National Storage Affiliates Trust

Greetings and welcome to the National Storage Affiliates third quarter 2022 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, George Hogland, Vice President of Investor Relations for National Storage Affiliates. Thank you, Mr. Hogland. You may begin.

We'd like to thank you for joining us today for the third quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call of National Storage Affiliates Trust. On the line with me here today are NSA CEO Tamara Fisher, President and COO Dave Kramer, and CFO Brandon Togashi. Following prepared remarks, Management will accept questions from registered financial analysts. Please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up, and then return to the queue if you have more questions. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday afternoon, we furnished our supplemental package with additional detail on our results, which may be found in the investor relations section on our website at NationalStorageAffiliates.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions They contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties and represent management's estimates as of today, November 3rd, 2022. The company assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement because of change in market conditions or other circumstances after the date of this conference call. The company cautions that actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. For additional detail concerning our forward-looking statements, please refer to our public filings with the SEC. We also encourage listeners to review the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO, core FFO, and net operating income contained in the supplemental information package available in the investor relations section on our website and in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Tammy.

Thank you, George, and thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. I'll start the call by addressing the recent hurricanes, Fiona and Ian, and expressing our compassion for all who were affected by the storms. We're pleased to report that all of our team members were safe and accounted for subsequent to the hurricanes. And although a number of our stores, primarily in Florida, were impacted to a certain degree, all of our stores are currently open and operational. I'd also like to thank our team for their extraordinary response to the storms. both in terms of watching out for each other, taking care of our customers, and so quickly working to assess damages, get the cleanup process underway, and resume normal operations. Now, moving on to results. We delivered another great quarter with growth in core FFO per share of 26.3% and same-store NOI growth of 12.1%. As expected, our results continue to moderate from record levels as we face tougher year-over-year comps and a return to more normal seasonality. Moderation is also fueled by inflationary pressures on the consumer. As we close out 2022 and enter what may well be an even more challenging macroeconomic environment in 2023, keep in mind that the self-storage asset class has historically proven to be quite recession resilient through various economic cycles. The sector benefits from unique countercyclical demand factors including demand-driven by household contraction and necessity-based relocations. Further, the pandemic introduced new customers to self-storage who have realized the convenience and affordability of the product, particularly in a time of increasing cost per square foot for housing. Finally, with the benefits of our differentiated pro structure and our broad geographic exposure, We remain very confident in NSA's future prospects. Now, turning to investment activity in the third quarter. We acquired 23 wholly owned properties, investing $322 million, and an average cap rate of 5.4%. Twenty of these stores are in Texas, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, a great fit for our existing portfolio in fast-growing Sunbelt markets. While the transaction market has slowed from last year's record pace, we're still seeing opportunities come to market, and we continue to evaluate deals where it makes sense. But we're definitely being very selective in the face of today's increased cost of capital. There is still a relatively significant bid-ask gap between buyer and seller expectations, so we expect that Q4 will be relatively quiet on the transaction front. Going forward, we will remain opportunistic with respect to our capital and investment strategy, always with an eye to creating value for our shareholders over the long term. Overall, I'd characterize the third quarter as strong performance with moderating fundamentals and in line with our expectations. The self-storage sector and NSA specifically remain well positioned to navigate the dynamic operating environment as we head into the new year. I'll now turn the call over to Dave to discuss current trends and operations. Dave?