When the tenant is delinquent the storage facility has controlled access to the units and it's contents. How do you verify the value of the units contents when the tenant can't show you what is in it? I've seen plenty of units with rents owned for $300, $500, $750, ETC. and there wasn't $100 worth of re-sellable goods in the unit. You gonna take the tenants word for the value of the property in the unit? You going to pay the storage facility some under the table money to let you see the contents before approving the loan? I don't think a single corporate owned facility would go for that.

I've had more then my share of storage units with multiple receipts showing how all the good stuff was; month after month taken out and sold to the pawn shop. By the time many a delinquent tenant gets to the point of asking for this type of loan, they have only left the junk that experts like us know how to hustle.

Because instead of 12 bidders standing in front of the unit with only half of them actually bidding, there will be a 100 bidders online running the price up. So a unit I might get for $100 locally will end up going for $500 online. Like I said, good for the seller, bad for the buyer. I'd rather pay the 10% ($10) buyer's premium instead of an extra $400.

It all depends, I have bought units online in cities several hundred miles away and still payed 1/3 to 1/2 of what I would have payed at live auctions near me. I'm no whale, but once a person establishes him or herself in a market, it gets real hard to get a deal on a storage unit at live auctions.

I attend auctions in the Marietta, GA. area and they are a b*tch! Anything decent is very expensive unless you find a poorly advertised auction on a day with multiple auctions going at the same time. The whole Atlanta Metro area is pretty competitive. Just compare the online prices of units in Atlanta compared to some other metro areas.

I sold a book on Amazon last year to a famous movie director. Book actually purchased by an assistant but it was shipped directly to one of the directors residences and had their name in the shipping info. Pretty Cool 

With these online storage auctions, what keeps a delinquent tenant from registering to Storage Treasures and running up the bid on their own unit?  (I say nothin') They certainly would have no intention of paying for it if they happen to get stuck with the high bid. At the least they could have friends try to run it up too...

Yes, I actually heard someone say Storage Battles was going to move to a soft close format which allows someone who had the high bid up until the last few seconds to jump back in when someone tries to sniper the auction in the last seconds. They said they would extend the auction for 3 more minutes and I assume that means anyone can jump back in. You can see how bad this can get. Online units are already on the high side in my opinion. If this rumor holds true, they will only get more expensive, especially when competing bidders recognize each others bidding name.

Develop a niche and rule that segment of the industry in my area.

outsource parts of the biz or hire more help to expand.

SELL MORE!!!

Continue with cost control and (crossing fingers) hope the bidding slows down and cost of units drops.

I think New Buyer's point is well taken. Sure, the hoards of newbies and crazy bidding are over but all the "survivors" have been conditioned to accept the new higher prices. Still twice as high as the "good ole days" for a decent looking unit. Along with the fact that there are just fewer good units like there use to be. We still get a few new faces at every auction but it's not them who run the prices up. When they do stick around to bid they just follow suit and bid up like everyone else. They last a few weeks to a couple months then disappear.

Maybe it will take a little longer to weed out some of the survivors before prices can really come back down. At least gas prices have dropped. That has helped BIG TIME!