Dear Glendon -A Storage Unit Auction Question
Glendon Cameron |
February 27, 2010 |
11:47 am | Storage AUctions in the News on the web!
Tags: About Self Storage Unit Auctions, Making money with storage unit auctions, Storage Auction Book, What I got out of a self storage auction unit
Tags: About Self Storage Unit Auctions, Making money with storage unit auctions, Storage Auction Book, What I got out of a self storage auction unit
I get this one all of the time.
Dear Glendon
I have checked out your videos and read the blog, how in the world would someone let such great stuff go? I keep telling people many of us are pack rats in this society. Trust me I often wondered this same thing for years. I will sell something in New York minute if it is not severing me or is going to cost me more than it is worth.
I was sent this article by Mike, check it out and you will see for yourself why there are so many storage unit auctions in the USA and no this trend is not going to reverse its self any time soon. It is part of our culture. If you want to cash in on this trend that is only going to go up check out my book!
On the auction block/ Hopeful bidders hunt for bargains when storage
0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 11, 2001 | by Bill Vogrin
Shortly after 10 a.m. Friday, an auctioneer opened the door on storage unit A18, exposing an assortment of old shoes, chairs, baby toys and trash bags full of clothes.
A dozen hopeful buyers craned to see inside the 10-foot-wide door as the bidding began at $10. The price climbed in $5 increments until it reached $150.
The winner immediately went in and started digging through his new property as the rest of the group headed to another storage locker.
The auctions are a weekly treasure hunt for a small group of Springs residents who cruise newspaper legal advertisements to see where the auctions will be next.
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The auctions sometimes represent personal tragedies for folks whose private belongings are unceremoniously sold and picked apart by strangers.
And they are a sign of the times – something that is happening more and more as the economy sours and people find it harder to pay bills.
Scott and Gayleen Fisher were lucky this Friday. Their stuff didn’t get sold to the highest bidder.
“You are kidding me,” Gayleen said when told Thursday night that her property was scheduled to be auctioned in the morning. “Oh my gosh. I didn’t know anything about this.
“My husband was in a wreck in May and is disabled. Things have been very, very tight. We owe them for two months. I don’t even know if we’ve got the money to pay them. They’re going to sell our stuff?”
Typically, once renters fall 30 days behind, they are at risk of losing property to an auction. The law allows a lien to be placed against their lockers and their contents can be sold in a few weeks after efforts are made to contact the owners by phone and certified letter.
Gayleen said the couple rented the locker six years ago after they met at Focus on the Family, where they work, and were married.
“We were joining our families and things together,” she said.
“We don’t have a garage and just didn’t have room for everything.”
The Fishers avoided having the contents of their 5-by-10 foot storage unit auctioned Friday by simply promising the manager of the SecurCare Self Storage facility on Astrozon that they’d pay their back rent.
“We’re going to get caught up,” said Scott Fisher shortly after the other storage units were opened and sold. “We’ve had some tough luck. But I told her, ‘If you can work with me, I can get this done.’ And I will.”
There was no happy ending for three other SecurCare renters on Friday.
One by one, their property was sold, mostly to folks who plan to salvage big-ticket items – stereos, tables and chairs, sofas, lamps – for resale at flea markets, auction houses and yard sales.
The rest will be pitched out or in some cases donated to charitable organizations.
The serious buyers – those who try to make money from the auctioned property – paced around outside the storage units, sometimes negotiating with their competitors to keep the prices down.
They carried flashlights to get as good a look as possible at each locker’s contents. And some even had padlocks hanging from their belt loops to temporarily protect the units they bought.
Most didn’t want to talk about what they do, clearly uncomfortable, not wanting to advertise their participation in the auctions.
Not everyone is there for business purposes. Denise Monteith of Security watched the bidding with her daughter, 6-year-old Brittany.
“I come to the auctions to buy things for our family,” Monteith said. “I come every chance I get – usually once a week. It’s fun.”
A foster parent, Monteith looks for baby clothes she can use or donate to church groups and needy families.
But she never knows what she’ll find.
“You can get some bum units and end up with really nasty stuff,” she said. “I bought one because it had baby stuff and then started looking through it and found nasty things you’d buy at an adult bookstore.
“And sometimes all you find is garbage. That’s when I just walk away.”
Storage unit owners then must deal with the mess.
Bad luck like the Fishers’ can cause storage units to end up at auction at any time, and there may be more opportunity for treasure hunting in storage lockers in coming months.
The nation’s souring economy is resulting in more and more units falling into delinquency and going to auction, said Michael Kidd, executive director of the Self Storage Association.
“There are recessionary trends,” Kidd said. “As the economy drops, we will see a rise in delinquencies. There are some markets where delinquencies are up and it is a red flag for us.”
It’s not an epidemic, though. In fact, the nation’s 30,000 storage facilities enjoy occupancy rates averaging about 90 percent, Kidd said.
That rate holds true for the estimated 1,000 facilities in Colorado, said Bill Duarte of the Colorado Self-Storage Owners Group.
And Kidd and Duarte stress that facility owners hate conducting auctions. It’s just that some people leave them no choice.
“Nobody wants to face disposing of someone else’s property,” Kidd said. “It’s like failing to pay your rent on your apartment. Sooner or later, you are going to lose your apartment.”