Why He Quit Rental Properties for Self Storage Investing | Brian Laing

Brian Laing (00:00)
you get knocked down twenty times in a day. every person would would question, like, what am I doing here? It’s

Meghan Escobar (00:04)
Sure.

Brian Laing (00:05)
just the it’s just the freedom.

it’s being able leave the office and head over to my daughters my three daughters field hockey game and then going out to dinner and going on vacation on a whim. It’s just that’s what, continues to drive and drive me to to keep growing and to keep building.

Meghan Escobar (01:53)
Hello and welcome back to Real Estate Pros podcast hosted by Investor Fuel. I am your host today, Meghan Escobar, and I have an individual on the show with us today who’s gonna talk about his journey from investor and building his investment portfolio and now is in the world of self-storage spaces where he owns quite a few different locations and he’s gonna tell us about his journey.

what it took for him to get there and all the great things that came along with it, his time freedom and all of the things. So with that being said, and further ado, I would love to introduce Brian Laing owner and operator of Laing Self Storage. Brian, thank you for being on the show.

Brian Laing (02:34)
I appreciate you having me.

Meghan Escobar (02:35)
Absolutely, Brian. for those who might not be familiar with your name or what self-storage is, and how that can monetize as a business, would you mind giving us a thirty thousand foot view of, that looks like and what markets you’re operating in?

Brian Laing (02:50)
Yeah, so Laing Self Storage, obviously it’s my last name, but I born and raised in upstate New York, so our family has been in business since nineteen seventy. So the name was people are familiar with us. and so I it was just kind of a no brainer to the name it what we did. And self storage is is is quite simple. and we just

We’ve we found properties that are are conducive to non flood zones we we we’ve bootstrapped all our facilities to where we we’ve built out repurposed buildings and built out the the storage to just help the community out more or less. So kinda where we’re at.

Meghan Escobar (03:23)
Okay. Perfect. Perfect. And with all that being said here, I mean, is there talk to us a little bit about your journey from when you started in investment, building your investment portfolio into what took you into moving into the self storage space.

Brian Laing (03:38)
So I in five I moved home from San Diego back to Binghamton and my father had asked me if I wanted to work in the family business. So started off were learning and understanding all the modalities of of what that business was and eventually took over the business in five, so late five and with that came some properties that weren’t being utilized correctly.

Mm. And while running the family business, I took on two of the properties that we we would basically just run out to commercial companies, construction companies or we had a taxi company in one of them and and unfortunately that that they would leave in the middle of a lease or they would just take off and not pay and

So that was a little frustrating with with that aspect. And then we I invested in a couple split level units. and as fast as I bought I sold them just because I didn’t want to deal with the the constant phone calls of whether it was light bulbs or or washer and dryers or or hot water tanks or leaky pipes. So so I I got out of that business as well. and I

And I and it wasn’t I guess it wasn’t the right time. I just kinda sat back in the properties because we just left them vacant for a little bit. And I invested in a in a restoration company in fifteen and then in sixteen, seventeen, my my five year contract was coming to an end with that restoration company. So I ended up that’s when I got back into real estate and I bought a thirty thousand square foot building for about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

repurpose the entire property into self storage. my father at the time had just been diagnosed with cancer, but he was my only kind of working hand that I could I could find that I could rely on. So the two of us built the entire facility just just the two of us at night. and then that’s what kind of led into some of the other properties that we own that we repurposed into those self storage as well. So

Meghan Escobar (05:20)
Right. Beautiful. And you mentioned that you still have some properties under your management that you, originally purchased. You wanna talk to us a little bit about that? What that looks like for you.

Brian Laing (05:31)
Yeah, so we have so one of the properties we own is a five thousand square foot building. And that is one of the buildings we turned into temperature control storage. And albeit it’s it’s a smaller footprint, but the building’s paid off and it actually sits on a highway where that generates about fifteen to twenty thousand cars a day. So really it’s just free advertisement for all our other facilities.

and then the other property that

We had the family businesses that I ran for since five. sits on eight acres. We have two warehouses on that eight acres. Okay. Repurposing those buildings into temperature controlled storage at at the moment. So that’s kind of in the process right now. So so out of the two properties that I kind of was gifted after my father died.

we’ve turned into temperature control storage, but over the course of the past four or five years we’ve expanded and bought other properties outside of Breen County and or Binghamton and have expanded our portfolio.

Meghan Escobar (07:09)
Perfect. right. So just continuing to to build and grow in the space. And one thing that I always like to bring up is time. I mean, you’ve been an entrepreneur for quite some time, Brian. Is that safe to say?

Brian Laing (07:21)
Yeah, I got the itch when I was probably thirteen or fourteen years old. So wow. Yeah.

Meghan Escobar (07:25)
Wow. So you’ve got a couple of decades in at least. Yeah. And so with that, every operator and owner that I’ve ever had the opportunity to sit and connect and chat with, there’s always a pivotal point. There’s always a, deal had gone wrong or just something that I always like to highlight a failure that maybe could have gone left that maybe

maybe took you in a better direction. Can you think back to any moments in your journey that

maybe define that.

Brian Laing (07:55)
Yeah. I could I probably have thirty or forty of that if I would have allowed I probably would’ve gone out and find a a nine to five job just so I didn’t have to deal with it. But know, ultimately I every every scenario I’ve had I’ve I’ve been through, the biggest one was just getting involved with the wrong people.

partnering with the wrong people, trying to you people come into your life whom you you want to trust and you learn to trust and in the end they they they really let you down. So that’s been my biggest hurdle is just,

Finding people who can can help, who can help you grow, who have your best intentions, that’s been the biggest hurdle. I mean be besides family, my wife, my mom, my dad, outside of that, it’s been difficult. I think that’s been the l the hardest the hardest part. Just

Meghan Escobar (08:38)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Laing (08:39)
partnering with the right people and setting up the right expectations and

And I looking back, I mean, like I said, there’s probably thirty or four different thirty or forty different situations that I’d I’ve had to deal with, but I think that’s been the hardest one and then being able to I guess learn how to trust again.

Meghan Escobar (08:53)
Absolutely. And so you mentioned there were you within those periods of times where you maybe got disappointed or had an expectation that didn’t turn out exactly how you had wanted it to. they say expectations lead to failure or discouragement, if you will. you you mentioned that y you thought

Maybe you give it all up and go and get a nine to five. What kept you going?

Brian Laing (09:58)
I say it often, it’s like, ugh, you know, I and I think entrepr every entrepreneur goes through it. they get they hit a wall and again, I looking back, I think maybe it’s that college athlete in me that or just the way I was raised that, you get knocked down. It’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s it’s how many times you get up, right? I think everybody hears that that phrase. So and I

In the in the grand scheme of things, again, family is what really continues to make me get up every morning and continue doing this. I thoroughly enjoy it. I love self storage, I love real estate, I love working for myself. but again, you get

you get knocked down twenty times in a day. think every every person would would question, like, what am I doing here? It’s

Meghan Escobar (10:33)
Sure.

Brian Laing (10:34)
just the it’s just the freedom.

it’s being able leave the office and head over to my daughters my three daughters field hockey game and then going out to dinner and going on vacation on a whim. It’s just that’s what, continues to drive and drive me to to keep growing and to keep building.

So

Meghan Escobar (10:49)
Thank you for sharing that. It’s usually, if i if it was if it was just you, do you think, Brian, that you would have kept going if you didn’t have, your three little girls and your wife to, be there and take care of?

Brian Laing (11:01)
Yeah, again, I I mean I since thirteen or fourteen, I’ve years old, I’ve always kind of I’ve I’ve been working. Yeah. it’s I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and it’s and it’s really just because of what I’ve seen my parents go through. they moved here to Binghamton in nineteen seventy. They opened up a a business, a very successful business that lasted up until about four months ago, five months ago. Wow. So

So yeah, I mean it’s just it’s just in my blood. I’ve tried after college I’ve I had some some opportunities to work for some some people and it went well. I learned a lot. I learned whether from the production side of the business to the management side of a business to the financials and I really

on any job I I had taken after college, I jumped right in and tried to learn as much as I possibly could because I knew one day that I’d I’d be working for myself and all those experience, have led me to where I’m sitting today. and yeah, no, I don’t I wouldn’t change it. and I having having my daughters, my wife and, they they just motivate me to to get bigger and to grow and and but I don’t think

I don’t think it’s in me, it’s just not who I am, just to quit. I think being a college athlete is a hockey player and it’s just they’re we’re just built differently, I guess, and we just keep keep going. you could fail a hundred times, but you’re just gonna keep up and keep going and keep trying to make

Meghan Escobar (12:13)
That’s right.

Brian Laing (12:13)
things better. So

Meghan Escobar (12:14)
Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. And then we talked a little bit about networking and what that looks like for you. And I know as of right now, you’re not really part of any groups, but throughout your journey, has it made a difference for you, with creating certain relationships and having a mentor or,

Yeah, what does that look like? What’s made the biggest difference for you?

Brian Laing (12:36)
Yeah, over time you meet a ton of people in all walks of life and whether they’re in real estate or or self-storage or they’re a the CEO of a major corporation, you you can take bits and pieces from all of them. my father was my biggest mentor. taught me work values, work ethics. he a as far as when I was thirteen, he’s teaching me how to sweep a floor and that it wasn’t about sweeping the floor, it was about the

the lessons about sweeping the floor, paying the dent paying attention to details. And took me a while to get that. But so I at the moment I’m I’m not in any I’m not in any mastermind classes or anything like that. It’s just I have people whom I have met over the years, whether it was in a teacher from boarding school or a hockey coach, a a a friend from from high school who’s a major

CEO of a of a food brand right now. I mean I I have people in my my Roldex whom I can reach out to and discuss ideas with and concepts with and and and then of course, through social media I’ve met some some major self storage gurus, I guess, and to the point where I’m allowed to they’ve allowed me to reach out to and ask questions and and they’ve been helpful as well. So

Meghan Escobar (13:38)
Beautiful. Awesome. So it would you say that it’s pretty important as an entrepreneur to, have somebody that you can reach out to and connect with who might be at a certain level of success that you’re not at yet and that can kind of help you get there.

Brian Laing (13:51)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I like to think I know a lot, but there’s days where it’s like, there’s some things that you come across that you’ve never seen before or ever had to deal with. So yeah, it’s important to have people in your corner whom you can rely on. you know, again, they don’t have to be in self storage or real estate. It could just be, how to be a better father or or, a better coach or you or to be a g a better girl dad, It’s just

It can be anything. so yeah, it’s highly important to have people in your in your corner who not only cheer you on and give you the right the right information, but also just they’re there for you, whether you’re down down and out of luck or you’re at the top of your top of your game. Mm-hmm.

Meghan Escobar (14:26)
Absolutely. And I agree with you a hundred percent. You just relationships are everything in in business and space, especially in the real estate world. So definitely want to put yourself out there and find a a mentor or somebody that you can trust to help you, build, keep your mindset right, all the things, right? So before we do wrap up here, Brian, if somebody did want to reach out and connect with you and

and learn, how to take the first steps into getting their first like self-storage location or how to s how to get started, what would be the best way for them to reach you?

Brian Laing (14:59)
you can reach me at my email, which is [email protected], or they can reach me in my office at at our 607-775-9776. Those are the the easiest two ways of of of reaching me. Perfect.

Meghan Escobar (15:12)
Perfect. And we’ll be sure to drop those down below. So you don’t have to pause, rewind, go back. The information will be right there for you below the show here. So thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate you sharing your story, your time, your perspective. and just, you know, sharing with the audience on how you got started and how you’re positioning yourself in your business today. So thank you so much again.

Brian Laing (15:35)
Thank you.

Meghan Escobar (15:35)
Absolutely. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got any value from this, please be sure to hit like and subscribe. We are always bringing on guests with owners and operators, just like Brian here, who are building real businesses in real time with real people. We will see you on the next episode.