As self storage portfolios grow, so do the challenges of keeping operations consistent, data reliable, and performance optimized across multiple facilities.
Whether you own two locations or twenty, operators must answer an inevitable question: Should we keep management in-house or hire a third-party management company?
It’s a critical decision with long-term implications for scalability, profitability, and even asset value. Both models can be effective, but the one that works best for your business depends on your growth plan as well as how you’ll handle technology, marketing, and customer service.
To make deciding easier, this article takes a look at the pros and cons of each model and recommends when self management works best and when third party management is optimal for self storage.
For many self storage owners, managing in-house starts as a natural choice. You know your market, you control decisions, and you don’t pay a management fee.
This works well at a small scale. If you’re only operating a couple of facilities, then you, a site manager, and some support staff can probably handle most of the work.
We see small, independent operators self manage their facilities for years based on their preference for these advantages. But if you start growing your portfolio, a number of challenges start to emerge.
Each site can evolve its own playbook. Without standardized processes, performance diverges, and you lose visibility into what’s really driving results. The operational workload increases exponentially. Even the addition of one facility can radically change the demands of your business.
Acquiring a new facility also means absorbing whatever systems were in place. We’ve onboarded numerous facilities that were running on pen and paper or an Excel spreadsheet.
Even if the facility is digital, the property management software might not integrate with marketing tools, revenue management systems, or accounting.
Part of self management is building a tech stack, maintaining that technology, and integrating each of your facilities into that tech stack.
Building a team in one market is doable. But if you start expanding to different markets, the complexity of hiring, training, and management become significantly more complex.
Without centralized data, it’s difficult to track portfolio-wide KPIs like economic occupancy, delinquency, protection plan attachment rates, or ECRI performance.
Unless you’re already knowledgeable about data analysis, you’ll likely need to hire someone to oversee the reporting for your portfolio.
Payroll, benefits, marketing vendors, accounting software, call centers, and training all add up. Operators need to look beyond hard costs: How much time and energy will running a growing portfolio require?
When those costs are spread across even a few facilities, efficiency usually declines with self management, unless the operator builds out an entire management team.
In short: in-house management provides control, but not necessarily scale.
Third-party management companies like White Label Storage exist to solve these exact scalability challenges. By pooling resources, technology, and expertise across hundreds of facilities, they create economies of scale individual owners can’t match on their own.
Third-party operators already have the systems in place, like property management software, accounting integration, call centers, digital marketing, and revenue management tools. Instead of building from scratch, owners plug into a fully developed operational engine.
In terms of scale and onboarding new facilities, third-party management also has some clear advantages. Hear how Tyson Boldan, Owner of Owl Storage, was able to add several facilities to his portfolio in a short period of time.
A good management company will already have robust reporting capabilities built out, so every client property benefits from enterprise-level reporting and analytics.
Owners get a clear view of performance across their entire portfolio—collections, occupancy, protection penetration, and rate management—without the burden of managing the systems themselves.
Pricing and rent increases are some of the most complex parts of scaling storage operations. Sophisticated management firms deploy technology and first-hand experience to optimize rates dynamically, which balances both occupancy and revenue in real time.
Third-party teams manage hundreds of facilities, and they improve their practice through learnings gathered across their management portfolio. They see what works (and what doesn’t) across markets and asset classes. That cross-portfolio insight helps owners avoid costly trial and error and make the right decisions.
These service providers also act as self storage marketing agencies by implementing promotions, SEO strategies, and PPC campaigns. Their in-house marketing experts allow operators to leverage performance-focused marketing without having to spend months learning how each channel works.
Rather than having to hire and train new staff for every facility they acquire, operators can rely on the centralized marketing, training, and technology of third-party management to lower per-facility costs.
Owners gain access to REIT-level tools and staff (marketing experts, site managers, and operations specialists) without paying full salaries and benefits for each and every role.
Whether your facilities share a single brand or operate under different flags, management companies can standardize customer experience, online presence, and SOPs, which are critical for differentiating each facility against its local competition and attracting new tenants.
The most common hesitation around third-party management is the management fee, but looking at a single number doesn’t tell the whole story.
Yes, any storage management company will charge a fee, but when comparing cost, owners should consider:
For example, if third-party management increases NOI by just 10%, it can translate to hundreds of thousands in added facility value at disposition or refinance, which far exceeds the fee structure.
Tenant protection is another example. By improving the attachment rate for tenant protection, operators can often cover the cost of a management company purely through tenant protection revenue (if the split is beneficial to the owner).
Let’s compare how both models perform across key areas that determine scalability:
Third-party management isn’t right for everyone. Some owners prefer the control, especially if they operate a small number of facilities within driving distance and already have strong internal systems.
In-house can make sense if:
For everyone else — especially owners with multi-state portfolios or ambitious acquisition pipelines — third-party management tends to deliver better long-term scalability and stability.
At White Label Storage, we’ve seen firsthand how professional management transforms growth trajectories for owners.
Many of our clients started as hands-on operators managing a few local sites. As their portfolios expanded, they faced increasing challenges—disconnected systems, inconsistent reporting, and stretched teams.
Our partnership model allows them to:
Self storage is still a fundamentally local business, but scaling it successfully requires enterprise-level systems, data, and discipline.
In-house management offers control, but at scale, it often trades consistency and efficiency for flexibility. Third-party management, on the other hand, offers the infrastructure, analytics, and operational depth needed to grow profitably across markets.
The right partner can turn management from an operational burden into a competitive advantage. Schedule a demo with our team and discover how we can help scale your portfolio and maximize facility performance.
