The De Jong Self Storage Team at Colliers has launched a dedicated buy-side representation service for investors acquiring self storage assets, expanding the team's long-standing listing and advisory work. Led by Executive Vice President and Founding Principal Tom de Jong, SIOR, the team says about half of its transactions this year have represented buyers rather than sellers.
The new service addresses a longstanding gap in the self storage investment market: most buyers go unrepresented, seeing only what is actively marketed and underwriting off numbers the seller has built. The team is bringing on Colin Phelan, who spent the past 10 years at a family office acquiring self-storage properties, where he was directly involved in underwriting, financial analysis, and acquisitions. Phelan and Dylan de Jong are building systems that compile available self-storage listings from across the market and categorize them by market, price, and other criteria. The team is currently tracking 453 active listings.
Self storage listings are spread across LoopNet, Crexi, List Self Storage, individual broker websites, and dozens of other sources. The team pools those listings in one place, pre-screens each opportunity, runs a quick analysis and underwriting, and recommends which properties fit the buyer's buy box. This consolidation could significantly reduce the time and effort buyers spend searching for suitable properties, potentially making the market more efficient and competitive.
"If a buyer calls and says, 'I'm looking to get into the self storage space, and I'd like to spend up to $5 million,' we can send them 50-plus listings right away," said de Jong. "Depending on the requirement, that could be anywhere from 20 to 100 opportunities."
The team's approach goes beyond simple aggregation. "We're focused on building tools that help buyers be much more efficient," said de Jong. "There are a hundred different places you can go to find listings. We pool all of that based on our years of experience, so buyers see the full universe of what's available. Then we do the screening, so they don't have to go through each listing to find the good and the bad."
"You could call us your outsourced acquisitions team," de Jong added. The buy-side service covers deal sourcing, operator-level underwriting, and support through closing, including debt and equity coordination and post-close operational setup. This comprehensive offering could be particularly valuable for new entrants to the self storage space or investors without in-house acquisition teams, leveling the playing field against more established buyers.
The launch signals a strategic shift for the De Jong team, which has historically focused on listing and advisory work for sellers. With roughly half of its transactions this year already representing buyers, the formalization of a buy-side service reflects growing demand from investors seeking expert guidance in a competitive market. The team has closed more than $2 billion in self-storage transactions across 32 states, and this new service could further entrench its position as a full-lifecycle brokerage and advisory firm for self storage owners, developers, and investors nationwide, from site selection and development through stabilized asset sales and buy-side representation.
