Researching Tenants

I know we've had discussions here on the boards about researching the defaulting tenants, but I had never bothered.

Well, I was reviewing a legal notice for an auction I plan on attending on Thursday and decided to look up one of the names just to see what I could find.

I did find her. Name, address, age, relatives living with her.

She's 64 and living with two male relatives in there 70s. She lives about a mile from me, where she has lived for almost twenty years. I didn't learn anything about her career-wise.

But, I realized. I don't want to know. It hasn't given me any indication of what kind of value I will find in the locker. Fact is, I'll still have to wait with everyone else until that door is opened and determine what I will pay for what is in front of me. That said, I think the less personal it is, the better.

Anyhow, this is the monthly Public Storage auction, run by their district manager and only publicized in the legal notice, so normally a manageable crowd. Will report in the Auction Scene thread.

Public Storage is doing the 3 facilities in my area Thursday.  Been told by many of the regulars it's not worth it most times.  Have work so will miss them anyways.

As for researching owners - if I have some time I'll do a quick search of the name on the newspaper website.  I'm just looking for death notices or divorce notices.  I love getting divorce lockers as many times the woman has taken out her stuff and abandones all the guys stuff.  If it's the reverse I bid lower as most guys will have done sold jewelry and crap.

Other then that for the most part I don't bother.  Like you said it's more about the locker then anything else.

If you have the time, I think its not a bad idea to do a little checking. All depends on what you can find out.  I was able to find out info on 4 of the last 5 lkrs that were at our last auction. It can give you a general idea of what might be in there. (for instance, one of the lockers was owned by someone who had 5 kids (all I would say under the age of 7). so there were a lot of clothes, toys, etc. My husband also noticed one of the boxes marked "soaps". It went for $135. In talking to the guy that won it, sure enough clothes and vhs tapes, if he's lucky he might break even.

 My thought was how good are the clothes and stuff going to be after being used by 5 kids?  If someone has major collections against them, what are the chances they have anything of value in there? Just my thought.

 I agree about the divorce thing though.

Texas legal notices require a brief description of contents and her listing stated "Appliances/Furniture."

Again, it says nothing of quailty. Could be some good pieces, but most likely old stuff that got replaced in the house.

I suppose I will find out tomorrow.