?
Chris Long (16:57)
Lately, it’s just been the latter. I’ve just been doing the developments and because I’m a developer, I’m a contractor and we create a lot of value. My first property, I turned from 470,000 to 3.6 million by doing the value add play and I did it for low cost points and we’re doing it. We’ve done that multiple times now. So yeah, I like the development game. It’s my skill set. I love it. And but it is nice to just throwing buckets of money and scooping up that land that’s already cash flowing. I just haven’t, you know,We need some partners to help us kind of acquire that, but we know what the buy box looks like and how to do it.
Micah Johnson (17:33)
Right on man, right on. Well, you’ve been operating, okay, so you’ve been going, 2017 you bought your first commercial, right? That’s when you’ve been going at this. So you’ve got a track record of doing this now. Now, what’s 2026 looking like for you? How many projects, are there a number of projects you’re trying to get done? Do you already have some going? Like where are at and what your year looks like?Chris Long (17:55)
Right. So it’s funnybecause we went through a growth spurt and we had our first locations that we went and we locked in three more and we’re really focused on sequencing. So lately it’s get these ones on a contract and just focus on dialing in the cost of acquisition and operational efficiency. So right now our sequence is just, you know, make sure that that is sound and strong. Now it is a very new concept still. So there’s a lot of brand awareness that has to happen in the market, even though I’m new to it and everybody knows about it. So as much as I want to spread like wildfire,
You know, I’ve seen and grown too fast as a general contractor in the past. So there’s methodical steps to our growth. So in terms of the sequencing, it’s just build our fort right now, get the foundation strong, get the learning lessons. And then we are, we took in a safe agreement last year to capitalize for this growth. And we’re doing another round for the corporate entity. And then we’re starting a fund and then we’re to go to the next phase. So we’re probably in next, I would say two to four months, we’re going to the sequencing of the financial prep and the
operational strengthening is going to be ready and then we’re going to be going on to acquire next properties. And I would say on the minimal, I want to put three to six more on our portfolio by the end of the year.
Micah Johnson (19:03)
Love that man. I want to step back into one thing you said, because I want, we got a lot of folks, business owners that listen to this. You experienced what it was like to grow too fast as a contractor. And then now what you just described as your process for growth is a very intentional way of going about it, where you are building, you’re setting yourself up for growth. Because take us into that. What were the lessons that you learned from that first experience ofwhat growing too fast even means and then what that’s doing for you and your business now.
Chris Long (19:35)
Yeah, lot of lessons came with that. mean, I was a young dad at 20. I was an apprentice carpenter. ⁓ I named my construction company after my grandfather, Conrad Construction. And we were going like this. I went from, you know, having 12 jobs and 16 employees to doing a lot of work very quickly. And I was buying real estate, flipping houses. And then, you know, we did a large commercial contract, didn’t get paid. I went from all those employees and all those jobs to not being able to afford gas and buy myself.Now a lot of great lessons came with that. was painful, it was hard, but I actually kept the company name. I paid off everybody, I couldn’t pay myself. And then I built it back up from one employee. And then I went to four employees and I made more money being more efficient. And ⁓ then I went into the commercial real estate. So actually I leveraged and bought long yards at that time because I, with my skillsets and knowledge, I was like, okay, I’m to do the game, but play it a little differently. So, you know, there’s tons of lessons and everything that came with that. And that’s just a few of them.
Micah Johnson (20:32)
I love the one you pointed out, man, because more and get bigger isn’t always the answer. Typically, it’s where a lot of businesses go to die, because if you’re not ready for it, if it’s not set up correctly, it’s owner of Rakuten, he talks about the rule of three and 10. Like when your business three Xs and then 10 Xs, each time it does that, you need different tools. What got you to there isn’t gonna get you to that next level. And if you build like you’re talking about without that foundation,brings you to hard places, but it’s also, man, I don’t know any successful entrepreneurs that haven’t had to kind of learn that road bump because it’s just part of the journey. It’s part of what you go through, but it leads to the value that you can provide later because where you’re at now, the ability to raise money, have people trust you, pull these jobs off, the business that to take 47 grand to eight figure business.
You don’t do that without some lumps and anybody that wants to work with you, man, they want you to have some lumps. Like the older you get in this business, you realize somebody comes at you saying everything’s been perfect forever. The doors that way, like run away. Like I’m more impressed by what people have lived through. What have you overcome accomplishments? Those are based on something you had to overcome. Tell me about that because that’s where you really find that in people. So I appreciate you sharing that story because if there’s any business owners out there,
Chris Long (21:36)
Anyway.Micah Johnson (21:53)
and you found yourself in that place. One, take a deep breath, you’re okay. A lot of folks walk through there. And two, now what? What are you gonna do now to build your way out? What are those next steps you apply these lessons and keep moving? I love that, man. So before we end here, what’s something you wanna leave everybody with? What’s that final message for our listeners?Chris Long (22:15)
Oh man, just go for it. I was sitting on the first Longhorns location in 2017 and I sat on it for year and a half. My wife kicked my butt. She’s like, Chris, do it, do it. And you know, the wife’s always right. And I find myself saying that and that even to today, she’s like, you see what it did for us? You had to believe it. She’s done it faster. So like, you know, if your guts telling you and your mind’s messing with you, go with your gut. You know, I’m going to say go with your gut because your intuition is usually, it rules the logic. So I mean, yeah, man, I still love that entrepreneurial spirit.And like if you love something, the pain of regret is greater than ⁓ the consequence of kind of going through it and the lessons you’re gonna learn. Because at the end of the day, we die with nothing, you You gotta go with what you love doing and push through every day, man.
Micah Johnson (23:02)
Love that, I love that. It’s one of my favorite questions I ask myself each day. What do you wanna say you did? When all you got left is a story to tell. Man, what kind of story do you wanna tell? And that’s the same thing. Leave it on the field. While you can, do it. So I love that message. Everybody, thanks for joining with us today. Chris, thanks for being here, man. I loved our conversation. I think we need more folks out there like yourself, doing it the right way, building something real, passing that knowledge along. So man, I wanna.Glad to be a part of your journey, help build that brand awareness for you guys. If you’re listening in, watching, thanks for joining us today. Chris, for those that are doing that, if they want to find out more about you, follow along with your story. What’s the best way for them to find you?
Chris Long (23:42)
They can check me onInstagram. It’s @ChrisLongyards or go to longyards.com and fill out a form to learn more. And my YouTube channel is just launching. We’re kind of a little behind on that, but for now it’s Instagram.
Micah Johnson (23:54)
Love that man. All right, if you’re listening, watching in, check our show notes. We’ll have all Chris’s links there. Like I say, when you meet a professional, reach out to them. If this is something you’re interested in, talk to people who are actually doing it. Take advantage of that. Follow along. Again, Chris, thanks for being here. Thanks everybody for listening and watching along. You got value out of today’s episode. Please like this episode, share it with someone else you think can get value out of it. As always, please don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast. We appreciate every single one of you that follows along out there with us. We’ll see you on the next episode.
