eople from the most eclectic backgrounds seem to find their way into the self-storage industry, perhaps more than any other non-artist career path. This is the case with Armand Aghadjanians, who majored in art history and went on to have a brilliant career in brokerage, later joining the RHW Capital team in 2019 as director of acquisitions.
Aghadjanians started his career right after graduating from college, working as a broker selling commercial properties. “I focused on office and retail properties, both nationally and in Los Angeles.”
Becoming a director at a traditional company like RHW Capital is no steppingstone in one’s career, which is something he knew from the beginning. As the door of the company began to open in the form of an interview invitation, he did not rest until his values and hard work were noticed by the right people. “I was an art history major with very little to offer on paper in commercial real estate. I started in brokerage, which has a low ceiling to enter but is brutally competitive to make it to the top. When I decided to pivot to acquisitions, I sent out a couple of hundred applications,” he says. “RHW Capital was the only company that offered me an interview. I did not set out to work in storage, and I did not know much about it, but I came prepared and left them with this: You can teach me to underwrite and fill in the gaps, but you cannot teach someone to give a darn. Nobody you interview will outwork me. That was six years ago, and it has been an incredible journey ever since.”
As he reminisces about his experience, he pinpoints his brokerage experience as the foundation for the great work he is able to do today. “I am glad I had experience in other asset classes. Understanding leases and deal structures gave me a foundation. But the most valuable piece was learning the brokerage community. Brokers are the lifeblood of storage deals. Acquisitions professionals have to know how to build those relationships and keep transactions moving smoothly. Real estate is not just numbers. It is a people business. That lesson has served me well.”
As technology begins to integrate acquisitions teams more robustly, he mentions the biggest change has been in the speed at which the process is done. “[Technology] has not changed the fundamentals of evaluation, but it has made the process faster and more convenient. Tools like TractIQ help me gather the data I need to build a narrative for our team and investors. Ten years ago, the process was slower. Today, the pace is much faster, but the core analysis is the same.
In his years of experience, he has noticed that networking and making a good impression are just as important for buyers as they are for brokers. “It sounds simple, but it is true. Do a lot of deals and be easy to work with. If brokers and sellers enjoy working with you, you will see opportunities others do not.”
He highlights pattern recognition as one of the most important things buyers should pay close attention to before closing on a property or land. “The obvious drivers like rates, supply, demand, and capital markets matter, but the less obvious piece is market behavior. It is one thing to design a capital deployment plan; it is another to actually execute it. Pattern recognition is important. Who is selling? Are they sector tourists with a few facilities or long-term operators retiring? Where will opportunities actually show up? In secondary markets, in larger institutional-grade assets, or somewhere in between? Building a thesis that lines up with the reality of the market is harder than it looks, and if you are raising capital, timing and alignment with your investors is everything.”
A common mistake Aghadjanians has noticed happening way too often on the buyer side of the industry is “overestimating potential and underestimating risk.” He says, “Too often, upside gets baked into underwriting as if it is guaranteed, but upside should be something that improves the site without being necessary to hit your proforma. If failing to realize it breaks your numbers, that is not upside—it is risk disguised as opportunity. At the same time, I remind myself not to confuse cynicism with wisdom. Real estate is about probabilities, and every investment is a bet made with incomplete information.”
Once a buyer signs on a new investment, he mentions that the next step should be getting the operational foundation running. “Make sure the phones are up, the website works, advertising is running, bills are paid, tenants are signed onto new leases, and the software is live. Beyond that, the strategy depends on the property. But getting the operational foundation solid is non-negotiable.”
Aghadjanians also shares advice for independent operators who may one day consider selling to a larger player. “First, hire a reputable broker who truly specializes in storage. Second, work with an attorney who does commercial real estate transactions regularly. And third, ask the buyer early for their due diligence checklist. Collecting those items ahead of time saves enormous stress. Most sellers do not realize how much information a buyer will request until the process is already underway.”