Joel Craig Duncan: Key Questions to Ask Before Funding a Self Storage Deal
Joel Craig Duncan is a real estate professional based in Austin, Texas, who works in a marketing management role at Direct Equity Source. Joel Craig Duncan focuses on connecting developers with high net worth clients to build diversified real estate portfolios that include emerging asset classes such as self storage facilities, flex space properties, and recreational vehicle parks. His experience includes contract negotiations, client relations, and private real estate equity partnerships.
Prior to joining Direct Equity Source in 2024, he served as vice president of project development at a private equity firm in Rockwall, Texas, where he worked extensively in the self storage, flex space, and RV park sectors and helped fund nearly 20 properties. This background provides a practical connection to the questions investors often consider when evaluating opportunities to fund a self storage deal.
Key Questions to Ask Before Funding a Self Storage Deal
Self-storage remains a closely watched real estate category because operators can adjust advertised rates over time. Funding a self-storage deal means investing equity into a sponsored acquisition or development. Returns depend on rental income, operating expenses, financing terms, and the potential for a later sale or refinance.
Most self-storage offerings involve distinct roles. The investor supplies capital, the sponsor structures the deal, and the operator manages leasing and customer activity. Because private offerings can provide limited disclosure, investors should ask who runs day-to-day operations, what information the sponsor shares, and what systems the sponsor uses to track performance.
Some sponsors approach self-storage as a portfolio built around multiple properties. In the Direct Equity Source Q&A featured by Jim Knox, the firm describes a portfolio-based strategy and stresses disciplined execution as it scales. That perspective helps investors ask whether the sponsor follows a consistent process for evaluating deals and managing operations across assets.
Investors can test location claims by asking which demand sources support the area’s storage use. A sponsor should describe demand in terms such as housing turnover and household transitions, then explain how those patterns translate into unit demand in that specific trade area.
After the sponsor explains demand, investors should ask whether supply conditions allow that demand to translate into stable occupancy. Competition matters because nearby facilities can pressure pricing and increase discounting, so a sponsor should explain how many competing properties are nearby and whether any new facilities are proposed or under development. Investors should discuss occupancy, the share of rentable units leased, using several months of reporting to see whether it improves, holds, or slips.
Investors should evaluate pricing strategy as a management response to occupancy and demand. Self-storage operators can adjust advertised rates as units turn over. Investors should ask how the operator determines when to raise rents and when to adjust pricing terms to support leasing, and how rate changes are monitored over time.
If a deal includes renovations or facility improvements, investors should ask what upgrades the sponsor plans to make and who will control execution. Investors can ask how each change affects leasing, pricing, or operating costs, and what contingency plan is in place if costs rise or timelines slip. Risk planning should cover how the operator and sponsor would respond if leasing slows or expenses increase, such as revising the plan or delaying optional phases.
Sponsors and operators may charge several types of fees. Investors should request a schedule that lists every fee, who receives it, which fees are paid upfront, and how fees are applied to investor payouts. Because fees and expenses reduce net returns, investors should also ask what services each fee covers.
Exit planning depends on transaction timing and capital market conditions and may involve selling, refinancing, or holding longer. Investors should ask what timeline the sponsor expects, what assumptions support a sale or refinance, and what conditions, such as interest rates and financing availability, could delay that plan. Those questions frame exit expectations as scenarios, not guarantees.
Over time, investors can use reporting to compare results with the sponsor’s original assumptions. If trends in occupancy, rents, or expenses diverge from plan, investors can ask what changed, what decisions the sponsor and operator made in response, and which indicators the sponsor is monitoring next. That follow-through turns reporting into a practical risk tool and helps investors stay focused on measurable performance.
About Joel Craig Duncan
Joel Craig Duncan is an Austin, Texas based real estate professional who serves as marketing manager at Direct Equity Source. He works with developers and high net worth investors to build diversified portfolios that include self storage facilities, flex space properties, and recreational vehicle parks. His background includes private equity development experience as vice president of project development at a Rockwall firm, where he helped fund nearly 20 properties. He studied business at Texas A&M University and has experience in passive investments and cash flow real estate assets.
