There's a self storage niche most investors have never even considered, and Chris Long built an entire company around it. Chris is the founder and CEO of Longyards, which turns underused commercial and industrial land into secure, gated outdoor storage yards for contractors, fleets, and trades. What started as one yard in Ottawa in 2019 has grown into 168 active yards with 150 more in progress across the U.S. and Canada. Chris didn't come up through real estate or finance, he started as a carpenter, which shaped a model built for how contractors and operators actually work: month-to-month terms, no long leases, no brokers, no lawyers, just fenced, camera-monitored space you can drive into the same week you sign up. In this episode, we break down how the self storage yard model actually works, why it's one of the most overlooked passive income plays in real estate right now, and how landowners can turn raw or underutilized acreage into recurring monthly cash flow without developing or operating anything themselves. Chris walks through what makes a parcel a good fit, how Longyards' modular, deployable infrastructure lets them launch yards faster than traditional development, and why demand for this kind of space, from contractors, fleets, and infrastructure projects, keeps accelerating. If you own land that's sitting idle, or you're looking for a real estate niche with less competition and real cash flow potential, this episode lays out a strategy most investors haven't even considered yet. In this episode: What a self storage yard is and how the business model works How Chris scaled from one yard in Ottawa to 168 active yards (and counting) How landowners can turn idle acreage into recurring passive income What makes a parcel a good fit for a storage yard Why month-to-month, no-broker, no-lawyer terms are reshaping this niche Why this is one of the fastest-growing, least-talked-about categories in outdoor storage
There's a self storage niche most investors have never even considered, and Chris Long built an entire company around it. Chris is the founder and CEO of Longyards, which turns underused commercial and industrial land into secure, gated outdoor storage yards for contractors, fleets, and trades. What started as one yard in Ottawa in 2019 has grown into 168 active yards with 150 more in progress across the U.S. and Canada.
Chris didn't come up through real estate or finance, he started as a carpenter, which shaped a model built for how contractors and operators actually work: month-to-month terms, no long leases, no brokers, no lawyers, just fenced, camera-monitored space you can drive into the same week you sign up.
In this episode, we break down how the self storage yard model actually works, why it's one of the most overlooked passive income plays in real estate right now, and how landowners can turn raw or underutilized acreage into recurring monthly cash flow without developing or operating anything themselves. Chris walks through what makes a parcel a good fit, how Longyards' modular, deployable infrastructure lets them launch yards faster than traditional development, and why demand for this kind of space, from contractors, fleets, and infrastructure projects, keeps accelerating.
If you own land that's sitting idle, or you're looking for a real estate niche with less competition and real cash flow potential, this episode lays out a strategy most investors haven't even considered yet.
In this episode:
Chris' Website - https://www.longyards.com/