Extra Space Storage's Q2 2026 Earnings Report with VP of Investor Relations Jared Conley

In episode 12 of the Inside Extra Space podcast, McKall Morris sits down with VP of Investor Relations, Jared Conley, to discuss Q2 2026 earnings and what those numbers mean for the storage industry as a whole.

Conley also breaks down key storage and real estate concepts and why storage businesses tend to outperform other real estate classes—attributing Extra Space Storage's success to data, teamwork, and a culture of curiosity.

Transcript & Chapters

00:00 — About Inside Extra Space Storage Podcast

Morris: We reported this great earnings report to Wall Street. What was the reaction? How did people take it?

Conley: On the day of the call, it was really good. Post-call, it came down quite a bit, mostly because we were a bit of a standout. We reported better than our peers and we raised guidance. All of our peers raised guidance, but we had the highest hurdle to overcome.

Morris: On Inside Extra Space Storage, we sit down with the experts building, operating, and scaling Extra Space Storage to not only be the world's largest self storage operator, but one of the most trusted names in the industry. If you care about where Extra Space and the self storage industry is headed, you're in the right place.

00:48 — Meet Jared Conley, VP of Investor Relations at Extra Space

Morris: Welcome to our podcast. Thank you all for joining us and listening in. We're so excited. Today, the leader we have in the hot seat is Jared Conley, our VP of Investor Relations. Jared has been with the company for nearly 24 years, right?

Conley: Correct.

Morris: We're counting down to 25. It's exciting. Jared has worked in a number of roles in the company, including acquisitions, real estate, financial planning and analysis, and for the last two years, VP of Investor Relations. So welcome to the show, Jared.

Conley: Thanks. Pleasure to be here.

Morris: It's good timing. We did this strategically. We had our earnings call yesterday and released earnings two days ago from when we're recording this. We're releasing this one week after earnings, so this is going to be our earnings recap episode. Are you ready to recap?

Conley: Yeah. Coincidentally, you're catching me post-exhaustion.

Morris: You've been on a lot of calls, writing a lot of scripts, and doing the sprint. So this is the easy slide in after a hard week.

Conley: Safe landing.

01:50 — 60-Second 2026 Q2 Earnings Recap for EXR

Morris: We'll start with something challenging. Pretend I have a timer. Sixty seconds on the clock. Give us the rundown of our earnings. What did Extra Space report this week?

Conley: It was really good. It was fantastic, really. We hit FFO, which is funds from operations and is probably the primary measuring stick for real estate investment trusts, or REITs. We had 4.9% growth year over year. That was the biggest number in our sector, so it looked really good. Revenue was up almost 2.5%, expenses were down 0.5%, and net operating income (NOI) was up 3.5%. All in all, it was a good quarter. It was good to be on this side of it, given the context of where things have been the last couple of years.

Morris: Those are great numbers. NOI captures a lot of different pieces of our performance. And funds from operations is a little bit like earnings per share for a REIT. Is that fair?

Conley: Yeah. It is how REITs get measured in their performance. It's kind of free cash flow from the operations of the company. NOI is the biggest driver of FFO. A few other things contribute or detract from that, including interest expense, but NOI is the biggest thing that pushes FFO.

03:20 — Wall Street's Reaction to Extra Space's Q2 Results

Morris: We reported this great earnings report to Wall Street. What was the reaction? How did people take it?

Conley: On the day of the call, it was really good. Post-call, it came down quite a bit, mostly because we were a bit of a standout. We reported better than our peers and we raised guidance. All of our peers raised guidance, but we had the highest hurdle to overcome. The guidance we set for ourselves was higher than anyone else's, and we performed better and raised guidance. So it was really good the day of, then came down a little bit based on what others had done.

Morris: We reported first, which has some pros and cons. In this case, the con was that we reported before all of the estimates were out there. Then our peers reported and people started second-guessing some of those things.

04:21 — Self Storage Sector Fundamentals & Supply Outlook

Morris: Give me the rundown. How are you looking at our sector right now in self storage?

Conley: For us personally, we beat estimates by eight cents, whereas one peer missed by a penny and Public missed by seven cents. So that is a range.

Morris: A bit of a range.

Conley: As a sector, we're seeing improving fundamentals. I think everybody is. It is not really about demand, because demand has been steady. We're seeing the supply side improve. There are fewer deliveries every year. 2026 is going to be lower than 2025, so the impact of new competition is subsiding and that is going to help drive some growth. If we ever see a catalyst of moving activity or increased demand because of moving, then it will be on the upside.

05:15 — Analyst Questions on Guidance and Expenses

Morris: Now, post-call and post-peer calls, analysts are talking with you. What kind of questions and follow-up questions are analysts asking this week?

Conley: It has been twofold. One question is about guidance. We raised our guidance at the high end to 2%, but we just achieved 2.4%. So people are asking whether that means things are decelerating.

Morris: Why didn't you raise it even higher?

Conley: Right. Our response has been that while we are performing well, there are still things in the macro environment that are uncertain. We hear talk of consumer sentiment and inflation, and those could be a drag on top-line performance. We haven't seen that to date. We've had seven months year to date where we haven't seen it, so hopefully that continues and we are in a better spot. Maybe we get a chance to raise guidance, but it's hard to say at this point.

Conley: The other area where we've had conversation is the expense side. We reported really good expense control, and people want to know if that's repeatable.

Morris: Can you keep doing that quarter after quarter? It's a good question.

Conley: The short answer is yes. What's driving it has been broad. We've seen improvements in payroll, which is due to the labor environment being more favorable to the employer, where we're able to hire at a more competitive rate. Marketing expense has also been a big one. We've seen benefit from our marketing program and the dynamic customer acquisition environment we have. We measure the return on investment (ROI), and it just doesn't justify spending more just to spend more.

Morris: So expense control can continue at this pace with our innovative programs, marketing, and the data we're using to drive those programs.

Conley: Yeah. And we are conscious of how we spend money to maintain our properties. We don't want to neglect the customer experience or property quality. We're certainly going to maintain and keep performing, but we're always looking at ways to be more efficient.

Morris: Efficiency drives a lot of what our teams look at all the time. It's not one of our five core values, but it feels like it should be up there.

Conley: Innovation.

Morris: Innovation. They tie together. That's true.

07:53 — What Investors Misunderstand About Self Storage

Morris: Zooming out a bit, when we're talking about investors or analysts who are looking at self storage, what do you think they're getting wrong? What do you have to explain to someone looking at investing in self storage for the first time?

Conley: It's a great industry. It's a great sector. What they get wrong has more to do with the general environment we're in and the news cycle, which feels more like a two-minute news cycle sometimes. They tend to focus on the latest news point or latest data point. They get fixated on rates moving up or down 1%, 2%, or 10 or 20 basis points.

Morris: They can get hyper-reactionary to the latest little thing.

Conley: Instead, we need to take a step back and look at everything more holistically. Look at the fundamentals. Supply is diminishing, and that is a good support for the industry. Look at what things have done quarter over quarter or over six months rather than one week or one print.

Morris: Even with our history, we're coming up on 50 years as a company and have been publicly traded for over 20 years. You can look back even further to see historical context on how Extra Space performs.

Conley: And that performance has been fantastic. Better than anyone else in the sector. Not even close.

Morris: Our 20-year numbers are pretty phenomenal when we pull those together. So the idea is to zoom out and see the long-term investment strategy.

Conley: The investment world is always asking, what can you do for me tomorrow? It's forward-looking. But a lot of what we've done in the past is because innovation is in our DNA. We're always looking for how we can maximize and improve. Being as large as we are now, we're able to use the data and information we have to make decisions more quickly, find the market, and perform better. You're seeing that in the numbers.

10:04 — How Scale Improves Testing and Decision-Making

Morris: Let's talk about data and scale. We talk about those two things in our investor relations material quite a bit. We're the largest company by square footage right now, and that scale leads to a huge amount of data. Before you were on the investor relations team, you were the head of our financial planning and analysis team and our data reporting group. How does Extra Space think about data from a financial analysis point of view? What data are we looking at, and what is our philosophy there?

Conley: We look at everything. We test a lot. When I was early in my career here, we were much smaller. The day I started, I was handed a T-shirt celebrating 100 stores.

Morris: I love that. You should have framed it somewhere. That's a relic now.

Conley: When we had that number of stores, we wanted to test and we did test, but it took so long to get information back because it's a fairly slow-moving business. The average store rents 30 to 40 units a month. When you're trying to understand price sensitivity, customer reaction, and what's good for the customer, you can only test so much with a small data set.

Conley: As we've grown, we've gone from testing something that would take six months to get a statistically significant result to getting an answer in a few weeks. That helps us speed up the process and performance. If we find something meaningful, we can execute.

Morris: We can be much more agile with our innovations when we can test so much quicker. When you think about the difference between 100 stores and 4,000 stores, it's that many more rentals and data points.

Conley: We've also democratized the information in terms of performance internally within the company. Joe Margolis can hop into our reporting system and drill down to a single store, or take a 30,000-foot view to see how operations are doing broadly. We track data points that drive business.

Morris: And every team can look at those.

Conley: Every team has access to those. Every team can interpret that data to improve their operations.

12:39 — Pivoting During the 2008 Financial Crisis

Morris: That reporting team and financial analysis team is interesting. Going back into your history at the company, you started on the acquisition side, correct?

Conley: It was actually development, but yes.

Morris: Okay. So you started in development and then moved into what became acquisitions. I've heard this story from several angles: you were on the acquisition team during the 2008 housing crisis. Can you talk about what that was like and what you learned about Extra Space from going through one of the harder times to be at a real estate company?

Conley: That was a crazy time. To sum it up in a couple of words, I would say we pivoted. To give context, we had some deals under contract in 2008. We closed those because we like to honor our contracts, and it's just part of who we are. But as soon as we finished those contracts, we moved to support treasury because there weren't any more deals to do.

Morris: The market closed down in terms of acquisitions.

Conley: Right. I was probably the last one to pivot over, but the other two individuals on our team were working with our treasury department and calling banks. We probably contacted thousands of new banks and established hundreds or tens of new relationships with banks. The big concern at the time was whether you had enough cash to float. So we focused on making sure we could assure the market that we had enough financing and enough cash flow to manage. We weathered the storm just great. It was bumpy and busy, but we adapted.

Morris: I've heard that story from other perspectives as a great example of Extra Space's value of teamwork. There was this team whose job was to close deals and do acquisitions, and suddenly they were told that for the next several months they were going to do nothing but call banks. I've heard it described as everyone just jumping in and saying, the most important thing is the team. It doesn't matter if this is what I was hired to do or the work I enjoy doing. This is what we're going to do.

Conley: Now I talk to investment banks, so it does translate. At the time in acquisitions, you're underwriting properties and putting a value to properties. Then we pivoted to talk to banks, and it was the same fundamental principles of underwriting. You're just talking about the loan value and what the property is worth for the bank instead of what it's worth internally. It translated well. Looking back, nobody grumbled or complained. It was just, this is what has to be done. This is the next thing. Let's make it happen.

Morris: We love to see a team come together. When times are hard, that's when you look around and see people really pulling together here.

15:57 — Why Self Storage Is Different From Other REITs

Morris: You've been in several roles, all throughout finance in one way or another. When you're comparing self storage to other REITs, what should investors or analysts think about? What makes self storage different from a normal real estate company, like office or retail, when someone is looking at real estate for the first time?

Conley: Durability is probably the biggest thing. During the global financial crisis, retail, office, and malls were all getting hit pretty hard, and we were down less than 3% in revenue growth.

Morris: That's incredible in the context of the great financial crisis, a recession, and banks closing.

Conley: It is. Self storage has really stable cash flow because it is a need-based product. When transition happens, whether it's good transition and people find new jobs, move to a new home, a new apartment, or a new area, they need our product. On the downside, when things aren't going as well, there's transition too. People are downsizing or converting to smaller apartments, and they need space to house their goods, their memories, and what's important to them. We like it in good times because it's better for everybody, but it's not as bad in bad times.

Morris: There is real durability and stability to the asset class. I think we've got that in spades.

Conley: You can look at the performance and see it.

Morris: It's always interesting when I'm out in the world and people ask what I do, and I tell them I work in self storage. It doesn't seem that exciting to them, but I want to say, no, it's really good here.

Conley: It's the biggest well-kept secret in Utah.

Morris: It's such a stable industry, but there's still so much innovation and interesting work happening. During the highs we're okay, and during the lows we're okay.

Conley: You think with such a simple business that it would be boring. Maybe to some people it is, but it's really dynamic, especially around here. We have an entire data science team. Who would think data science would exist in a storage company?

Morris: Let alone that it's extremely robust, competitive, and interesting.

Conley: And it drives so much of what we do, the data analytics. It's amazing.

19:00 — Career Advice: Stay Hungry and Keep Learning

Morris: We're almost at time, so I'll end with one final question. What career advice would you give someone who is leaving college and looking to get into their first job? Looking back on where you were at that time, what is something you've learned that would be useful to give someone?

Conley: If I'm talking to me 20 years ago, I would say be hungry. You have to be hungry to learn something new. You get taught through school or whatever you've learned to that point, but the environment changes. Think about AI right now and how that is changing. You have to be hungry to keep learning and keep growing.

Morris: You have to be hungry. You have to stay hungry.

Conley: Absolutely. Just do the work. Put it in, learn, and don't be afraid to learn new things and grow with it. Jump in full force.

Morris: I love that. Thank you so much for taking time out of what I know has been a long and stressful week. A successful week. Congratulations on the good earnings report, and thank you for taking the time to sit down and give us an earnings recap. We appreciate it.

Conley: You bet. Appreciate it.

Morris: Thank you all for listening and joining us. As always, we'll have more episodes coming out, and we hope you'll join us for those, too. Thanks.

Morris: Thanks for listening to Inside Extra Space Storage. Each episode features conversations with leaders and teams behind one of the most recognizable names in the self storage industry. To connect with today's guests, reach out to them directly on LinkedIn. And don't forget to follow the show for more insights inside the industry. Until next time, have a great day and an even better tomorrow.

About the Host and Guest

Jared Conley, Vice President of Investor Relations

Jared Conley is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Extra Space Storage. He has been with the company for nearly 24 years, serving in roles across development, acquisitions, real estate, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations. In his current role, Conley helps communicate Extra Space Storage's financial performance, industry position, and long-term strategy to investors and analysts. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Utah State University.

McKall Morris, Director of Corporate Communications

McKall Morris is the Corporate Communications Director at Extra Space Storage. She joined the company in March 2019 after several years in the airline industry. Since joining Extra Space, Morris has played a key role in advancing internal and external communications initiatives, helping shape how the company is represented across all channels. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Utah.

To learn more about Extra Space Storage, visit our investor site, or explore the next step in your career by viewing current job openings. This transcript was auto-generated and edited, including paraphrasing for readability. For the full conversation and exact quotes, listen to the complete episode on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify.