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Might as well get to know us right?
Adam Knutsen
Growing up as a dairy farmer’s kid from Minnesota I had to find alternative ways to pay for college. I paid for my college by getting rodeo scholarships and working odd jobs when the winnings from rodeo fell short. I rode bareback broncs for Fort Scott Community College then South Dakota State University, Go Jackrabbits and that is where I received my bachelor's degree. With my degree I started in construction management as a customer care representative with a large national home builder then moving my way up to a land development project management for the same company. As I continued to grow in my career I moved into commercial construction and development. Then in 2007 I received bad news that I was going to be laid off due to the downturn in the economy.
With the economy in turmoil and construction management jobs we're far and few between I decided to pursue my lifelong dream of being in the Army and serving my country. I spent 5 years full-time Army National Guard Aviation as a crew chief of a uh-60 Blackhawk. I have been deployed to Kuwait Jordan and Slovakia which all led me to my next chapter in life.
With my wife at my side we started saving every extra penny we could for our next adventure in life. We knew that deployments would not slow down and I did not want to send that much time away from my family. I decided that it was time to trade in my flightgear for business deals. Grant was the final piece to the puzzle of real estate investing.
When we start together we had put our life saving up together and started with one house. That one house grew with our experience. Grant and I have flipped many homes and obtained a few rentals which allowed us to begin investing into the wonderful business of Self Storage.
After all the many careers I have had, I would say it is safe to say that Self Storage will be my last career.
Grant Shell
I was raised in St. Louis, Missouri where the Cardinals are a religion in their own right. My childhood was centered on sports but mainly Baseball. I think something was wrong with me because I never wanted anything more then to be on the field catching a double header in 100 plus degree summers. I am proud to say I was never pushed into it or even burned out with Baseball. Because of that I was able to play all the way through College. Attending Westminster College I obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Marketing.
Most of my jobs have centered around sales. I realized it was easy for me to talk to people and people are usually pretty comfortable talking with me. I was not afraid of getting into the grinder of sales and moving almost once a year to go from knocking on doors, telemarketing, cold calling, recruiter… I did it all. It did not surprise me that I even found my way into the Tourism Business working for the city of Dalton, Ga. And of all the things I sold, I got to sell sports there. It was great I got to bring different sport tournaments into town to play there and help the economic impact to the city.
However I wanted something different and I just didn’t know what that was yet. It started to click with me when talking to Adam. He seemed a little odd when I first met him. With his weird Minnesota accent and ways but I figured my cousin decided to marry him, and she is smart, so he can’t be that bad. Eventually we went in together on a house to flip and surprisingly, for the first one it went really well. He might describe it differently as in maybe I asked too many questions, was too worried about details, or way to worried about random things that didn’t matter. But you know everyone has an opinion. Despite that, it ended up snowballing into another house then another.
We quickly both saw this as a great stepping stone into what we truly want. That is owning and investing in Self Storage. We are both now excited to be in the business of Self Storage and having the opportunity we have been looking for.
Check out what we have done and the projects we are working on now
Span Ave
This is the house that started the partnership, almost ended the partnership, then reignited the passion...Nothing like the first flip home to test patience but we both learned a lot and actually came out ahead. Not a lot of people can say that.
Emerald Bay
Emerald Bay was a quick reaction flip. The house was presented to us and with in 5 hours we bought it and in two weeks we had people working on it.
Harlan
Harlan was a little house that need more square footage. We took it from 1100 square feet to 2300 by adding on the back and a second story.
Gilbert
Gilbert was our trouble house, it had everything on the outside working against it. The property had a huge lot but it was adjacent to an apartment complex and a train boarder the complex. The house was built in 1925 and had real character. The person that bought the home LOVED the house and yard and never thought twice about buying it.
Harrison
Harrison is our first rehab rental. We picked this little house up and brought it back life with a new floor plan and kitchen.
12th
12th Street is a work in process. The foundation was too far gone so the home can not be saved. Demolition is scheduled, the rebuild will be bigger then original and shooting for $450k when we sell it.