I'm landing more deals this year than I ever have, and the short version is: it comes down to mindset—consistency, a tight buy box, and actually taking action—plus a handful of tactical tweaks that make the pipeline productive.

I talk about consistency like it's brushing your teeth: do it often and well, don't hop around tasks, and you'll build momentum instead of excuses. Knowing your buy box means more than just city and square footage—it’s the markets you hunt, the sizes you underwrite, how you plan to finance or exit a deal, and even the exact terms you're willing to accept. Once you nail that, you can say no fast and yes when it counts.

On tactics, we doubled down on market knowledge, got creative with seller financing (two of the recent deals used it), tightened our underwriting by modeling tenant insurance and fee income, and leaned on a great team so I can spend time finding deals instead of answering maintenance calls.

The result? We're at multiple deals in a short span—three deals in about ten months and the potential for six locations stacked into the portfolio—without going balls-to-the-wall reckless. My growth goal is steady cash flow and a healthier team, not just unit count, and that focus lets us scale sustainably while still having time to actually run the business.

If you want the nitty-gritty on any of those tactics—how I underwrite tenant insurance, structure seller notes, or build a buy box—I walk through the specifics so you can steal the playbook (nicely, of course).

Speed is the single most important competitive advantage I lean on in business — especially in self-storage deals — and being fast often wins me the first look and the contract. I talk about real examples: a facility I’d chased for seven years finally came up and because I answered a broker’s email and call within minutes, I put in strong offers before others even woke up; that kind of responsiveness turns pocket listings into closed deals.

My practical rule is this: get 80% of the information up front, underwrite quickly, and move — perfectionism kills opportunities, and I’ll happily remind you that “perfection is a form of laziness.”

To move fast you’ve got to simplify: know your buy box, know what type of investor you are, streamline underwriting so you can decide in 30 seconds to a few minutes, and set processes (or a team) to handle leads and vendor quotes immediately.

Speed isn’t recklessness — don’t forget your metrics and legal protections — but it does build trust with brokers, vendors, and sellers who want partners that respond. I also share tactical stuff we use, like rapid auto-text replies for new leads and clear turnaround promises, because uncluttering your inbox and life makes speed sustainable.

Bottom line: get comfortable with good-enough information, act quickly, and you’ll see how many doors that opens.

Chris Long rents dirt to contractors — literally: fenced, gated yard spaces leased month-to-month, which he calls “self-storage for contractors.” We dig into how the model works (secure yards with keypad or smartphone locks, appropriately sized lots for trailers and equipment, and simple online signups) and why it’s attractive: B2B tenants, predictable cash flow, and a gap between no-frills Craigslist lots and big industrial leases.

I also walk through Chris’s origin story — from apprentice carpenter to GC, a brutal commercial contract that wiped him out, and the scrappy comeback where he cut trees, pre-sold yards, and built his first location while basically broke.

We explain the practical stuff: how to validate demand (there’s demand everywhere if you unlock supply), the zoning and city headaches you’ll face, and why you need capital plus a reliable operator to test a market.

We don’t sugarcoat it — this isn’t a passive beach business; operating yards requires eight different skill sets (sales, delinquency handling, repairs, bookkeeping, site operations, etc.), even if the team stays lean.

Finally, we cover the tools and systems that let us scale — training on School, ClickUp, Slack, HighLevel CRM, and plans for custom software — and how to reach us if you want to learn more (long.com).