A man in Ridgecrest, Calif., was arrested Tuesday after video surveillance showed him breaking into a unit at a self-storage facility.

Samson Pappe, 22, is charged with the Sept. 13 burglary at Ridgecrest Self Storage. A tenant of the facility told police he was contacted by the self-storage operator after someone used a code to enter the facility that did not match the code assigned to his unit. The lock on the unit had been cut and replaced with another lock.

After reviewing video surveillance, police identified Pappe as the burglar. Pappe is currently on probation for possession of a dangerous weapon. Hes being held on a $30,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 27.

To succeed in the self-storage business, facility owner/operators need well-trained and knowledgeable managers to run their facilities, but there are still many who have not yet come to that conclusion. They still believe that hiring poorly trained managers, throwing them into situations for which they are ill-prepared, and then insisting on a high level of performance will somehow work. It doesnt.

For many self-storage owners, their facility or portfolio represents a significant percentage of their net worth or assets. While they tend to take a great deal of effort in maintaining the physical plant, they often fail to make the same investment in their staff. But performance patterns are consistent across markets large and small, soft and growing: Facilities with better managers tend to have higher occupancy levels and rental rates. Its not a coincidence.

Heres a simple assessment owners can apply to your managers: Do you trust your familys well-being in their hands? If you do, great. If you dont, you need to give them the tools and support they need to improve, or replace them with better employees. You cant afford to put your business and family in jeopardy because your manager cannot do his job.

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Our industry has a touch of insanity when it comes to staffing. Many owner/operators and multi-facility managers fail to recognize the critical importance of their site managers and making good decisions from the beginning of the employment process. If you want better results from your personnel efforts, you have to do things differently.

Hire Right

When it comes to hiring, we make terrible decisions, sometimes out of desperation, other times due to personal relationships, sometimes based on an applicants work experience at 12 other self-storage facilities. Due to these and other reasons, we denigrate one of our most critical decisions and hand the keys of a multi-million-dollar storage facility to someone who might not be qualified to run a lemonade stand. Some owners spend more time shopping for a golf cart than on hiring their manager.

If we want a higher level of performance from our self-storage managers, we need to hire a higher level of employee. Our managers should be better educated and have great communication and people skills.

Offer Training

Too many owners send their managers off to do the job with an empty toolbox. They spend more money on a few lunches with their country-club pals than on training programs for their staff. Im continually surprised at how few operators take advantage of the training resources available in our industry. No matter how many participate in a particular seminar, workshop, webinar, etc., its still a small percentage of the whole.

There are many traits with which people are born, but being a self-storage manager is not one of them. Invest in training for your managers. Most want to do a great job but dont because the owner hasnt provided them with the right knowledge and resources. Provide sales, collections and time-management training, and youll be surprised at the return on your investment.

Get the Manager Involved in Marketing 

All too often, we focus on the small things and miss the big picture. Self-storage owners want to know what they can do to create more customer phone inquiries and walk-ins. What they should focus on is whether their manager is trained to handle the results of the facilitys marketing efforts. If your manager isnt turning an acceptable percentage of leads into rentals now, how will generating more leads make a difference?

If your manager is unprepared to handle the outcome of a successful marketing strategy, your effort is wasted. But it isnt always the managers fault. Perhaps he hasnt been told that a coupon is circulating, or that there are call-center leads awaiting follow-up. Its the owners responsibility to keep staff in the marketing loop.

Phone calls between potential customers and managers can become dead ends when a manager has no idea how to professionally and effectively turn those calls into rentals. Make sure your manager is involved in and knows how to implement your marketing strategy. Go visit apartment managers is not a marketing plan.

There are few businesses as manager-centric as self-storage. The manager has far more to do with the success of an operation in self-storage than in most other enterprises. Because of this, its more important to ensure you have the right person for the right job.

Your manager can make your facility a success or a failure. What you do about that all-important position says a lot about how you value your assets. Dont let failure to properly hire, train and motivate your manager be a real detriment to your business performance.

Bob Copper is partner in charge at Self Storage 101, an industry consulting firm that assists facility owner/operators and managers in developing more effective and profitable operational systems. It also aids in conducting performance reviews and providing the necessary tools to perform at higher levels in a competitive industry. To reach him, call 866.269.1311; e-mail bob@selfstorage101.com.

Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a publicly registered, non-traded real estate investment trust targeting the self-storage market, promoted Peggy Heimann from district manager to regional director of operations. She is responsible for the area comprising Chicago to Kentucky, the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic.

Heimann joined the company in October 2010 and has more than 14 years of self-storage experience. She previously worked for Sovran Self Storage and Metro Self Storage.

"Since joining our team, Peggy has shown strong leadership and has been a stand out among her peers, so when our growth called for a split in the duties of the director of operations, she was the clear choice for the position," said Robert Cerrone, senior vice president of operations.

Strategic Storage Trust, one of five publicly traded self-storage REITs in the United States, is the first and only one to not be publicly traded on the stock exchange. The companys facilities are branded as SmartStop Self Storage.

Since the companys launch in 2008, its portfolio has expanded to include 78 facilities in 17 states and Canada, comprising approximately 52,000 self-storage units and 6.4 million rentable square feet of storage space.

Storage Post Self Storage is joining other vendors Sept. 25 in Nyack, N.Y., for SeptemberFest, a community event featuring food, crafts and entertainment.

SeptemberFest is a large, diverse festival organized by the Nyack Chamber of Commerce in the village of Nyack. Storage Post will exhibit in a 10-foot-by-10-foot booth during the festival to promote self-storage solutions to the community and support the village.

"As a business within the area, we feel even more connected to our customers when we participate in neighborhood events. We enjoy Nyack's street festivals and sharing what we know about self-storage to those who attend," says Sebastyan Kopolovich, manager of the companys Suffern, N.Y., location.

Storage Post's locations actively participate in community festivals and fairs year-round and frequently sponsor special events within the communities in which theyre based.

SeptemberFest, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features 200 vendors displaying arts, crafts, jewelry, unique gifts, food and live entertainment, including jazz musicians, local artists, face painters, circus performers and rock bands. Admission is free.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Storage Post has locations throughout the East Coast of the United States and is actively pursuing self-storage acquisitions. 

Almond Tree Storage in Fairfield, Calif., recently sold for $3.4 million. The facility is located at 725 Railroad Ave. near Travis Air Force Base. Built in 1991 on approximately three acres, the facility has 438 self-storage units and 25 RV/vehicle parking stalls. Theres also a rental office with a full managers apartment.

Christopher R. Secreto and Joel Deis, investment specialists in the Seattle office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, listed the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor. Broker Stephen Stein assisted in the closing.

Marcus & Millichap specializes in commercial real estate investments. The company has more than 1,200 investment professionals in offices nationwide.

Storage Pros Management LLC acquired Extra Space Storage of Fall River, a 76,250-square-foot self-storage facility overlooking Interstate 195 in the southeastern Massachusetts city of Fall River.

The acquisition brings the companys holdings to 19 owned properties and 39 total properties under management comprising more than 2.2 million rentable square feet, including more than 19,000 storage units and outdoor parking spaces for rent.

The property will be rebranded Storage Pros Self Storage. It is the 10th property under management in Storage Pros New England District.

The Fall River property also represents the first acquisition by a newly-formed joint venture between Storage Pros and Virtus Real Estate Capital of Austin. The joint venture has two additional properties under contract and will continue to source properties for acquisition in shared target markets.

 The Fall River acquisition is a perfect fit for our existing management footprint in southeastern Massachusetts, said David Levenfeld, president and CEO of Storage Pros. The facility itself is the dominant property in its market. Further, we are confident that our joint venture with Virtus will lead to continued rapid growth in our target markets of New England, the Midwest and Southeast United States.

Storage Pros intends to invest in a substantial renovation and updating of the Fall River property. Debt financing for the transaction was provided by Eastern Bank of Boston.

Hollywood Self Storage of 851 Knights Road in Hollywood, Fla., was recently sold by a financial institution to a limited-liability company for $5.5 million. The 83,251-square-foot facility was built in 1972 on approximately 3.7 acres. It contains nine one- and two-story buildings comprising 795 units, 63 of which are climate-controlled. Also included on the property are 15 parking spaces for boats and RVs and a freestanding office building with a managers apartment.

The buyer and seller were represented in the transaction by Charles Chico LeClaire and Michael Mel, investment specialists at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.

 It was a great transaction for the seller because they are exiting the industry and a very opportune time for the new owner because they are re-entering and expanding in the Florida market, LeClaire commented. 

Founded in 1971, Marcus & Millichap is one of the nations largest firms specializing in commercial real estate investment services. With more than 1,200 real estate specialists in 70-plus offices, the company closed 4,302 transactions in 2010. Marcus & Millichap includes a National Self Storage Group that specializes in self-storage real estate transactions.

The Maine Self Storage Association will hold a membership meeting Oct. 27 at Pedro OHaras restaurant in Lewiston, Maine. The focus of the meeting will be the recent changes to the self-storage lien law, presented by Mark Adler, MeSSA vice president. Adler will also cover the updated self-storage lease template created for MeSSA members by industry attorney Scott Zucker.

The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Details about how to participate can be found on MaineSSA.com or the MeSSA Facebook page.

In June Maine Gov. Paul LePage signed Legislative Document 1428, "An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Self-Service Storage in the State," which includes improvements desired by the state's self-storage operators. The MeSSA and the national Self Storage Association led the effort to reform the statute.

Adler is the owner of Safe Storage, with locations in Springvale and Parsonsfield, Maine.