Wentworth Property Co shares How to go from ZERO to 1 5BN in Self Storage Assets

THE SELF STORAGE REPORT — EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode: Inside Wentworth Property Co — $1.5 Billion in Self-Storage with David King & David Brown Guests: David King ("DK") — Managing Director, Self-Storage, Wentworth Property Co; David Brown ("DB") — Managing Director, Self-Storage Development, Wentworth Property Co (20+ years in self-storage; $1.5B+ transacted) Host: Chris Berg — "The AI Storage Guy," Abernathey Development Recorded: November 10, 2025 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNA7AGk3R-E Key topics: Not all capital partners are created equal, matching capital buckets to deal types (development / top-50 MSA value-add / secondary markets), expense ratios rising from 35% toward 50%, building into a tough street-rate market, in-place vs. asking rates, one- and two-story product vs. chasing rooftops, underwriting with REIT rent intel vs. online rates, $100–110/ft construction costs, large units with man-doors for small business tenants, the Buckeye/Verrado drive-up story, boots-on-the-ground market intel, community bank debt and non-recourse borrowing, basis discipline, the SoCal asset a fund partner forced them to sell, transparency and surety of close, conversion risks (bowstring-truss roofs), taxes (Bexar County, Colorado) and master-policy insurance, 10-year outlook, JV agreement mechanisms (crystallizing promotes, put/calls), developer mutual respect, "go down to the city and ask." Note: Speaker attribution reconstructed from raw captions of a three-voice conversation. Light cleanup of transcription errors only; wording preserved. ————————————————————————————— Chris Berg: Welcome to the Self Storage Report. I'm your host, Chris Berg — otherwise known as the AI Storage Guy. We've got a couple of very special guests joining us today: over 20-plus years in self-storage and over $1.5 billion — yes, with a B — billion dollars in self-storage there with Wentworth Property Co. We've got David King — he's the managing director of the overall self-storage asset class there — and also David Brown, with self-storage development; he's the managing director for the development arm. Gentlemen, it's great to have you with us. Very, very excited for this conversation. So, thank you. David King: Yeah, appreciate it, Chris. Great to be here — thanks for having us. Chris Berg: David King, I'm going to start with you. It's interesting — I'm going to start sort of at the end this time, do something a little bit different on this pod, because you both have such tremendous experience. And by the way, this should be fun — I'll just say "David" and you guys can take what you want. David King: Yeah, you can say Dave — or DK, or DB. We sort of settled a long time ago that I'd shorten up to Dave and he could stick with David. We had to do that; it was getting kind of confusing. Chris Berg: I was going to say — so DK, we'll start with you, my friend. What I'd love to know is: what's the single most important thing that you know today that you wish you would have known when you first started in the biz? David King: Oh man. I guess one thing is — not all capital partners are created equally. We've had a lot of different partners on a lot of different deals, and most of them great; some of them we probably aren't running back to do more deals with. When you start out in this business, you kind of take what you get. But I would just say: not all capital is created equal. Chris Berg: Can we dive into that a little more, guys? I want this to be like we're sitting around having a cup of coffee. So David Brown, if you want to jump in and ask questions or give him an elbow, please do. But let's dive deeper, because I think it's such an intriguing piece — oftentimes guys are like, "Hey, you're going to give me the money to go do the deal, I'll go do it," and they maybe don't realize the partner's going to call and say, "We need the exit right now." And you're like, "Wait, what? We're just about to get into our lease-up — this is where the growth phase is." And they say, "No — we want to sell." So tell me more about what you mean about capital partners. David King: Yeah. Wentworth is now a little over 10 years into this venture as a group. When we started, I had a little bit of a track record from my previous company, but I wasn't the guy dealing directly with our equity and capital partners at my old firm. So when we started this up, I had to be on the front line: who would be giving us money, and how that money was treated. Is it long-term? Is it short-term? Is it development money — higher risk, higher reward? Is it "go find value-add acquisitions"? And uniquely, with our company, we've done a lot of all of it. Usually partners are one or the other, not both. So we've got development capital that's a little higher risk, a little higher reward. Then we've got value-add acquisition capital for top-50 MSAs — a little less risk, a little lower reward, but more of an aggregation strategy: putting properties together and letting the market dictate when we go to sell them. Then we've also got a secondary-market strategy, where you need a little higher return, because you're more likely to get built into, or maybe the average household incomes are a little lower than some of the more infill markets — so your criteria have to change. In those secondary markets we look for bigger, higher-net-rentable properties, because that gives you higher gross income — in a world where our expenses continue to just grow and grow. Those ratios we got so comfortable with are growing: where we used to spend 35% of our gross income on expenses, now we're lucky to beat 50%. Still good — but different. Taxes have been a challenge. Insurance is a challenge. When you start going to markets down in the Southeast, you've got more risk related to weather. So we've put together all these different partners for different types of deals, which is great — because no matter what the broker brings us, we've got the right capital to do it, if it fits the box built around that partner. Chris Berg: I'm going to come back to the capital piece in a moment. DB, I want to bring you into the conversation — same question for you. Give us a little bit of your background in the business, and then: if there's one thing you're like, "Man, if I would have just known this when I first started..." David Brown: Yeah — that's a great question. I've been in commercial real estate for 20 years and self storage for about 13, and I don't want to do anything else the rest of my life. I think the one look-back is: pre-COVID, we probably wish we would have hung on to a little bit more, at the end of the day. But you can't predict those cycles. We were thinking we were getting to probably the back half of the cycle in 2019, so we kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit on development and seeking sites. Once COVID hit, it changed the whole market, right? Rents went through the roof, occupancies went through the roof, and there was this big rush to start finding more sites again. Chris Berg: Man, you guys bring up such great points — this podcast is going to go in a lot of different directions. David Brown: On the development side — there were several deals, especially right when COVID hit, when there was just some genuine fear in general. And there were some really good opportunities — stuff we see here locally — that we wish we would have executed on a little heavier. But you can't predict those things. There's always an ebb and flow in real estate. It's just timing. Chris Berg: You can't predict those things — and yet, what I really want to get at today, because as you guys know, listening to the REIT earnings calls, development is clearly going in a different direction now than it was even a few years ago. So my question, with your experience and your ability to see the patterns more adeptly than most: when you see supply going down, even though rates maybe aren't underwriting today — do you start to salivate from a demand standpoint and go, "I just know I've got to get some shovels in the ground, because these are going to be great assets"? Or are you more, "I want to mitigate risk, the rates aren't where they need to be, it just doesn't pencil, I'm going to be patient and wait"? David King: Yeah — I think we see it as an opportunity right now. When we slowed down our acquisition pipeline, probably in Q2 of 2023, we bulked up the development pipeline. And DB's right — I mean, we look back, and if you got into storage in the '90s, you wish you'd gotten in in the '80s. If you got in in the 2000s, you wish you'd gotten in in the '80s. If you got in in the 2010s, you wish you'd gotten in in the '80s, right? We missed on some deals, no doubt, and we sold some stuff early — but they were still wins for us. For a company like ours that does a lot of transactions, we have to keep up with a lot of deposits and a lot of due-diligence costs — our partners share some of that, not all of it, depending on the size of the deposits and the costs. But yeah, looking back, we wish we'd done more. And we continue, right now, to see it as an opportunity. It's kind of an inverse of what we're used to in storage, where our in-place rates are just a lot better than our asking rates. So 85% of our stabilized occupancy is paying a lot more than the 5 to 10% that we're cycling in on a monthly or every-other-month basis — and the customers we're losing are worth a lot more to us than the customers we're bringing in. We think that's trending back the other direction — to where your street rate is this, your concession is that, and it burns off after a year if they stay that long. So the critical point for us is: even though we're building into a tough street-rate market, we're trying to build the right product in the right location. We're not as high on multi-level as some groups are. We'd almost rather buy a little more land and deliver one- or two-story stuff that we can charge more for, because of the convenience of it — making sure we deliver the right product for the market we're in and for the specific site we're on. You're not going to see us chasing rooftops with three- and four-story product; we just don't think that's the right stuff for that tenant in that market. We take a lot of pride in being sensitive about what we build and where we build it. Even in a market with a little more supply than we'd like, we'll go in and build the product the other people don't have — so we can fill up faster. Because you can do a lot with occupancy. You can't take it to the bank, but you have a lot of leverage once you're full — with your lenders, with your rates. That's critical in this market: get full fast, which gives you options. If you're sitting on the wrong product for the wrong market at 20, 30, 40% occupied after a couple of years — that's where we're starting to see some distress and some problems. And knock on wood, we've been pretty good about not getting into that situation. Chris Berg: DB, anything to add? And to put a little button on it: as you underwrite, are you underwriting typically with street rates, or are you doing what he's saying — "look, we know once we get people in the door the rates are going to go up" — and giving yourself a little more grace with those rates to make deals pencil? David Brown: Yeah — and that's a really good question. Because if we were new to the business, and let's say we had six acres we wanted to build a self-storage facility on: you start understanding the cost to construct — which feels like it's every bit of $100 to $110 a foot these days — and you've got to have a really strong rent to make that pro forma pencil. And if you look at most REIT-managed or REIT-owned properties, you're going to see an asking rent that's 30, 40, 50 cents a foot. How do you make a $10-to-$20 million decision based off seeing those rents? We're pretty fortunate that we've got great relationships with Public and Extra Space, and we can ask questions and get some intel on what the true rent is within a market. But you've got to have that insight, because if you're just perusing online, it's very challenging. And the last thing: we see that climate control is a great thing to have, particularly in hot markets like Arizona — but the traditional drive-up unit, or an even larger unit bigger than a 10x40... We're building some units right now that are 1,200, 1,500 feet, with man-doors. They're playing to the small business operators out there. Those things get gobbled up quick, and for those tenants that's valuable space — they can't find it anywhere else. So understanding the rent profile for that is critical. Chris Berg: Wow. So are you integrating those bigger spaces into a typical self-storage asset, or doing more small-bay flex? David Brown: Yeah — in fact, we've got one being built right now in Estrella, and it's got larger 12-by-50 units that are actually going to have man-door access next to the storage door. It's a different product — but you can't do an entire facility of that. I guess you could if you wanted to, but it's hard to get them to pencil. So there's a little gut instinct in knowing we're going to be able to get a good enough rate to make those units pencil. Chris Berg: One of the things I appreciate about what you're both saying: it sounds like you go into a market and ask, "What's the need of this market? How do I meet that need with this project?" I'm curious how you reverse-engineer that — because a lot of guys are just sitting in Excel docs going, "How do I make the numbers work for me?" rather than "we've got to make sure this fits the market." What's your process? David Brown: A perfect example would be our Buckeye property. You've got a tremendous amount of growth out in Verrado. StorQuest built a beautiful self-storage facility right at the entrance — a big three-story. We owned a drive-up facility down the road, and everybody wanted drive-up for their toys — UTVs, motorcycles, you name it. That's what they wanted. So we ended up buying five acres, and we made the business decision to do single-story. It's got climate control, single-story, but it's all single-story drive-up at the end of the day. We're delivering that in May. It's yet to be seen if it'll be successful — but our market intelligence out there was that people wanted drive-up. Chris Berg: So do you guys have a marketing arm that's literally calling people in the community saying, "We're going to build this — what do you want?" David Brown: If you want to call Dave and me getting in the truck and going out and talking to managers "the marketing arm" — I mean, that's what it is. That's the kind of intel you've got to go out and get. You can't just look at it on Google and make a $15-to-$18 million business decision based off what you see on a computer. You've got to get out there, talk to managers, and see what's going on in the real world. Chris Berg: I want you to dive deeper on that, because I think there have been a lot of projects — this is just anecdotal, I can't prove it to you — where guys saw these four, four-and-a-half caps trading and thought, "I can go put up some steel and make money," without thinking about the market at all. So if you wouldn't mind, go a little deeper on what you do to assess the market and make sure you've got product-market fit. David King: Yeah — I can give you an example, and it's back to what David was saying about touring a really nice facility in a really nice market that's occupied. We'll go talk to the manager and be pretty transparent, honestly: "We don't want to come in anywhere near you and ruin your business — so what don't you have that you get asked for?" In that case, out in Verrado, I think the manager told us he had maybe a four- or five-page list — over a hundred people — begging him to add some drive-up space, some parking, some canopied space. And you know, we're not "boat and RV guys." We're not "flex space guys." We're not "multi-level guys." We're not "single-story guys." We kind of do it all in one, if we can. If we spend the money to get someone through the door, the worst case for us is not having the type of unit to accommodate whatever that need is. Frankly, if you give people what they need, they'll stay longer, and you'll have more flexibility on modest rent increases — and they'll stay. That's what I still love about storage: it's just not that expensive compared to what people pay for monthly. A couple hundred dollars in your budget is a lot cheaper than most of the things I pay for — school, landscaping, pool service, whatever. They're all more expensive than storage. So as long as you have the right product, relatively the right pricing, in the right areas — you can play with those numbers. But you've got to get them in the door, and you've got to have the right thing for the area. Chris Berg: Let's go back to the public rates versus internal rates. So — "okay Chris, we found a site we like," we talked about how you underwrite, you've got good relationships with some of the REITs. But then you've got to go get debt. I'm assuming you use loans, or is it all equity? David King: No — we do a lot of debt. Chris Berg: That's what I assumed. So you take that pro forma to the bank. What's your pitch? Because right now, with where rates are, I can't imagine the bank is like, "Hey, here's a bunch of money." David King: I mean — that is the track-record thing with us. We do mostly community bank debt. Warm bodies — people that we know, that we go to baseball games with, or play golf with, or go to happy hour or lunch with. These are people who trust that our intentions are good, and we've done it a long time. It is hard, though. The models are hard right now, and we have to lean on our network of partners and vendors — and we do a lot of mystery shopping, both on the phone and in person. But I think there's a lot of trust from our lenders. We've seen the worst of times right now — it's probably the worst run, rent-wise, that I've seen since 2005 or '06 when I got into the business. And you hit the nail on the head: it is a hard argument. When you're building stuff, you have to have good relationships. We're also an all-non-recourse borrower — we make no excuses about it when we talk to lenders. If they're not willing to do that, we move on to the next option. Lower leverage, more equity, good partners. If we need to solve a problem with a loan, it's typically more equity — and our partners are willing, and we're willing, to solve those short-term problems. So yeah — typically lower-leverage loans, and more equity in the mix. Chris Berg: Dave, since you're head of development — any comments about going to the banks? And from the equity standpoint, anything you want to add about your pitch to equity partners? David Brown: Yeah — the most important thing is basis, right? You can have a reduced rent apply if your basis is really attractive. If your basis is super high and you're not seeing those rents, it's just not going to pencil. So we focus heavily on that — making sure we're not overpaying for land, even in the spots we may really want to be. It's a critical part of the pie. Most of our lenders are repeat lenders. They have an understanding of where things were and where things are going with self-storage rents, so it makes life a little easier now. Eight, nine years ago it was more challenging. It was certainly challenging coming out of COVID — a lot of the banks just wanted deposits, and in some cases very extreme deposits that just wouldn't work for us. But we've been able to get through it. It's been good. You've got to focus on the basis. Chris Berg: Let's hear some anecdotes. DK, you mentioned not all capital partners are created equal — not to call anybody out, but maybe share some stories where you went in thinking one thing and now you're probably not going back to that kind of situation. What did you mean specifically, and what would you suggest people be aware of? David King: DB can touch on this too, but one that comes to mind is a Southern California asset that he spent a lot of time getting zoned and entitled and permitted — and our partner just got cold feet and said, "Sell it." They had the right to do that. We took it to the market and sold it, and we look back and wish we still owned that one, I'll just tell you that. We're real focused on demographics — three-mile bodies, three-mile income — and that one had 300,000 people in three miles, and it was a bear to get it done. The guys who own it now — we know them, because it's a small world — they love to remind us, or thank us again, for selling it to them. But we've done that too, right? We've sold some stuff at times where the guys who bought it thought they were making a great buy, and they'll remind us they're not looking forward to buying more from us — sort of joking. Timing means a lot, like it always has. That situation was just a lack of discretion we had with that partner. We went to them and said, "Guys, I think this is a mistake. I think we should hold on to it — we got it this far, let us build it." And they said, "Our fund is ending, and we see some risk with the market right now — dump it." That's happened a couple of times. Not a lot. But we've earned the partners we have today through what we went through the first eight years of being in the storage business as a group — and we got to be a little pickier when we picked our new partners. One of the groups we work with now — we did a bunch of stuff with them five or six years ago, they got cold feet, we went and found a new partner, and now they're back saying, "Guys, we want to do more." And we're like, "We found someone new. If they say no, we're happy to come back and do deals with you, because we like you — but we've got to dance with the date that brought us." We're very loyal, very transparent. And we're great buyers — that's another thing, not to get off track, but we get that comment from sellers and brokers a lot: they love doing deals with us because we're very transparent through the process. If something comes up, we don't sit on it — we get on a call, get it out, and work through it. People appreciate that; we certainly appreciate it when we're selling. That transparency has served us really well when it comes to sellers picking buyers. They'll say, "I've heard nothing but good things about transacting with you guys — I don't know anything about this other guy. He's willing to pay me a little more, but surety of close is as important as ever right now." That's something we're really proud of: the transparency and the relationships we've built on both the selling and buying side. Chris Berg: DK, thanks for mentioning that. DB, I want your thoughts too, but I just want to throw in: that was one of the things I always appreciated about the late, great Sam Zell — he'd say, "I always leave some meat on the bone, because I don't want to do just one deal with you. I want to do deals for the rest of my life." And I think that pays dividends — pun intended — if you just do the right thing with the right people and build lifelong relationships. So DB, anything to add? David Brown: I mean — we're very fortunate now to have the capital partners we do. They bring a lot to the table and educate us on things we're not thinking about. We're very lucky in that capacity. But everything is a learning lesson in life, right? You've got to be open-minded, think about the trials and tribulations you go through, and realize you don't want to end up being like that particular capital partner — for whatever that's worth. We try to be gracious, and overly nice sometimes — sometimes to our detriment — but it's worked out for us, and I think we'll always be that way. A perfect example: when we had that piece in Gilbert under contract, and you guys were up the street developing — it just didn't feel like we should fight against you guys. That's where we ended up being able to do a transaction with you guys. Chris Berg: Yeah — I think that was before my time, but I remember having those conversations with the team: things went really, really well with you — we hope you feel the same way about us. It was like, "These are good guys, people we want to spend more time with." So — a couple more things, and I think it's always fun to learn from stories. You can go either way on this one: what's a deal you thought was going to be a home run and it went the complete opposite? Or a deal you weren't sure about that went way better than you anticipated? David King: I'll weigh in first and DB can jump in. If we've made any mistakes — and knock on wood, we honestly have done a really good job of minimizing issues with partners, lenders, projects — the one thing I think we're real cautious of now is the conversion world. We've probably done as many as most groups in the last 10 years, and on one in particular, maybe two, the quality of the building got away from us. Buying a building — an LA Fitness, something well-located, built in the '90s or 2000s — has proven a lot easier than going back to something old, from the '50s, '40s, '30s. These old buildings you find are really cool, but sellers typically don't let you blow holes in the wall during due diligence. After we closed on these things, we started taking walls down and found some issues. We were able to get out of those deals because it was good real estate in a good market, and someone wanted it for something. But when we look at conversions, we're real cautious that the building is in as decent a shape as we can get. A new roof is one thing — getting to the point where it makes more sense to knock it down than convert it is a bad world to be in. DB? David Brown: I think back a little differently. When we first were doing existing acquisitions, we kind of got trained to think that the basis on a going-in acquisition was like 60 to 70 bucks a foot — which is crazy to even talk about now, right? Buying self storage for 60 or 70. Well, there was this one deal we bought — I think it was 89 bucks a foot — and he was like, "There's no chance. We're overpaying for it." And I said, "Well, you've got to understand the rents. Let's peel back the onion here." We ended up exchanging into that deal — and sold it a year later for like 110 bucks a foot. So there's a constant battle sometimes in having to adjust your mindset to what a property is truly worth at the end of the day. And yeah — the one he was talking about? It had a bowstring-truss roof, and we had to hire a bowstring-truss consultant. David King: Which are hard to come by. Chris Berg: Do you know any bowstring-truss consultants? It's so funny — those are everywhere, right? David King: Not a lot of regrets, though, Chris. Not a lot of regrets. We feel fortunate to have gotten into the business when we did, to have the team we do and the partners we do. We both love the self-storage business. Some of my favorite times are SSA conferences in Vegas, playing blackjack till one in the morning with guys I've known for 20 years now — we're competitors, but we're all high-fiving over blackjack wins. It's such a great community. It's kind of like a small fraternity — that's the appropriate way to describe it. Chris Berg: Even for me — I haven't been in the business as long as you guys, but I go to SSA and it's like going back to my family. It's a really unique aspect of self storage. So — two more things, if you don't mind. DK, one of the things you mentioned at the top was insurance and property taxes. What are you doing right now to deal with those and mitigate — any underwriting strategies? David King: Yeah — we always hire a company like Ryan to help us going into an acquisition, or even development deals, to give us their thoughts on worst case, best case, most likely on taxes. We've got guys on our team who really understand that side of the business — we love hiring people with tax and accounting backgrounds; it saves us some calls a lot of the time. So we use resources wherever we've got them to identify what those numbers will look like on assessments. Then on insurance — we're fortunate. We use a lot of REIT third-party managers, whether it's Cube, Public, or Extra — we used to be with Life Storage before that merger/acquisition — and a lot of times they'll allow us (I don't know if they do this for everyone) to jump onto their master policies, where they've got some scale. We can insure our stuff through their policies, and that's saved us money in some cases. And we've got a great insurance relationship locally here too — we brought them in early, and they've learned the insurance business as we've grown. For the most part they're pretty good at finding us the best competitive pricing out there. We may not like it — it's probably higher than we want — but it's as good as you're going to get. David Brown: I was going to say — they don't buy anything in San Antonio anymore either. David King: Oh — the property taxes in Bexar County. David Brown: There are a couple of markets we aren't real focused on. We'll just say that. David King: Yeah — Colorado's been really hard on us. Texas, in places, has been hard on us. Not everywhere, but in a lot of places. Chris Berg: Fascinating to hear you say that — so many people, as you know, left California for Texas thinking, "This is going to be great," and then they get their property tax bill and go, "Yeah, you know what? Maybe Cali is not so bad." David King: We've had that happen, for sure. Chris Berg: All right, last question, gentlemen — just to be respectful of your time, and I'd love to have you back, because there's a lot more to discuss. Over the longer term — take 5 years, 10 years — bullish or bearish on self storage, and what's your thesis as to why? David King: I mean — I'm bullish. I've been the guy who got a little pessimistic at times, and just when I think I know what's going on, something happens in the world to change it. So we'll just keep doing deals — we'll keep buying, we'll keep selling. I think as we get bigger and more experienced, we're sort of shifting from traders to more of, "Hey, mailbox money is a good thing too." It's nice because we've got a couple of longer-term-hold partners and a couple of more opportunistic partners. If you look 10 years out, I'd love to say we've got 30, 40 properties that we're just going to hold and keep for a while — making sure they're in the right areas and the right product for the market — and then we'll go play in the secondary markets and some of the Class C and B stuff we can value-add, put portfolios together, and flip them to guys looking for cash flow and scale. I love doing a little bit of everything, but I wish we had more for the long haul. That's my goal: be picky about which properties fit that box. Ten years from now, I'd love to be involved in 30, 40 properties that my kids will make money off of someday. Chris Berg: We definitely have to have you guys back — there's way more I want to talk about. One quick nugget question, and both of you can take this: as you talk about buy-and-hold, what are you ultimately solving for? Are you solving for an IRR? A multiple? David Brown: Yield on cost is probably our biggest focus — especially on the development side. If we're not getting an eight, we're moving on. David King: Yeah — and you also have to have mechanisms in your joint venture agreements for when your goals end up differing from your partners'. There are ways to crystallize promotes, or put/call provisions — like, "Hey, we know you want to keep it, we're not trying to make you get out of it. Let's get an appraisal and you can buy us out at this number." We're real careful in our joint venture agreements, and we spend a lot of money in attorneys' fees to make sure we've got protection for both us and our partner in case our goals end up changing. Chris Berg: So good. DB, for you? David Brown: Lastly, I think it's just having some mutual respect when it comes to developing. We're seeing rampant abuse — guys building a thousand feet, a half mile, a mile away from a Class A. It didn't used to always be that way. There was mutual respect within our industry, where somebody wouldn't just plant a three-story right across from you. I hope it gets back to that, but it's definitely a huge concern for us moving forward on site selection. We're probably not going to be chasing rooftops as hard as we have the last four years — being a little more picky about infill sites. They're very difficult to find, they take a long time to get through entitlement, and then you've got to get it permitted. That's my outlook — I just hope that mutual respect comes back to the industry, and frankly, I'd imagine a lot of our competitors feel the same way. David King: One more, just to add real quick: I think a lot of people have gotten really reliant on online tools. The way I was taught at my previous company was — if you're wondering, go down to the city and ask them. We've had this happen lately: we check Yardi, nothing there. Then all of a sudden something pops up, and we go back — and they didn't report it to Yardi, or they waited too long, or Yardi didn't pick it up. I don't necessarily blame anyone — if the data's not out there and you're not looking in the right places, that kind of stuff happens. So I always advocate: don't just rely on online tools — even though they're super helpful and getting better and better as time goes by. Go do the work. Go down to the city and ask them. Make sure you know what's going on in the market. Chris Berg: I just want to put a button on this and we'll wrap it up: we're kind of our own worst enemy in this biz. What I mean is, there's been so much capital — I hear more and more funds want at least some allocation, four or five percent, in self storage — so there's going to be more capital coming in, which is probably going to increase pricing. As a developer, you see some of these things exiting at four, four-and-a-half, five caps and you think, "Well, if that guy can do it, I can do it — I'll just go build it and someone's going to buy it." But that's not the case. Quickly — do you agree that we're kind of our own worst enemy in this biz? David Brown: Yeah — yeah, I do. There are some deals we've done where, if they weren't the right product, I think we'd be in some trouble on them. So yes — we're cautious, and we hope other people are being cautious. But again, there's enough business out there for everyone. It's just doing it the right way. Chris Berg: Last word — DB, we'll start with you. Anything else you want to add or share that we haven't talked about? David Brown: I'm good. This is great. Thanks for having us, Chris. Chris Berg: It was awesome. DK, anything else? David King: No — thank you for inviting us, and we look forward to the next one. Chris Berg: Thank you for saying that, because I could keep going. And you know what, DK — like you said, the market's probably going to change and blow up the conversation anyway, so we'll do it again when it does. David King: Well, one of the topics we didn't touch on that we could revisit is that all partners require different info from us on the asset-management side. We're working pretty hard with some of our operators to help them develop tools that let us give our partners what they want — and they're all different, right? We've given a lot of feedback, and we're in the mix right now helping those guys deliver what we're asking for, so they can stop hearing from us and we can stop hearing from our partners. I think the data is a good topic and a big thing we all need to be looking at going forward. So — let's get on the horn and talk about it. Chris Berg: Thank you, thank you. If anybody wants to reach out to you guys, what's the best way? David King: We're both easy: dking@wentprop.com, dbrown@wentprop.com. Visit our website — Wentworth Property Company. We've got a lot about what we've done and what we're doing on there. And cell phones work great too — our numbers are on there. Chris Berg: Definitely check them out — they've got sites under construction, sites they're managing, and so many sites they've exited and sold I couldn't even count them all up. Congratulations on all your success, and we really, really appreciate the time. David King: Appreciate it, Chris. Chris Berg: That's the Self Storage Report. Thanks for joining us. — END OF TRANSCRIPT —