RELO Roundtable…a gathering place

  The 2009 second quarter results of the Self Storage Confidence Index (SSCI) were released last month and show some deflated expectations among some of the respondents.    The index, a collaborative effort within the do-it-yourself industry, measures what U.S. and Canadian self-storage business professionals anticipate about the current economic conditions and trends that affect [...]

Two topics that seem to be popular in business news recently are Twitter and Craigslist. I don’t use Twitter (yet) so I’ll leave that one alone. I recently wrote a piece for the Moving and Relocation page at Examiner.com urging folks shopping for relocation services to be careful when using online classifieds or bulletin boards [...]

  A state bill introduced in Michigan by Senator Dennis Olshove (D) in February would allow certain military members temporary relief from self storage operators in the state who normally have the right to deny a customer access to their stored property if they haven’t paid their bill. Provisions in the current lien language could [...]

  People who might be using self-storage facilities or other “properties” in the state of Virginia to store vehicles, boats, campers, etc., to hide from the tax man should be concerned.    Last week the Old Dominion’s Senate Finance Committee approved HB2289 which “Requires (i) entities that manage real property and maintain names of the [...]

  If you believe CBS News’ Scott Pelley (and who wouldn’t), when it comes to the mortgage mess, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!    In a December 14, 2008 60 Minutes report, The Mortgage Meltdown, CBS News sources suggest that there is a second wave of expected Alt-A and Option ARM mortgage defaults on the [...]

   PODS Enterprises, the original maker of the BIG white portable box, celebrated its 10th anniversary by announcing last week that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Wabash National’s DuraPlate Products Group to build and service all of the company’s Portable On-Demand Storage container requirements.   According to the press release, the company currently [...]

The Fall issue of Mobile Self Storage Magazine contained an article about Marketing to College Students that caught my attention because of the references to how some of the alternative self-storage and personal container box companies are positioning themselves in front of the 18 million students enrolled in colleges and universities across the United States.