How Extra Space Storage Partners With Nearly 500 Owners: Eric Bishop-Berry on Third-Party Management

In this episode of the Inside Extra Space Storage podcast, host McKall Morris sits down with Eric Bishop-Berry, Vice President of Third-Party Management at Extra Space Storage. The conversation traces Bishop-Berry's path from a rural upbringing in New Hampshire to a career at Extra Space, where he started as a partner services manager.

Bishop-Berry talks about what partnership means at Extra Space, how the company evaluates potential partners and properties, and why owned and partner stores operate on the same platform. He shares what makes a strong partner services manager, how the transitions team onboards new properties, and how Extra Space's data gives owners more context around performance. He also reflects on mentorship and the advice he'd give someone just starting out in their career.

Transcript & Chapters

00:00 — About Inside Extra Space Storage Podcast

Bishop-Berry: We have a really compelling story on the performance side of how we operate properties, how we operate properties against our peer set and other management companies. And we've been in a great position to continue to grow. We run the properties the same way for our own stores, and we share those continued learnings by implementing them at all of our partner stores. And it's probably not much more of a cocktail than that.

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 are headed, you're in the right place. Welcome to Inside Extra Space Storage.

00:50 — Welcome Eric Bishop-Berry, VP of Third-Party Management

Morris: This is our podcast where we sit down with leaders and have conversations about self storage, Extra Space Storage, and corporations in general, and strategy. And we're super excited to have with us Eric Bishop-Berry. Eric is our VP of third-party management, and you've been with the company 12 years.

Bishop-Berry: 12 going on 13, I think. I think I'm 13 in March.

Morris: Well, congratulations. In March.

Bishop-Berry: Thanks.

Morris: That's huge. It is funny. I always refer to you in my mind as Eric Bishop-Berry or EBB, never just Eric. Is that something Extra Space has done to you? I always wonder if it's an abbreviation thing. I think other people...

Bishop-Berry: EBB is outside of Extra Space, too. I think it just makes so much sense. I have a brother, he's actually DBB as well.

Morris: It just continues, because you are a one-name person to me. You're all three: Eric, Bishop-Berry, or the abbreviation.

Bishop-Berry: I wish when I started, instead of my email being E Bishop, it was just EBB. Oh, can we change that? Maybe we can change that.

Morris: If anyone from IT is listening, please help us. This is the correct way to submit tickets.

Bishop-Berry: There we go.

Morris: It would be cool if EBB was your email. But maybe you'll get that for your 30th anniversary. I'm hoping. Fingers crossed. Well, let's start at the beginning for you. How did you get to Extra Space? How did you get here to Utah?

02:08 — From New Hampshire to Extra Space Storage

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. So I grew up in New Hampshire. Spent the first 23 years of my life in New Hampshire, super rural upbringing, dirt road. And somewhere along the line I grew an interest in real estate and commercial real estate. I ended up moving to Texas and doing some schooling down in Texas. Great program, and my timing was terrible. I got a graduate degree in commercial real estate and graduated in December of 2008. So, right...

Morris: Terrible timing.

Bishop-Berry: Right as we were diving into the GFC (Great Financial Crisis. And I drove back home to New Hampshire from Texas. This was probably a few days before Christmas or something like that. I got home and it became very apparent that not many people were hiring. The job market was pretty bad for a newly graduated person with no experience and a degree. I also grew up skiing.

Morris: Okay.

Bishop-Berry: And I hadn't skied in a couple of years.

Morris: Texas, none. Iconic.

Bishop-Berry: Texas wasn't good for that, and I just started reaching out to Colorado ski resorts, like, “Hey, you got any job openings?”

Morris: Like, if I'm not working, and if I don't ski, I might as...

Bishop-Berry: Well go someplace and be someplace that maybe I want to live long term. And try to do something productive, because the job prospects weren't looking good at that time. I wasn't home more than two weeks in New Hampshire, and I was back in the car driving out to Utah. I spent a winter working at Park City Mountain Resort, and over that time I definitely had my eye on, “All right, I want some career progression here.” I made a lot of phone calls, and a year after that I started at CBRE, which is a commercial real estate services provider, worldwide. They also have an office in Salt Lake City. One of my first desks was where our call center is right now.

Morris: Oh!

Bishop-Berry: And shortly thereafter we moved downtown. I live over here in Cottonwood Heights, and I drove by this place all the time. I saw Extra Space, and the ground signage actually drew me in. I was kind of curious about what was going on here.

Morris: You literally just drove past the headquarters all the time?

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. And for someone who was interested in real estate in Salt Lake and wanted to live here, this was a pretty good prospect for me. I think I eventually applied enough times that they brought me in.

05:05 — How Third-Party Management Works

Morris: It took a lot. But you joined. Did you join the partner services group?

Bishop-Berry: Yeah, I was hired in. At that time we didn't call it the partner services group, but my role was essentially a partner services manager.

Morris: Yeah. So your role then, and your role now, still revolves around our partners. Just in case we have anyone listening who doesn't know how our company is structured, can you describe our management structure a little bit? Like the 101 for dummies. How is our property structure? Buckets.

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. Extra Space Storage has a little over 4,000 properties that we either own, operate, or manage. Half of those stores we don't own ourselves. We either own them in partnership with joint venture partners, or we have no ownership in them. Everyone from a single owner to a larger institution with a portfolio can hire us to provide the operations and the management for their properties.

06:15 — What Partnership Means at Extra Space

Morris: Perfect. And your team is kind of the point people for that. So you bring in those partners, and then you work with them year over year and make sure everyone is aligned in achieving their goals. When you think about the big-picture concept of partnership, what does partnership mean to you?

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. And I might answer this as what does partnership mean to the company, because this started long before I was here. I think our founder, Ken Woolley, instilled this concept very early on, that partnerships should be mutually beneficial. This is not a win-at-all-costs business. A good example of how this manifests itself: if you're talking to us early on in the process, before we're even working with you or managing your store, we're going to be far more focused on, what are your goals in the industry? How have you been involved in the industry? How do you want to be involved in the industry? Tell me about your property, what you want to do with it, and how you want to continue on in this industry. And then along the way, we explain how we go about operating stores, what our philosophy is around revenue management and marketing, and all the different great functions we have within our organization that ultimately roll out to a really strong operating platform.

Morris: Yeah, these mutually beneficial partnerships are such a key part of our culture, and the way we like to talk about, I mean, so many different areas of our business. But your group's, it's the most clear on the table: this is how we partner and collaborate. Your team opens with a lot of curiosity, a lot of “how can we help each other?”

08:10 — Working With Nearly 500 Owners

Morris: And it's cool to watch when someone is thinking about bringing on Extra Space as a partner, or we're thinking about bringing on a new partner. How are you evaluating that partnership? What are some of the signs of a good partner versus things where you're like, we might not be a good fit?

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. Good question. What's cool about our platform is we can manage a very, very wide variety of partners in a wide variety of stores.

Morris: So you guys have almost 400 different partnership groups that you're working with.

Bishop-Berry: Close to 500, actually. It's a very broad, diverse chunk of owners. There are a lot of owners that have one asset, one store, maybe they've owned it for 20 or 30 years. And then there are a lot of owners that are larger, maybe institutional, looking at it more from an investment standpoint for their investors. I think what's important when looking at Extra Space is that we have some really cool elements woven into the fabric of us, because we've always been involved in partnerships. It's just part of our being. I don't see major decisions being made here, or even a medium decision, without someone asking the question: how is this going to impact our partners? How is this going to impact our partner stores? And the cool thing for me is that it doesn't necessarily have to be us, the partnership team. It's so woven into the fabric of Extra Space that maybe accounting is asking that question, or marketing, or pricing. Secondly, our platforms are agnostic to ownership group. If the same system or tool is used on one of our own stores, it's used on yours. Same pricing models, same website, same operational strategies. So if those types of elements work for our owners, we're generally going to be a pretty good fit for you.

10:19 — One Operating Platform Across Every Store

Morris: Yeah. A lot of different types of owners, a lot of different types of properties can be a great fit within that system. Diving a little more into that second part, the fact that we don't operate our stores differently whether it's REIT-owned, a JV (Joint Venture) partnership, or a managed store: could you talk a little more about what that looks like at a foundational level? If you're a store manager, what does it look like to be working at a wholly owned store versus a store owned by a partner?

Bishop-Berry: Hopefully it's the same. Yeah, hopefully it's the same.

Morris: Almost no difference, right?

Bishop-Berry: Yes. Hopefully it's the same for our store managers, and hopefully it's the same for our customers. The idea is the customer walking in the door, it's the same call center, the same website, the same bidding strategy, however we interact with you.

Morris: And your experience.

Bishop-Berry: There shouldn't be that much difference.

Morris: Yeah. I'm trying to remember who told me this, but it was someone who had gone into a third-party-owned store, and they were trying to get that point across to whoever they were giving a tour of the store. So they asked the store employee, “Well, whose store is this?” And the store employee was like, “Mine.”

Bishop-Berry: Which is a great answer.

Morris: Yeah. Like, this is my store, I take care of this store. At that ownership level, it doesn't matter if it's Extra Space-owned or somebody else's. The accountability is, no, this is ours.

Bishop-Berry: It's always there. Yeah, 100%.

11:40 — Building a Strong Partner Services Team

Morris: Yeah. I always love that one, because that's such a perfect example. Not the answer they were trying to get out of them, but an even better answer. You love to see it. So, thinking about the partner services group, you guys have grown a ton. That's been an area that has had a lot of growth, which means your team here is also growing a lot. What makes a good partner services manager? What makes a good analyst on your team? What are you looking for?

Bishop-Berry: So my experience with Extra Space, and what I think makes us a really strong operator and a really engaging company to work for, is that we don't shy away from change. We're always willing to relook at things and try to find a little bit better way to do whatever we're doing in that particular instance. Where that meshes in our world is that we operate for 500 different owners, so our partner services team and managers and associates have a big responsibility to bring our owners along for that journey when we say, “Hey, we see something here, we're going to pivot over here, we're going to do things a little differently.” And in a lot of these areas, maybe no one in the industry has done it before.

Morris: Yeah, we're asking them to come along to something that's kind of new and maybe odd-seeming, though we've data tested it.

Bishop-Berry: So what types of people work within that? We all have to learn the storage business for the most part. Not many people come here with storage experience. I had to learn it from the ground up here. But more important is the ability to continue to learn, and the adaptability and flexibility to say, “Yeah, just because we did this last month or last year doesn't necessarily mean we should do it next month or next year.” And then bringing our partners along for that journey, telling them why we are doing that and showing them how it's going to be implemented at their store and ultimately benefit their store as well.

Morris: Yeah. Really great communicators on your team for that kind of stuff. A hundred percent.

Bishop-Berry: Yeah, definitely.

13:54 — What Sets Extra Space Third-Party Management Apart

Morris: Yeah. We're talking about how Extra Space does things differently, right? We're in a competitive business with third-party management. We were first on the scene, but a lot of our competitors now also offer a management program. What makes our management program the one for people to choose? I mean, I'm asking you to give the sales pitch, but what is a differentiator for Extra Space?

Bishop-Berry: So some of it I've already talked about. I do think a big part of it is the cultural elements, and the involvement with partners over the long term has been embedded in everybody here, indoctrinated into everybody here. But then also, the meat and potatoes of it is that we have a really compelling story on the performance side of how we operate properties, how we operate properties against our peer set and other management companies. And we've been in a great position to continue to grow. We run the properties the same way for our own stores, and we share those continued learnings by implementing them at all of our partner stores. And it's probably not much more of a cocktail than that, right? It's the cultural elements paired with really, really strong performance.

Morris: Yeah. We're going to take care of our partners, and we have the platforms and the people and the structure to give you the performance. That kind of summarizes the pitch.

Bishop-Berry: Pretty simple at the end of the day.

15:29 — Evaluating and Onboarding New Properties

Morris: Really simple at the end of the day. And you guys are growing at a rapid pace. How do you decide if a property is a good fit for our program?

Bishop-Berry: Sure. We want to look at how we believe it's going to interact with the stores that are currently on the platform. We want to ensure that operationally we can handle it. Like, is it two hours away or an hour away? Is it within a market we service? And we also look at it from the standpoint that we're in this business to make money and be profitable, and we want to ensure that we're profitable within it.

Morris: Yeah. When somebody brings a new property onto our program, when a new property becomes an Extra Space through third-party management, what does that transition look like? What does the first 90 days, the first year that a property is on our platform, look like?

Bishop-Berry: I guess this is where I get to brag about a different group. We have a transitions group, actually housed within the operations team. I can unequivocally say they are the best in the business at what they do. From a technical, functional transition, they are tremendous. They have close to 200 things they have to do on every single property that they bring the team together on. And when you onboard 300 to 350 properties a year, it has to be really dialed in.

Morris: You're technically good.

Bishop-Berry: Yeah. And they do a really good job on that. Once it's onboard, that's where our partner services team comes in. They're the owner's main point of contact into the Extra Space ecosystem. So if it's pricing or marketing or operational questions, or just providing a recap on how the store has done each month, they're the team that's going to do it, and they're going to be your steward within Extra Space, representing you and serving as your primary point of contact.

17:40 — How Data Helps Owners

Morris: Yeah. Your team is well known for looking at data, having a lot of data reports that they're looking at. How does your team look at the massive amount of data that Extra Space is able to provide, and how does that translate to a store owner?

Bishop-Berry: Well, it can certainly bring a lot of context, and I think that's how it helps us immensely. It's a tremendous benefit to have the amount of data that we have. From our team's standpoint, a lot of it is used to bring context to our owners, to help explain what we're seeing within a market or within their store, or maybe why pricing did a certain thing one way or another.

Morris: Yeah. It's a ton of extra context. If you're an individual store owner with just one store, you just don't have that, compared to the 4,400, compared to the data points that we're able to bring to the table.

Bishop-Berry: And when you're looking at bringing a property to us, that data can be very helpful too, because we can take a look at your property, how it's doing, compare it with the properties we have in and around it, and try to give you good guidance and a good set of expectations on how it's going to perform as an Extra Space.

19:02 — Mentorship and Learning at Extra Space

Morris: Yeah. Definitely. Interesting. Okay, so to pivot a little bit, I want to talk about your career here and in particular mentorship. I feel like you've worked really closely with Noah Springer, who's our current president.

Bishop-Berry: I've been very fortunate to work with Noah.

Morris: But also it feels like you're someone who has a lot of great connections within the company. You work with so many different departments just based on your role. Can you talk a little bit about anyone here who's been a mentor to you and what type of mentorship you've received at Extra Space? And then you can pivot that over to how you view mentorship now that you are a VP. What is your philosophy around it?

Bishop-Berry: I think I have a pretty loose definition of mentorship. As I think about that question, what's coming to mind is that there are a lot of people around here that I would consider a mentor that I don't know that they know.

Morris: Would claim you as a mentee. They're like...

Bishop-Berry: No, but what I mean by that is, when you're at a company like this and you're surrounded by a lot of really talented people with whatever expertise they may have, and a lot of us have a lot of experience, you can pick up so much by observing and thinking, “Oh, wow, I've never seen somebody handle something like that before,” whether it's Dayna, Grace, or whoever it may be. For me, there's been a lot of informal learning along the way. And then from a more structured standpoint, what's great about this place, and something that I think attracted me very early on and that I probably picked up on within a couple of months here, is that the doors are open around this place. If you have a question, and particularly when I was the new guy, I needed a lot of help.

Morris: We all had a lot of answers that you needed.

Bishop-Berry: It's something I try to remind myself of, particularly when we have a new partner services manager. They may be paired with partners that have five, ten, 15 years of experience in this industry. And that's a little bit intimidating. But this place is really great for sharing knowledge and sharing learnings. Whether it's “Hey, I need some help or some coaching here,” I don't know that I've ever had anyone say, “No thanks, dude.” The doors are always open.

Morris: Yeah. It would be bizarre. I'm trying to think of any leader here that, if I said, “Hey, I need help with this situation,” wouldn't sit down and give me time to hash it out.

Bishop-Berry: And what's cool is that before you know it, you can start stewarding that part of the culture and being additive there. And that's a fun thing to be a part of.

Morris: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about Noah in particular, though. Is there anything you've learned from him as career advice? Or what's one thing you've learned from working with Noah for the past 12 years?

Bishop-Berry: He's good in so many ways. It's always inspiring to me to see how he connects with people. And as a relative rookie compared to a lot of people here who have been here 20 or 25 years, just their knowledge and perspective of how things have changed and where we want to go as an organization, it's fun to be a fly on the wall for that sort of stuff.

Morris: It's fun. Our leaders are so interesting, the ones you work so closely with, and then all of them together, it's such a great learning environment.

Bishop-Berry: To learn the partnership business, which I think you kind of have to learn along the way. I don't know that there's anybody better to learn from than Noah.

Morris: Yeah. He's such a relationship-forward leader, which is perfect for the PSG group. It's cool to see and pick up on the value of those relationships. Okay, and then, sticking in the advice category, is there a piece of advice you would give yourself 12 years ago? You just started at Extra Space. You're a skier rolling into the corporate office. What advice would you give that person to help you get to where you are better, faster, more efficiently, whatever it would be? What's something you've learned that that guy could have used?

Bishop-Berry: I think a good thing to do, if you're new in your career or you're just starting at a new organization, is to understand how you can interact with the team you're within, and how you can add value, whether to the team or other teams. Because we all have strengths and weaknesses, or strengths and opportunities, whatever you want to call it. We can improve. You can add value by saying, “You know what, I'm particularly good here, and I've noticed this about the company, and we can maybe improve it here a little bit.” I just go in with an open mind and...

Morris: Lean into your strengths.

Bishop-Berry: Lean into your strengths and figure out where that can help the company.

24:48 — What Makes Extra Space a Great Partner

Morris: Yeah. And it doesn't have to be just in your one little realm, right?

Bishop-Berry: No, no.

Morris: I've seen that in so many different meetings with different leaders, where they're putting their strengths forward for anyone to utilize, for projects over here and over here. It can be so broad. What are the values or the culture, can you put into words, the things that we do that make us a great partner?

Bishop-Berry: I think we ultimately have an understanding of what it's like to own properties. Although this is a large company, we can empathize with the owner who is paying their mortgage every month on their property and has to meet those requirements. We understand that, and it's embedded in us. Because of that, we take partner services, and just working with partners on a day-to-day basis, very seriously. And it's something that we want to do a really good job at for everyone.

Morris: Yeah. I don't know if this is the exact word I would use, but we have the empathy for it. We know what it's like to have a store and to care deeply about that store, and so that's how we're going to treat people in return. Kind of a golden rule situation.

Bishop-Berry: Sure.

Morris: Yeah, I like that. Well, thank you so much for sitting down with us and talking about you and your career, our partner services group, and our third-party management program. We appreciate your time.

Bishop-Berry: It's great to be here.

Morris: Thanks for coming. Perfect. And thank you to everyone who joined us and listened. We'll have more episodes coming out, so subscribe if you want to hear more conversations. Thanks, everyone. 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 guest, 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

Eric Bishop-Berry, Vice President of Third-Party Management

Eric Bishop-Berry is Vice President of Third-Party Management at Extra Space Storage. He joined Extra Space in 2014, initially managing relationships with large third-party management accounts, and has since helped support the continued growth of the company's management platform. Today, Bishop-Berry works with owners and partners across a wide range of portfolios, helping bring new properties onto the platform. Before joining Extra Space, he worked in CBRE’s Salt Lake City office. He holds a Master of Real Estate from Texas A&M University and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Planning from Plymouth 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.