Posted by .

The doldrums are certainly present in today’s real estate markets, including self-storage. The winds are quiet. Sellers are hoping to get yesterday’s prices and most of the very aggressive buyers of the past few years are long gone. The remaining buyers tend to be very experienced self-storage owners and they are being very cautious. Thus, the market for buying and selling self-storage is slower and a lot more difficult these days. When sailors hit the doldrums, they all knew it was just a matter of time before the winds picked up again, but they also worried which way the wind would blow them when it started. Interestingly, that is also the case with the self-storage investment market today. The major questions are: when will the wind blow, in which direction will it blow, and how strong will it be when it comes? History tells us that real estate cycles are almost always longer than we expect, and the normal cycles are usually about three years depending on the location. However, brutal experience reminds me that they can last much longer.