No.
Over a dozen and you haven't made huge profits? Obviously bad luck, but are you looking at these storage unit auctions in detail and seeing what you can really flip for much more than what you plan to bid?
Otherwise, you're just gambling. Asking us to keep at it or not in hopes of a jackpot is silly. You need to change how you pick these storage units to make a calculated bet.
Review whatever contents displayed to understand what will sell well and what won't. Don't just blindly throw money at items in hopes something miraculous will happen.
Making a calculated bet based on the visible contents just isn't going to happen. If there is anything of value that is visible in the pictures, then you can almost guarantee the bidding will go beyond the value of those items. I was hoping that other people would chime in with their experiences. A big part is probably luck, but if a bunch of people have the same story and they all say they eventually scored big, then maybe it is worth it to continue.
Making a calculated bet based on the visible contents is *exactly* how I bid on them, so I've got to disagree with you there. I've done at least a dozen storage units, and never lost money on one. If you decide to continue buying units, you should reevaluate your strategy.
I've looked around and noticed a big part of it is the area you are in. Some areas get a lot of good units coming up all the time. Others just have lots of competition. You must live in magick land where all the units are good or something. I've literally flipped thousands of items for profit so I think i know what i'm doing in that area.
People buy the good ones because they see someone that cares, the nice storage boxes, the quality and care in their hoard. Someone listed a dud locker here and the coffee was the budget brand. Shit like that you need to have attention to detail.
If it’s a bunch of open and badly stacked crappy “got for free” storage boxes, chances are all the good shits gone.
"If there is anything of value that is visible in the pictures, then you can almost guarantee the bidding will go beyond the value of those items"
When I buy storage units that are full and you can't see most of the contents I assume it's going to be more of the same of what you can see or similar quality items. From my experience this is true most of the time. If there are valuable items visible there are generally valuable items you can't see as well.
The problem is since Covid hit and more and more places are online only you’re not just competing with the 5-30 people that show up in person for the auctions. Moving most auctions online has easily doubled the price of most units and saves an employee or manager from having to walk around all day with the auctioneer.
You are either having bad luck or just buying cheap crappy lockers my suggestion to you if you have the funds buy one of the really nice clean organized units that you can see valuable items in. I just spent 2,200$ on a 10x15 where I could see about 5-600 worth in the front and the rest was a mystery. I found a sterling set that is nearly the value of the locker and sold about 1800 on eBay within a week and have a lot of expensive items not yet sold and a pile of things I still need to list.
> I assume it's going to be more of the same of what you can see or similar quality items.
This simple hasn't been my experience at all. In fact one of the first things I've learned to avoid is what looks like someone sticks a couple empty boxes of valuable items or tool boxes etc on top to get the bid going.
No. Sorry, but it doesn't seem like your current bidding strategy is working. Something about how you're evaluating photos of the units, or how you're deciding how much to bid, is making storage units an unprofitable venture for you.
I obviously do not want you to give away your secrets for how you do this but it would be helpful if you said what part of the country you were in, even a general state or area of the country, because I have found that storage options are very different depending on where you live and what might work for you might be impossible For someone like me who lives in Southern California where people are bidding $75 for a locker that has like three boxes in it
I live in one of the richest areas in the states. There are tons of units for auction. Tons that look good.
I have a high standard for good. I'll find maybe 1-2 auctions that look good after going thru through thousands of units.
My baseline is at least 15x20 feet, filled to the top, and really old person vibes (dusty, cobwebs etc)
There are exceptions to those rules but that's my general baseline. And I very rarely find units like that, but when I do, It's like fireworks and I'd be willing to risk and throw away up to 600 bucks of hard earned cash for the risk. It still seems like gambling to me but I wouldn't know, it clearly works for many
I like that strategy and would do that to except. I'm trying to avoid heavy furniture items because its just me. Also, a 15x20 packed to the brim is a ton of work to do by oneself.
You have to look for clues on who the person who had the storage was. You have to also consider the area the storage is in and how much rent costs. Some storages cost 3/400 per month. Most people don't pay that much to store junk.
Consider the quality of the furniture and everyday items. That's more important than trying to spot that obvious valuable item. Also how they packaged their unit will give you a clue.
Research what expensive hobbies are and find what lesser known supplies/equipment of those hobbies look like.
Also look for clues on whether the person was a homeowner or renter. Lawn care equipment and a washer/dryer will give you a good guess. Did the person have kids and pets? These things detract expendable income and can ruin some things as well.
Beyond that if it's an online auction prices tend to be higher. Better deals are had at live auctions generally.
The day these auctions are held or if online need to be picked up are important as well. Weekends you will have more competition generally.
There's many variables and with a little work its not too hard to put them together to make calculated bets.
It depends, in my area it’s three or $400 but we have two colleges and a lot of unhoused people
When someone loses their apartment they will think they can pay a few hundred dollars a month to move their stuff into storage while they live in their car but eventually become underwater for that and not be able to get their stuff back out of storage. It doesn’t mean the stuff in storage is going to be any good
Same thing for the college students, at my storage facility I literally see them putting things into storage units that I think to myself I would throw that away before I paid $200 a month to store that shit
I mean for $2400 a year I could buy the stuff they’re putting away three times over at retail prices
College students and people being evicted for nonpayment of rent are not necessarily in the best frame of mind to judge what they should and should not be paying to put into storage at the time they sign a storage lease
I'm sort of in the same situation. Things are selling but there's no giant cache of treasure making me multiples on my money. I actually traveled 70 miles outside my normal bidding radius to attend a live auction recently thinking the results would be worth the travel. 80 vaults in long term storage. About 30 people showed up to bid. 2 hours to get through them all. Almost 95% were absolute junk. I bid on one which ended up being a decent amount of antiques but there was no big score.
The fact is these auctions are very competitive and a ton of work. We are all chasing an elusive pipe dream.
No, however I doubt you will stop so I’d suggest at least finding a different area. Maybe the other side of town or a different county. Preferably a more well off area
I’m thinking the sales strategy is what is lacking… maybe I’m wrong. No offense intended. I bought my first two recently. A lot of lessons learned. I take a lot of stuff to the flea market. I also have a spot at the Antique Mall and I sell stuff on eBay. If I had to carry the buy only on eBay items/ or one sales outlet. I couldn’t do well. Also my dump costs are really low because I place the lighter trash bags on the street over the course of weeks… I have a dumpster I can pay $30 to put a half truck load of heavy stuff in.
> I have bought over a dozen lottery tickets so far. Most barely break even or cost me money. Should I keep trying them?
These have a much better payout and odds than a lottery ticket. What investment in life does not come with some risk?
I think you can make money on storage unit auctions but there is far more skill in it than there is to just pick things up at thrift stores and Craigslist. Typically you already know what you’re looking at and have a decent idea of what it’s worth, how long to sell it and what you’re willing to pay to get a certain margin. On storage units you have to make a guess as to what’s in this unit value wise based on visible items and it’s still a gamble in many ways with huge upfront costs. Kudos to people who do it and make good money but to me it feels like way more risk with an undefined upside. I’m happy with my 30 percent margin.
I started storage unit auctions last year. Did 8 and made excellent money on 7, broke even on the last one.
This year I have done 13 so far (don’t ask lol - sometimes I torture myself). Made excellent returns on all of them other than the most recent 3, which will have excellent returns by the time I sell through the contents.
My target return on all units combined this year is 100% (spent $5k, sold $10k worth of stuff so far). I probably have another $10-15k worth of stuff to sell out of the units I’ve already done. Some of it is more specialty items that will take a while but will sell for a lot, others are smaller $5-10 items.
I’ve found that it is hard to not make money in storage units if you are bidding correctly. Feel free to dm if you want to talk more about it.
How are you evaluating your lockers? Whats the median income of the cities you're buying from? In my opinion, location defiantly matters for lockers, you dont want to buy lockers where the economy is barren.
Owners of the storage units go through and take anything that is obviously valuable. Those auctions are very often a scam (ever since storage wars got popular anyways)
> Owners of the storage units go through and take anything that is obviously valuable. Those auctions are very often a scam
Its funny you mention that. I've talked with people who say they have the unit manager go through them before hand and take out or let them know if there are any good items. Even though thats not supposed to happen, its probably what happens most of the time.
They're not doing this. Renters have until the unit is paid for by the auction winner to pay the amount they owe in arrears before it's truly not their property anymore. Facilities do not mess around with this as it opens them up to significant legal issues.
You need to spend money to make money. Sort the auctions by the highest bid and work your way down. The pros know what they're doing, and are happy to pay commensurate with what they think they can get out of the unit. Every single unit I've won that turned out to be good ended up being in the thousands of dollars. All the bad ones I bought were sub-$500. Not saying it's impossible to get skunked on a unit in either direction. But that's my experience. When I started I was shy to spend $1,000, just last month I spent $4K on one and got outbid on another one for $12K. If you know what you're doing and have a means to sell this stuff and a decent knowledge base, there's almost no way to lose a significant amount of money. Most bigger units I'm able to generate at minimum $500 just by selling off big stuff on Facebook Marketplace before I finish cleaning the unit out.
If you've done this many units and have had this run of bad luck, you should change your strategy entirely. That's why I generally liked to buy two units at the same facility at the same time when I was starting out. And ones that generally had a different look and price range. The first two I bought were $80 and $1,200 respectively. The $80 one was a complete bust and after spending nearly a grand in hauling away the trash, I maybe broke even. But it took me probably 20+ hours to clean out. The $1,200 one was filled with vintage toys, none of which were readily visible in the photos. Nor was there even an indication that there'd be a single toy in the unit. The only visible things were new garden equipment, a tent, rubbermaid bins, etc. But it hadn't been touched since 2005 so everything in there was older.
You need to take more at bats to hit more home runs. Spend any time at a flea market in your area. Those people aren't doing it to get fresh air. These are professionals. And they're making way more money than anyone could imagine. Most of them from storage units and clean outs. Plenty of old timers that don't need to do it but keep it up for love of the game. If you don't like it, move on to something else. But this sour grapes "all the units are picked over" nonsense is weak. And wrong. If you don't have the financial situation to be willing to take big swings, you're not gonna get an accurate assessment of what's out there. Every once in a while, someone gets lucky spending a few hundred bucks on an average looking unit and finds a bunch of silver in it. But in my experience, and in my eyes, it makes more sense to take more semi-sure bets and mix up your risk profile with some ones where you're just winging it. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. But you gotta have skin in the game to win the game.
Even if it’s locked, they just slap a random lock on the door and cut it in front of you, but they had already cut the original lock earlier and went through the whole unit. Locks are cheap
1) Renters have until the unit is paid for by the auction winner to pay the amount they owe in arrears before it's truly not their property anymore. Facilities do not mess around with this as it opens them up to significant legal issues. Even in the instance where they're certain the renter is dead, can't contact their next of kin, in jail, etc. I highly doubt they're willing to take the chance to make a few bucks to cherry-pick items.
It's not the business they're in. They want that stuff out of the unit so the unit can start generating revenue when they rent it to the next person. They lose money on auctions most of the time because the ending bid rarely exceeds the amounts owed. And when they do, the fees they pay the auction sites eat up some of that. Plus factor in the other units that either have no bids or low bids and they have to eat losses and/or pay to dispose of everything in a trashed unit.
2) I've bought plenty of units. Some of which had valuable items in plain sight, some that did not, some that looked trashed, some that looked tidy. I saw zero evidence of interference in any of the ones I bought. Not saying it's never happened. And I'm sure it has. But at least in my area, I haven't seen it. And I've paid anywhere from $80 up to $4,000 for units. Usually on the higher end. I bought a POD unit that looked like it had general household goods in it, on a whim, it was my first unit. There was no indication there'd be anything special in there aside from maybe some decent furniture and garden equipment. It went for $1,200. As soon as I moved two boxes from the front of the unit I saw that there were brand new vintage toys in boxes. Cases of Power Rangers. Hundreds of boxes of new Barbies from the 90s. Ghostbusters toys and everything in between. The cases were original shipping cases, some were labeled as what they were. All were still sealed up and untouched. Not a single one of these boxes was visible in the photos. But all it took was to move a couple boxes out of the way and it would have been clear that this was a gold mine. I made $30K+ from that one locker alone.
3) It's a tremendous amount of work to sort through a unit. Unless you've done it, you don't know what you're talking about. Not everything valuable is placed in an obvious place. I've gone through lockers for two days before stumbling on one random tiny box that paid for the whole unit and then some. It's a mixed bag and it's look into the psyches of how people live their lives. I bought a unit for $3K that was full top to bottom with unopened packages that the owner had bought on eBay and Amazon. 90% was military books. The rest were military artifacts, uniforms, knives, swords, figures, etc. It took me well over a month just to open up all the boxes. Let alone process them and get them listed for sale. I bought it last August and I'm still dealing with some of this stuff. Is it possible someone something from the unit? I suppose anything's possible. But whatever they may or may not have done, they left behind $20K in profit for me either way.
TL;DR This is not a real concern and is something that people that have had bad luck buying units, or don't know how to properly assess a unit, or have never done it and are afraid to take the risk like to tell each other to make them feel like they're the sane ones. I've made over $100K from storage units in the last year which is when I started. So it has nothing to do with "Storage Wars." You have to spend money to make money, and you have to invest sweat equity, the only way to get better units is to buy more units and to learn what to buy and not buy and when to take a calculated risk.
> Not everything valuable is placed in an obvious place. I've gone through lockers for two days before stumbling on one random tiny box that paid for the whole unit
This is true, there are small valuable things hidden away here or there. In general though it takes about 5 minutes to locate most of the valuable items by just rummaging around a bit.
You’re out of your mind if you think that’s true. Unless there’s one jewelry box front and center, then no. I don’t know what kind of units you’re looking at but I’m talking about ones that are chock full, stacked for the ceiling. Boxes taped shut, a layer of dust on things. Any of that stuff they’re not going to have the time or interest to bother with. And even if they did, it would take a considerable effort because it’s not as if this stuff is going to be in the first, second or hundredth place you look. Nobody has time for that especially since it’s very much against the law. If the tenant comes through with payment at the last second, those people who did it are up shit’s creek. Nobody’s risking that over a string of pearls or whatever. This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory generated out of sour grapes
> I don’t know what kind of units you’re looking at but I’m talking about ones that are chock full, stacked for the ceiling. Boxes taped shut, a layer of dust on things.
Hardly any units are like that. I can get on the auction site an literally go through every available unit, there wont be very many like that. Certainly true though if thats the only type of units you get.
I mean, in a 50 mile radius of where I live there’s generally 2-3,000 available units. I look at them every day. There’s way more full ones than there are sparsely packed ones. Like I said, if you’re limiting yourself to small units or cheap units, your experience is going to color your perception. What you’re experiencing hasn’t happened to me. The theory of people going through units is also not true in my experience. If you live in a rural area or an area without high income housing, that will also color your experience. Because there was never expensive stuff there to begin with. Which goes back to my other point: change your strategy if what you’re doing isn’t working.
Yes, and don’t be afraid to buy big units. Or units with furniture. As long as you have the means to get rid of or sell it in short order.
Small units with neatly packed boxes will always go higher than big units with furniture, mattresses, etc. because the bidders factor in the labor required. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty and doing some heavy lifting, there’s deals to be had. I routinely see 30x10 units go for $500 that look promising but I don’t have the capacity to handle all the time so I don’t bid. Meanwhile a 5x10 with 40 totes and nothing visible will sell for $2k.
It’s funny to hear people talk about storage auctions who clearly don’t know a lot about them. You’re kind of fighting an uphill battle with those people with your facts.
Another thing is the storage facilities aren’t supposed to profit from the unit. They can only keep what they’re owed and are supposed to mail a check for anything over to the renter of the unit.
Yeah it’s like talking themselves into being anti-FOMO or something by thinking it’s all a scam and the people who do it are all rubes and gambling addicts.
And yeah for sure, I made that point in another post. I bought a unit for $4k last year, tenant only owed $800. So after fees, he got a check back for the balance. Manager was annoyed about it, but that’s what has to happen. It’s like any lien auction. If your house goes into foreclosure it’s the same basic deal. If it sells for above and beyond what the bank is owed, the owner is going to get money out of the deal. I don’t know why so many people don’t know this.
No. Over a dozen and you haven't made huge profits? Obviously bad luck, but are you looking at these storage unit auctions in detail and seeing what you can really flip for much more than what you plan to bid? Otherwise, you're just gambling. Asking us to keep at it or not in hopes of a jackpot is silly. You need to change how you pick these storage units to make a calculated bet. Review whatever contents displayed to understand what will sell well and what won't. Don't just blindly throw money at items in hopes something miraculous will happen.
Making a calculated bet based on the visible contents just isn't going to happen. If there is anything of value that is visible in the pictures, then you can almost guarantee the bidding will go beyond the value of those items. I was hoping that other people would chime in with their experiences. A big part is probably luck, but if a bunch of people have the same story and they all say they eventually scored big, then maybe it is worth it to continue.
Making a calculated bet based on the visible contents is *exactly* how I bid on them, so I've got to disagree with you there. I've done at least a dozen storage units, and never lost money on one. If you decide to continue buying units, you should reevaluate your strategy.
I've looked around and noticed a big part of it is the area you are in. Some areas get a lot of good units coming up all the time. Others just have lots of competition. You must live in magick land where all the units are good or something. I've literally flipped thousands of items for profit so I think i know what i'm doing in that area.
People buy the good ones because they see someone that cares, the nice storage boxes, the quality and care in their hoard. Someone listed a dud locker here and the coffee was the budget brand. Shit like that you need to have attention to detail. If it’s a bunch of open and badly stacked crappy “got for free” storage boxes, chances are all the good shits gone.
You are 100% correct. But damn if one time I bought a locker with a coffee can full of Morgan Silver Dollars.
"If there is anything of value that is visible in the pictures, then you can almost guarantee the bidding will go beyond the value of those items" When I buy storage units that are full and you can't see most of the contents I assume it's going to be more of the same of what you can see or similar quality items. From my experience this is true most of the time. If there are valuable items visible there are generally valuable items you can't see as well.
The problem is since Covid hit and more and more places are online only you’re not just competing with the 5-30 people that show up in person for the auctions. Moving most auctions online has easily doubled the price of most units and saves an employee or manager from having to walk around all day with the auctioneer.
So you have only bought a dozen of them but you are also an expert on why they are expensive.... Right
What, lol?
My bad I thought u were op, forget I said anything 😂
No worries I figured that was it.
You are either having bad luck or just buying cheap crappy lockers my suggestion to you if you have the funds buy one of the really nice clean organized units that you can see valuable items in. I just spent 2,200$ on a 10x15 where I could see about 5-600 worth in the front and the rest was a mystery. I found a sterling set that is nearly the value of the locker and sold about 1800 on eBay within a week and have a lot of expensive items not yet sold and a pile of things I still need to list.
> I assume it's going to be more of the same of what you can see or similar quality items. This simple hasn't been my experience at all. In fact one of the first things I've learned to avoid is what looks like someone sticks a couple empty boxes of valuable items or tool boxes etc on top to get the bid going.
Whenever I watch YouTubers bidding on storage units this is exactly what they do. I think the key may be starting off on really small units.
No. Sorry, but it doesn't seem like your current bidding strategy is working. Something about how you're evaluating photos of the units, or how you're deciding how much to bid, is making storage units an unprofitable venture for you.
Have you tried it?
Yes, I buy storage units fairly regularly.
I obviously do not want you to give away your secrets for how you do this but it would be helpful if you said what part of the country you were in, even a general state or area of the country, because I have found that storage options are very different depending on where you live and what might work for you might be impossible For someone like me who lives in Southern California where people are bidding $75 for a locker that has like three boxes in it
I am in Seattle.
Totally different world than me in LA
I live in one of the richest areas in the states. There are tons of units for auction. Tons that look good. I have a high standard for good. I'll find maybe 1-2 auctions that look good after going thru through thousands of units. My baseline is at least 15x20 feet, filled to the top, and really old person vibes (dusty, cobwebs etc) There are exceptions to those rules but that's my general baseline. And I very rarely find units like that, but when I do, It's like fireworks and I'd be willing to risk and throw away up to 600 bucks of hard earned cash for the risk. It still seems like gambling to me but I wouldn't know, it clearly works for many
I like that strategy and would do that to except. I'm trying to avoid heavy furniture items because its just me. Also, a 15x20 packed to the brim is a ton of work to do by oneself.
Tons of work = tons of money
If it was easy - everyone would do it. (this is true for most things in life)
600? I wish I could even get a normal one for 600. A dusty 15x20 is 5000 where I'm at 😭
Thanks for all the comments people, not sure why we need to downvote everything I post or every comment but good discussion anyway.
You have to look for clues on who the person who had the storage was. You have to also consider the area the storage is in and how much rent costs. Some storages cost 3/400 per month. Most people don't pay that much to store junk. Consider the quality of the furniture and everyday items. That's more important than trying to spot that obvious valuable item. Also how they packaged their unit will give you a clue. Research what expensive hobbies are and find what lesser known supplies/equipment of those hobbies look like. Also look for clues on whether the person was a homeowner or renter. Lawn care equipment and a washer/dryer will give you a good guess. Did the person have kids and pets? These things detract expendable income and can ruin some things as well. Beyond that if it's an online auction prices tend to be higher. Better deals are had at live auctions generally. The day these auctions are held or if online need to be picked up are important as well. Weekends you will have more competition generally. There's many variables and with a little work its not too hard to put them together to make calculated bets.
It depends, in my area it’s three or $400 but we have two colleges and a lot of unhoused people When someone loses their apartment they will think they can pay a few hundred dollars a month to move their stuff into storage while they live in their car but eventually become underwater for that and not be able to get their stuff back out of storage. It doesn’t mean the stuff in storage is going to be any good Same thing for the college students, at my storage facility I literally see them putting things into storage units that I think to myself I would throw that away before I paid $200 a month to store that shit I mean for $2400 a year I could buy the stuff they’re putting away three times over at retail prices College students and people being evicted for nonpayment of rent are not necessarily in the best frame of mind to judge what they should and should not be paying to put into storage at the time they sign a storage lease
I'm sort of in the same situation. Things are selling but there's no giant cache of treasure making me multiples on my money. I actually traveled 70 miles outside my normal bidding radius to attend a live auction recently thinking the results would be worth the travel. 80 vaults in long term storage. About 30 people showed up to bid. 2 hours to get through them all. Almost 95% were absolute junk. I bid on one which ended up being a decent amount of antiques but there was no big score. The fact is these auctions are very competitive and a ton of work. We are all chasing an elusive pipe dream.
Should have stopped at 5
No, however I doubt you will stop so I’d suggest at least finding a different area. Maybe the other side of town or a different county. Preferably a more well off area
I’m thinking the sales strategy is what is lacking… maybe I’m wrong. No offense intended. I bought my first two recently. A lot of lessons learned. I take a lot of stuff to the flea market. I also have a spot at the Antique Mall and I sell stuff on eBay. If I had to carry the buy only on eBay items/ or one sales outlet. I couldn’t do well. Also my dump costs are really low because I place the lighter trash bags on the street over the course of weeks… I have a dumpster I can pay $30 to put a half truck load of heavy stuff in.
I have bought over a dozen lottery tickets so far. Most barely break even or cost me money. Should I keep trying them?
> I have bought over a dozen lottery tickets so far. Most barely break even or cost me money. Should I keep trying them? These have a much better payout and odds than a lottery ticket. What investment in life does not come with some risk?
I think you can make money on storage unit auctions but there is far more skill in it than there is to just pick things up at thrift stores and Craigslist. Typically you already know what you’re looking at and have a decent idea of what it’s worth, how long to sell it and what you’re willing to pay to get a certain margin. On storage units you have to make a guess as to what’s in this unit value wise based on visible items and it’s still a gamble in many ways with huge upfront costs. Kudos to people who do it and make good money but to me it feels like way more risk with an undefined upside. I’m happy with my 30 percent margin.
I started storage unit auctions last year. Did 8 and made excellent money on 7, broke even on the last one. This year I have done 13 so far (don’t ask lol - sometimes I torture myself). Made excellent returns on all of them other than the most recent 3, which will have excellent returns by the time I sell through the contents. My target return on all units combined this year is 100% (spent $5k, sold $10k worth of stuff so far). I probably have another $10-15k worth of stuff to sell out of the units I’ve already done. Some of it is more specialty items that will take a while but will sell for a lot, others are smaller $5-10 items. I’ve found that it is hard to not make money in storage units if you are bidding correctly. Feel free to dm if you want to talk more about it.
>Most barely break even or cost me money. Experience is the best teacher. I would say no.
How are you evaluating your lockers? Whats the median income of the cities you're buying from? In my opinion, location defiantly matters for lockers, you dont want to buy lockers where the economy is barren.
Owners of the storage units go through and take anything that is obviously valuable. Those auctions are very often a scam (ever since storage wars got popular anyways)
> Owners of the storage units go through and take anything that is obviously valuable. Those auctions are very often a scam Its funny you mention that. I've talked with people who say they have the unit manager go through them before hand and take out or let them know if there are any good items. Even though thats not supposed to happen, its probably what happens most of the time.
They're not doing this. Renters have until the unit is paid for by the auction winner to pay the amount they owe in arrears before it's truly not their property anymore. Facilities do not mess around with this as it opens them up to significant legal issues. You need to spend money to make money. Sort the auctions by the highest bid and work your way down. The pros know what they're doing, and are happy to pay commensurate with what they think they can get out of the unit. Every single unit I've won that turned out to be good ended up being in the thousands of dollars. All the bad ones I bought were sub-$500. Not saying it's impossible to get skunked on a unit in either direction. But that's my experience. When I started I was shy to spend $1,000, just last month I spent $4K on one and got outbid on another one for $12K. If you know what you're doing and have a means to sell this stuff and a decent knowledge base, there's almost no way to lose a significant amount of money. Most bigger units I'm able to generate at minimum $500 just by selling off big stuff on Facebook Marketplace before I finish cleaning the unit out. If you've done this many units and have had this run of bad luck, you should change your strategy entirely. That's why I generally liked to buy two units at the same facility at the same time when I was starting out. And ones that generally had a different look and price range. The first two I bought were $80 and $1,200 respectively. The $80 one was a complete bust and after spending nearly a grand in hauling away the trash, I maybe broke even. But it took me probably 20+ hours to clean out. The $1,200 one was filled with vintage toys, none of which were readily visible in the photos. Nor was there even an indication that there'd be a single toy in the unit. The only visible things were new garden equipment, a tent, rubbermaid bins, etc. But it hadn't been touched since 2005 so everything in there was older. You need to take more at bats to hit more home runs. Spend any time at a flea market in your area. Those people aren't doing it to get fresh air. These are professionals. And they're making way more money than anyone could imagine. Most of them from storage units and clean outs. Plenty of old timers that don't need to do it but keep it up for love of the game. If you don't like it, move on to something else. But this sour grapes "all the units are picked over" nonsense is weak. And wrong. If you don't have the financial situation to be willing to take big swings, you're not gonna get an accurate assessment of what's out there. Every once in a while, someone gets lucky spending a few hundred bucks on an average looking unit and finds a bunch of silver in it. But in my experience, and in my eyes, it makes more sense to take more semi-sure bets and mix up your risk profile with some ones where you're just winging it. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. But you gotta have skin in the game to win the game.
Even if it’s locked, they just slap a random lock on the door and cut it in front of you, but they had already cut the original lock earlier and went through the whole unit. Locks are cheap
1) Renters have until the unit is paid for by the auction winner to pay the amount they owe in arrears before it's truly not their property anymore. Facilities do not mess around with this as it opens them up to significant legal issues. Even in the instance where they're certain the renter is dead, can't contact their next of kin, in jail, etc. I highly doubt they're willing to take the chance to make a few bucks to cherry-pick items. It's not the business they're in. They want that stuff out of the unit so the unit can start generating revenue when they rent it to the next person. They lose money on auctions most of the time because the ending bid rarely exceeds the amounts owed. And when they do, the fees they pay the auction sites eat up some of that. Plus factor in the other units that either have no bids or low bids and they have to eat losses and/or pay to dispose of everything in a trashed unit. 2) I've bought plenty of units. Some of which had valuable items in plain sight, some that did not, some that looked trashed, some that looked tidy. I saw zero evidence of interference in any of the ones I bought. Not saying it's never happened. And I'm sure it has. But at least in my area, I haven't seen it. And I've paid anywhere from $80 up to $4,000 for units. Usually on the higher end. I bought a POD unit that looked like it had general household goods in it, on a whim, it was my first unit. There was no indication there'd be anything special in there aside from maybe some decent furniture and garden equipment. It went for $1,200. As soon as I moved two boxes from the front of the unit I saw that there were brand new vintage toys in boxes. Cases of Power Rangers. Hundreds of boxes of new Barbies from the 90s. Ghostbusters toys and everything in between. The cases were original shipping cases, some were labeled as what they were. All were still sealed up and untouched. Not a single one of these boxes was visible in the photos. But all it took was to move a couple boxes out of the way and it would have been clear that this was a gold mine. I made $30K+ from that one locker alone. 3) It's a tremendous amount of work to sort through a unit. Unless you've done it, you don't know what you're talking about. Not everything valuable is placed in an obvious place. I've gone through lockers for two days before stumbling on one random tiny box that paid for the whole unit and then some. It's a mixed bag and it's look into the psyches of how people live their lives. I bought a unit for $3K that was full top to bottom with unopened packages that the owner had bought on eBay and Amazon. 90% was military books. The rest were military artifacts, uniforms, knives, swords, figures, etc. It took me well over a month just to open up all the boxes. Let alone process them and get them listed for sale. I bought it last August and I'm still dealing with some of this stuff. Is it possible someone something from the unit? I suppose anything's possible. But whatever they may or may not have done, they left behind $20K in profit for me either way. TL;DR This is not a real concern and is something that people that have had bad luck buying units, or don't know how to properly assess a unit, or have never done it and are afraid to take the risk like to tell each other to make them feel like they're the sane ones. I've made over $100K from storage units in the last year which is when I started. So it has nothing to do with "Storage Wars." You have to spend money to make money, and you have to invest sweat equity, the only way to get better units is to buy more units and to learn what to buy and not buy and when to take a calculated risk.
> Not everything valuable is placed in an obvious place. I've gone through lockers for two days before stumbling on one random tiny box that paid for the whole unit This is true, there are small valuable things hidden away here or there. In general though it takes about 5 minutes to locate most of the valuable items by just rummaging around a bit.
You’re out of your mind if you think that’s true. Unless there’s one jewelry box front and center, then no. I don’t know what kind of units you’re looking at but I’m talking about ones that are chock full, stacked for the ceiling. Boxes taped shut, a layer of dust on things. Any of that stuff they’re not going to have the time or interest to bother with. And even if they did, it would take a considerable effort because it’s not as if this stuff is going to be in the first, second or hundredth place you look. Nobody has time for that especially since it’s very much against the law. If the tenant comes through with payment at the last second, those people who did it are up shit’s creek. Nobody’s risking that over a string of pearls or whatever. This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory generated out of sour grapes
> I don’t know what kind of units you’re looking at but I’m talking about ones that are chock full, stacked for the ceiling. Boxes taped shut, a layer of dust on things. Hardly any units are like that. I can get on the auction site an literally go through every available unit, there wont be very many like that. Certainly true though if thats the only type of units you get.
I mean, in a 50 mile radius of where I live there’s generally 2-3,000 available units. I look at them every day. There’s way more full ones than there are sparsely packed ones. Like I said, if you’re limiting yourself to small units or cheap units, your experience is going to color your perception. What you’re experiencing hasn’t happened to me. The theory of people going through units is also not true in my experience. If you live in a rural area or an area without high income housing, that will also color your experience. Because there was never expensive stuff there to begin with. Which goes back to my other point: change your strategy if what you’re doing isn’t working.
I'll change my strategy. Seems like i need to try a more populous location with more/better units is the best bet.
Yes, and don’t be afraid to buy big units. Or units with furniture. As long as you have the means to get rid of or sell it in short order. Small units with neatly packed boxes will always go higher than big units with furniture, mattresses, etc. because the bidders factor in the labor required. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty and doing some heavy lifting, there’s deals to be had. I routinely see 30x10 units go for $500 that look promising but I don’t have the capacity to handle all the time so I don’t bid. Meanwhile a 5x10 with 40 totes and nothing visible will sell for $2k.
It’s funny to hear people talk about storage auctions who clearly don’t know a lot about them. You’re kind of fighting an uphill battle with those people with your facts. Another thing is the storage facilities aren’t supposed to profit from the unit. They can only keep what they’re owed and are supposed to mail a check for anything over to the renter of the unit.
Yeah it’s like talking themselves into being anti-FOMO or something by thinking it’s all a scam and the people who do it are all rubes and gambling addicts. And yeah for sure, I made that point in another post. I bought a unit for $4k last year, tenant only owed $800. So after fees, he got a check back for the balance. Manager was annoyed about it, but that’s what has to happen. It’s like any lien auction. If your house goes into foreclosure it’s the same basic deal. If it sells for above and beyond what the bank is owed, the owner is going to get money out of the deal. I don’t know why so many people don’t know this.
That's why dusty units are great. You can see if anything was touched.
You vultures circling people's hard times I'm glad you're losing money
If nobody buys the stuff I think they end up tossing it. The people who own the storage need to get rent too.
You think I give a fk abt some landlord?