Author - Tiana Bodine

Sealed bid storage auctions are one way to sell off a storage unit without having to hire an auctioneer and running a live auction.

It’s an especially helpful method in the event that you have only one or two units to sell and you want something simple. It’s no surprise, then, that sealed bid auctions are a preferred method for some storage facilities.

There are plenty of reasons to like sealed auction bids. They’re quite simple to run: You simply show the unit to interested bidders, then collect a handwritten and sealed bid from each bidder.

After the auction’s time runs out, all you have to do is open the bids and give the unit to the person with the highest figure. You can run the auction for as short or long a duration as you want, and you don’t have to worry about big crowds milling around your facility.

The problem with a sealed bid auction is that it can be time-consuming. Every time a bidder arrives, he has to be shown the unit and given time to look it over before writing down and submitting his bid.

If a unit has generated a lot of interest, this can leave you spending far too much time showing off storage units. That’s valuable time that could be used doing other things for your business. Wouldn’t it be better to streamline that process?

This is one place where OnlineStorageAuctions.com can really help save you time and effort. Instead of having your employees show each unit to every interested bidder that arrives at the facility, you can simply take a few photos and post the units online.

This allows bidders to spend as much time as they’d like examining the units without taking up your time to do it. Once the auction is posted online, you can request that sealed bids get dropped off at your facility, or you can just accept high bids from the website.

Either way, you get rid of the delinquent unit without spending any more money on it than necessary.

Setting up an auction on OnlineStorageAuctions.com is fast and free. When you run the notice for the sale, just mention that the auction is listed online and explain any bidding preferences you have, like whether bids can be dropped off at the facility.

Depending on your state, you might be able to hold the auction completely online without worrying about the in-person bids. Either way, once the auction is won, the winner comes forward and pays you for the unit.

If you’re currently using a sealed bids auction method, consider utilizing the free services of OnlineStorageAuctions.com to help you maximize your efficiency.

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Storage units go into default for many reasons, and a lot of them aren’t really the tenant’s fault.

When that happens, it can be difficult for a facility manager to handle the situation. On the one hand, you need to get compensated for the unpaid rent and get the unit emptied so you can start renting it out again.

On the other hand, you don’t want to be seen as the bad guy or put a loyal patron into a bind.

This is the perfect opportunity to introduce your tenant to virtual storage auctions. In many cases, your delinquent tenants are having financial difficulties due to an illness or job loss.

Other tenants may have moved, and traveling back to retrieve their items isn’t always the easiest thing. For these people, selling their storage units online can be a great way to get out from under them while still getting some money for their belongings.

In other cases, offering an online auction instead of going through a lien sale can save you time and the tenant some heartache. The tenant can remove any personal items and sell the rest to make money that can be used to pay you back for any late rent and close out the rental contract.

Any extra cash earned from the sale could go directly into their pocket without any messy paperwork or hassles on your end. Best of all, since the sale isn’t a lien sale, you don’t have to worry about satisfying any state laws regarding the sale, so a live auction becomes unnecessary.

OnlineStorageAuctions.com allows individuals, storage facilities and auctioneers to post storage units for auction. The service is completely free, so a struggling tenant doesn’t need to worry about paying anything to get the process started.

Once the unit is sold, the winner will pay the tenant directly or make arrangements with you to hold the payment, so there are no go-betweens to worry about.

It’s not possible to contact every delinquent tenant about the possibility of holding his own online auction, but it’s certainly an offer you can extend to many of your customers. This helps improve your efficiency and help out a struggling tenant without being the bad guy who had to evict him and sell his belongings.

Overall, it’s a win-win situation.

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As an auctioneer, you may not realize just how useful a virtual auction can be.

After all, if you’re not running the sale yourself, why should you care? In reality, online auctions can be a fantastic way to drive valuable business to your live sales, and they’re a tool you shouldn’t overlook.

In many states, virtual auctions must be held concurrently with the live auction. Generally this works by placing an ad in advance pointing bidders toward the website where the auction will be held.

The online auction ends an hour before the live auction starts, and bidding picks up where it left off online.

Whether or not you work in a state where this is required, you can take advantage of this same format for all of your auctions. Posting live auctions online in advance of the in-person bidding gives you several advantages:

• Greater visibility. More people will see the auction, and bidders might get involved even if they would never have attended the live auction.

• Higher bids. On average, online auctions earn 25 to 100% more than live-only auctions. By starting your live auction at the highest online bid, you can coax more out of your bidders and put more in your pocket.

• More serious bidders. The people who come to virtual-live hybrid auctions are usually serious bidders who are invested in the outcome of the auction. You won’t get your time wasted by as many browsers if they can satisfy their curiosity online first.

• Shorter auctions. Since you’ll have a higher starting bid, the auction will go by quickly. Most of the bidders who arrive at the in-person auction will have already looked at the unit online, so you can get to business faster. This saves you time that can be used running other auctions.

By using the free service at OnlineStorageAuctions.com, you can maximize your efficiency and earn higher bids without sacrificing any part of your commission.

Unlike pay-to-post listings, our service is 100% free. Auctions can be posted by individuals, storage facilities or auctioneers, and getting started is fast and easy. Give it a try for your next sale!

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Online storage auctions are swiftly gaining in popularity. They are more convenient than traditional auctions and don’t require you to travel all over town to bid on units that may not be worth looking at.

They also give you time to research the units and carefully consider your bids, something that’s not possible during a bidding war at a live auction.

Despite their convenience, though, some buyers are reluctant to sign up, either because they don’t understand how it works or they don’t see that it’s necessary.

One thing that might be holding some bidders back is the question of how payments will be handled. Different online auction sites handle this differently, so it pays to do some research before committing to something you might not want.

Many storage auction websites collect a bidder’s credit card information at the time they sign up. This is used to automatically bill the winning bidder after the auction ends. This prevents bidders from abandoning the storage unit, and it’s an attractive option for many facilities that don’t want to risk wasting time on no-shows.

Not all bidders are comfortable with this, though. An auction website may not be secure, and a person’s credit card information could end up in the wrong hands. Unscrupulous auction websites may even misuse the credit card information they have. Also, some bidders don’t have a credit card or simply prefer to pay in cash.

Fortunately, not every online bidding site requires you to input your credit card information. OnlineStorageAuctions.com, for example, doesn’t collect any money or credit info from bidders. You can simply sign up, bid, and pay in cash at the storage facility.

This way, you don’t need to worry about the security of your finances or the hassle of using a credit card when you’d rather pay in cash; you can deal directly with the storage facility just like you would at any live auction.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how comfortable you are with giving your credit card information to auction sites. If the idea makes you uneasy, you can choose a service – like OnlineStorageAuctions.com – that allows you to pay at the facility instead. This reduces your risk and saves you money spent on buyer’s fees and other additional costs that some online auction sites may charge.

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Online storage auctions are the wave of the future, and facilities and auctioneers that catch up with the trend now will benefit the most as they become more mainstream.

Selling storage units online is fast, convenient and earns higher bids to pay off liens. The service we offer here at OnlineStorageAuctions.com is completely free and acts as a conduit between buyers and sellers.

By placing your lockers online, you can reach more serious buyers than ever before without the hassles of large in-person auctions.

Texas storage facilities have an additional reason to use OnlineStorageAuctions.com: All Texas auctions listed here will be marketed to AuctionsTX.com’s 3,000-plus members.

This means that not only will your auction be featured on the Online Storage Auctions site, it will also be listed among other auctions on the Texas Storage Auction Schedules and News site.

The users of AuctionsTX.com are serious buyers. Many are full-time professional auction hunters and resellers. These are people who take their bidding seriously and follow through on their bids.

They’re also bidders with plenty of cash available to spend on the right unit. They may not have stopped by your in-person auction due to time constraints, but an online auction is sure to pique the attention of many of these professionals.

Of course, Texas Storage Auction Schedules & News isn’t the only website where virtual storage auctions are marketed. Your auction will also be listed among all the applicable online listings for its region.

Users outside of Texas will have their auctions marketed to bidders at sites like Auction Zip, Storage Treasures and Storage Unit Auction List. This is the sort of promotion that every facility wishes it could have, and it will drive plenty of bidders to your auction.

Whether you live in Texas or elsewhere in the country, OnlineStorageAuctions.com is a fantastic way to auction your units online and reach the widest possible audience for your sales.

The more bidders who know about the auction, the better your chances of selling the unit at a great price. And unlike our competitors, we won’t take any of the money you recover out of your pocket. There’s nothing to lose, so give us a try for your next auction listing.

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In general, online auctions are a convenient way to buy and sell storage units without the hassles of a live auction.

Despite their convenience, online storage auctions are still viewed with skepticism by some auction hunters. One major concern voiced by veterans in the industry is whether there’s any chance that the bids are faked.

They may be concerned that other bidders or even storage facilities themselves are placing false bids to raise the prices on an auction.

Unfortunately, the anonymity of the Internet does make this sort of activity possible. Luckily, there are safety measures in place to prevent it from getting out of hand. Some storage auction sites require users to leave their credit card information with the site.

Others, like OnlineStorageAuctions.com, don’t take a bidder’s credit card, but they do still require all bidders to sign up with the site and provide a legitimate email address and phone number.

OnlineStorageAuctions.com also watches for any suspicious activity, and anyone found to be manipulating bids will have their IP addresses blocked for their abuse. This will shut down repeat offenders very quickly.

Furthermore, it’s important to remember that the unit goes to the highest bidder who shows up to pay for the unit. If the unit’s price was run up by false bidders, the fake bids will be eliminated and the unit will still go to the highest legitimate bidder. This means that as long as you set yourself a budget and don’t go over it, you don’t need to worry about being run up by fake bidders.

In truth, most people in this business are out to make an honest living, and there are no more scammers at online auctions than might attend those at a facility.

Although a few dishonest people will always congregate anywhere that money is involved, the security features built into online storage auctions will help keep you as safe as possible.

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