Why a Fed Insider Ditched Multifamily for Self-Storage with Sergio Altomare

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In 2017, Sergio Altomare could not make a single multifamily deal work. So he looked back at the Great Recession and found the one real estate asset class that still made money.

Sergio spent years at the Federal Reserve in bank supervision, watching boom and bust cycles up close. When the market felt overheated, he and his wife pitched a new plan to their investors, slowly sold their multifamily, and moved into self-storage.

They learned the business living in an RV parked outside their first property. Today they have 26 properties in 10 states, managed by CubeSmart and Extra Space, with a big focus on building from the ground up.

Sergio shares the 8 square foot rule he uses to find markets that need more storage, why new storage sits close to Costco and big box stores, and why he says commercial real estate has been in a quiet recession for years.

Key topics:

Why self-storage held up in the Great Recession
Buying, expanding and building storage from the ground up
The 8 square foot per person rule
The four D's that drive storage demand
How the slow housing market hit storage, and the 4 to 5 year exit plan

About Sergio Altomare:

Sergio is the co-founder of Hearthfire Holdings, a self-storage company based in Philadelphia. Before real estate, he worked at the Federal Reserve in bank supervision and regulation. Today his team buys, expands and builds self-storage across 10 states.