There are two types of storage. That which you own yourself, and that which you rent from someone else. Self storage and mini storage or two forms of public storage, which is the type you pay your hard earned cash to rent. Storage sheds, or storage buildings are utility buildings which are most often used for private storage, which is the type of storage you pay for once, and then own forever. Let us show you why owning your own storage is better than renting public storage.

Peace of mind.

• You can rest easier knowing that your cherished belongings are tucked away safely within the confines of your own property, and within easy reach.

It’s green.

• In these days of environmental awareness, we have become aware, that it makes more sense to store your items closer to your home to avoid wasting energy and adding pollution to the atmosphere. What better way of reducing your carbon footprint than to avoid extra, and unneeded trips?

Fuel cost.

• You have to pay rent to someone else to get them to allow you to put your stuff in their building located miles from your own home. Fuel prices are in a state of flux, but wasting money on fuel is always out of style. All those extra trips to get boxes from some “self storage” place 10 miles away can wind up costing you a lot of money.

Rent cost.

• If you buy a building, you are paying for something that is yours, so instead of perpetual rent, you have something to show for your money, and it can be used in many other ways, and for many other purposes if the need to store something is over. What you have left after paying rent, is more rent! When you stop renting, you have nothing!

Your safety in transit.

• Any time you drive, you take risks. That is part of our everyday lives, but why take more chances than you have to?

Your safety on site.

• Most storage places are somewhat remote, and while there are usually security systems in place, (whether they are working or not is another story entirely) the very layout of the buildings present safety issues. Besides, having a nice video of you being robbed outside your self storage unit will help the police to catch your mugger, but that is, after all, "after the fact."

Your convenience.

• The ability to grab what you want from your own building at any time of the day or night, without having to leave your premises, waste any time, or fight any traffic will go a long way toward stress reduction, and that is one thing that most of us would prefer. In that regard, buying instead of renting is good for your mental and physical health, and consequently, your longevity!

Your time is important.

• Even if buying instead of renting won't increase your longevity, it might just increase the amount of time available for doing the things you want to be doing.Time is our greatest asset, wasting it just might be our greatest failure. You have soccer, and baseball, and piano, and school activities, and shopping and...! It is much less time consuming to step into your back yard than to make a trip across town.

It has been said that there are only two certainties; death and taxes. In modern times, you could add to that list, financial uncertainty. Ironic is it not? In these days, many people need a place to store a few things until the economy settles down, and the downsizing is over. The sad part is that many folks may be entering this sad new situation with less than perfect credit.

Financial uncertainty is a fact of life in today’s economy, and unlike the perfect world sometimes offered by on screen entertainment, most people do not have perfect credit. There are a lot of reasons why. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have credit rating problems, but in a perfect world, we wouldn’t need credit to begin with. the world is not perfect.

What can be done?

So, what can we do when the need arises for a fairly large purchase, and our creditors say no? We could always save our money until we have enough cash to purchase the product, but it takes a while to save a few thousand, and time can be our enemy, especially if we need the product for the purpose of making and saving money.

Financing options

There are always options like loan companies, who can eat your financial lunch when it comes to interest, and you have to be careful when it comes to the way the interest is structured. In some cases,  the interest may be as costly as the purchase, and there may be no way of paying it down ahead of time. Similar problems may exist with credit card purchases.

There is another option. Rent to own. In the rent to own system, you are paying for rent and ownership. You are not paying interest.

Storage rent to own

I had someone call me the other day about rent to own. The person on the line had heard that rent to own was, well, she couldn’t make herself put it bluntly, so I finished the statement for her: “You are wanting to know if it is a scam?” I asked politely. “Yes!” She said, in a way that showed an element of embarrassment and surprise!

Wrong information

There is apparently some bad information floating around on the subject, so I thought I would address that here. No. Rent to own is not some kind of scam. It is a perfectly viable way of renting or buying. I can’t speak for everyone, but the programs with which I am familiar are good programs.

Rent to own and interest

First of all, there is no interest on rent to own. you are paying rent for a building, and part of that rent, usually about half of it, goes toward the purchase of the building. Rent to own payments are very similar to what you would be paying for renting an equivalent amount of storage space from one of those self storage, or mini storage public storage facilities. The major difference is, that when you complete your contract on rent to own, you actually own the building, and it is setting on your property!

Early pay off

Many people choose to pay off the building early with income tax return money, or some windfall. This will save quite a bit on rental payments, since you would be paying for the building and not the rent if you pay it off. There is no penalty for early pay off. There is no credit check, and no credit damage for default. Since you are renting the building, you can call the company and have them pick it up, and your credit will not be hurt.

Bottom line

If you are paying 75.00 or 100.00 per month for storage, you can find an equivalent amount of storage space in a portable storage unit, and rent to own for about the same price. The big advantage is that you will be paying for something that will belong to you, and you won’t be throwing those dollars away! Throwing away dollars makes no sense! Neither does driving all over the country to get something that you need from storage, when you can just walk into your back yard to do the same thing.