You’ve run out of room to stash that old cherrywood table, your high school sports trophies, Grandma’s wedding dress and those bulging boxes of tax records. What to do? Rent a 10-by-15-foot storage unit, for about $100 per month, and stick all the excess stuff in there. Even if your home doesn’t come with an attic, you have one now.

As commercial property goes, self-storage has none of the sex appeal of a gleaming office building or a ritzy shopping mall. There are more than 50,000 self-storage facilities in the U.S. — nondescript warehouses filled with cubicles where Americans keep the belongings that don’t fit into their homes. But even though self-storage is about as unassuming an industry as you can get, it turns out to be a pretty solid investment — often better than other kinds of real estate.

FORBES | Joshua Rogers | Read complete article here