Joseph Margolis on Growth Strategy
From Extra Space Storage Q1 2026 Earnings with CEO Joe Margolis · · Extra Space Storage
“Our job is simple and it's to make money for our shareholders. It's not to be big. It's not to do exciting deals. It's not to be, you know, uh do activities that don't create long-term value. So we want to grow this company. Scale is important and an advantage in the self- storage industry, but we just don't want to be the high bidder and go out and buy things because then we're going to destroy our shareholders value, not increase our shareholders value.”
On , Joseph Margolis, Chief Executive Officer & Director at Extra Space Storage, spoke about Growth Strategy during Extra Space Storage Q1 2026 Earnings with CEO Joe Margolis on Extra Space Storage.
About Joseph Margolis
In a May 2026 podcast, Extra Space Storage CEO Joe Margolis discussed the company's first-quarter performance and the broader self-storage industry. Margolis described the quarter as "a home run" and stated that Extra Space "led the industry in revenue growth" and beat Wall Street consensus on all metrics. He explained that the company held its guidance steady despite the outperformance due to factors such as the upcoming leasing season and macroeconomic risks including war, high gas prices, inflation, and low consumer confidence, which he said the company did not predict. Margolis characterized the current period as a "recovery period" for storage, noting that while the industry experienced "unprecedented" growth during COVID, it has since faced "three years of a down cycle that's flattish to slightly positive." He emphasized that the company's goal is to "make money for shareholders" through accretive growth rather than pursuing size for its own sake, and that scale is an advantage "but not at the cost of overbidding." Margolis also shared advice on negotiation, stating that one must "figure out in the negotiation is what's important to the other side" to create a deal where both parties feel they have won.