Storage managers talk about charging admission to auctions

The link below takes you to a thread at selfstoragetalk.xxx which is a forum designed for storage facility managers to talk about THEIR issues. I have no affiliation with this site.

The link below is just one of a dozen or so I found by doing a search on "auctions" at that site. You do not need
to join or be a member. If you want to explore that site just go to the home area and/or do a search from wherever you can within the site. Again, it's mostly for managers, but their perspective is of interest to us as buyers.

selfstoragetalk(dot)com/day-day-management/6161-should-we-charge-auction-admission-fee.html

Nice!  Interesting reads.
Thanks. Always good to know the other side.....

Thanks

Is interesting to see the other side..

Was reading about cookies and doughnuts being served at auction... We don't get crap... LOL

 "With every auction we serve coffee and homemade cookies. I spend the evening prior baking Snikerdoodles and Chocolate Chip Pecan (most requested). We have homemade cookies on our counter every day. Often people call and ask what the cookie of the day is. "   


Will keep us entertained while things are slowing down (on the forum).   

Thanks for the link!!!

Here's another one about staging units:

selfstoragetalk(dot)com/tales-trenches/6196-overheard-talk-among-auction-attendees.html

Gotta love this quote from the SST link above ------>

"Storage buyers are the most distrustful people I have ever met. " 

Whatever you say pal.  Of course, that storage owner calls his own distrust in people "good business sense"   

Gotta love this quote from the SST link above ------>

"Storage buyers are the most distrustful people I have ever met. "

I think you misunderstood what he was saying. He's not saying the we buyers are not trustworthy. He's saying that we buyers do not trust them very much.

Those managers sound like a bunch of whining pussies to me. "Is it legal", "we might get sued for alienating some buyer", "but it's a public auction", etc.

For crying out loud of course you can charge an admission fee at a public auction. A public auction just means it's open to the public to attend, instead of just a select few private buyers. The justification for the fee can be as simple as needing it to cover the expenses buyers place on the property. Expenses like pavement maintenance for the added vehicle traffic, cleaning up after those that throw their trash and butts on the ground, and on, and on. As far as alienating buyers, the only ones that are going to stop coming are the ones that slow down the whole process and don't bid in the first place.

Lol - that was a good read.  I've bookmarked the site to read some more later.

Like one of those post said - I wouldn't want to be the first to try it.  A good lawyer could turn it around and say that the manager, auctioneer, and "few buyers" were in collusion to exclude everyone else.  For example the entrance fee was $100 instead of $1.  I think it's a long shot either way.  Our courts are so screwy you just never know case by case, state by state.

Also - as one said they can't "profit" from the auction of a tenant's unit.  I don't even think they can recoup the cost of posting the auction, etc. in the local paper.  Will have to remember to ask that question next time talk to one of the property managers.

 I don't even think they can recoup the cost of posting the auction, etc. in the local paper.  Will have to remember to ask that question next time talk to one of the property managers.

In California the cost of running the ad...$200 or so depending on paper...is added in to what the tenant owes the facility. I guess if there were 10 names in the listing they would charge each of the names $20. After all, it is a cost the facility has incurred.

The costs the facility would incur would include (my educated guessing):

storage costs
late fees
legal notice costs
registered mail notices (maybe up to 3 times)
auctioneer costs
lock cutting and locking them back up
dump run & labor costs if locker doesn't sell
etc, etc.

Also, if the auction sale price doesn't cover those costs, the facility will still go after the deadbeat tenant to
recover the balance, and this means incurring costs for tracking deadbeats and going after their money.

It has only been since the shows (IMO) that facilities have often been doing well on their auctions.

If they don't want such big crowds they they should not use sites such as auction zip  and such.  A lot of folks don't know to look in the paper to find auctions.

If they don't want such big crowds they they should not use sites such as auction zip  and such.  A lot of folks don't know to look in the paper to find auctions.

You are right about that. I expected our Public Storage auctions to draw a crowd, being a household-name and having a 3 day caravan each month, but is typically 1/3 the size crowd of anything listed on auctionzip.

I think it's a new era of people thinking you can spend 10 minutes online and find everything you need to know about anything.

Most storage managers last a couple years then gone or fired.  If I had to pay to come to their auctions Id never show up again.  But I'd jsut wait tell their fired or the place changes hands.
They used to beg me to buy their units for a $1 so they didnt have to hire a hauling company and put it on their books and it looked bad to the owner.  Now every unit is sold now matter how bad it is...but It will end  its going to take awhile but it will .  Just like flipping houses , beanie babies,  and all those stupid things that only the people telling you how to make "money" doing what they do..They are the only ones making money

Think of it was a cover charge like at a bar, that's refundable upon the purchase of a unit.

Think of it was a cover charge like at a bar, that's refundable upon the purchase of a unit.

So if I purchase a beer do I get my cover charge back?