Average prices are designed to make average investors feel comfortable, but there’s a downside.

If you’re watching averages (like most investors), you might be totally missing the real money-making opportunities.

Let me show you what I mean, and once you see this you’ll never look at storage pricing the same way again.

But first, quick updates from the storage world:

How “averages” LIE:

When you research storage pricing, you’ll see things like “10×10 units average $115/month nationwide.”

But that average hides a massive range.

I just looked at 10×10 pricing across deals I’ve financed in the past 12 months:

Low end: $88/month (Houston)

High end: $339/month (Los Angeles)

Difference: 285%

Both are “market rate.”

Both facilities are hitting 85%+ occupancy.

Both are profitable.

But if you’re using that $115 “average” to underwrite your deals, you’re missing the entire point.

Let’s dive deeper:

The low outliers can actually indicate fantastic opportunities to buy, because there isn’t much reason to build new storage – so supply stays limited.

The high outliers tell you where demand has outpaced supply – but they also reveal where pricing may have gotten too hot to support safe financing ratios.

Let me give you an example:

There’s a deal in Arizona. Market average for 10×10 units is around $105.

This facility is charging $140.

Most brokers would say: “Wow, great premium pricing, this is a winner!”

I would ask: “Why is this facility getting 33% above market? And is it sustainable?”

In this example, it’s actually the only climate-controlled option in a 5-mile radius.

Once you understand why it’s an outlier, you can structure financing around that competitive position…

And in a case like this, it might be worth an extra 25 basis points off your rate.

Here’s my point:

Average prices alone tell you nothing useful.

They don’t tell you about supply constraints.

They don’t reveal competitive advantages.

They don’t show you which markets are mispriced.

The outliers tell you everything.

Here are some questions you can ask to dig a little deeper:

• What’s the pricing range in this specific submarket?

• Where does this facility fall in that range?

• Why?

• Can I defend that position to a lender?

• Is there upside to move higher in the range, or risk of compression?

This is how you find deals where you can immediately raise rates 15-20% (because they’re underpriced relative to local competition) or avoid deals where that are already at the top and have nowhere to go.

If you’re interested in more deep-dive storage financing secrets, I put my best ones together in one easy package.

With it, you can approach your next acquisition with all the tools you need to close deals…

While 97% of your competition gets shot down in 2026.

Here’s to finding the outliers,

Cody