Give me the scoop

Does it matter where the storage units are?  I mean, are some locations better than others?  For example storage units near a highway vs. being near downtown?  What about units that are near shopping areas?  I’d like to know how to get the scoop on what may be in the units.

The only difference is the financial level of the surrounding demographics.

Some things I have noticed:

 The more diversified the community the more likely you are going to see every type of quality unit no matter what the local neighborhood of the facility is. Meaning in a economically and culturally diverse city you are more likely to see a great unit at a facility in a poor part of the city. In areas that have a more homogeneous economic and cultural environment, your less likely to see a great unit even if the facility is in a fairly good part of town.

Facilities near commerce parks, commercial zones, etc. tend to have more business owned units.

Facilities with cheap rent, few amenities, and little security tend to have junky units.

Facilities in low land areas, covered in shade, lots of trees overhead, poor drainage; tend to have problems with mold.

80-90% of units will have contents of a typical American household in various degrees of quality. Look around your house and what you see is most likely what you will find in these units. Used furniture, used clothing, used appliances, used tools, scrap materials from home improvement or lawn & garden projects, recreational items (toys, books, movies, bicycles,etc.) paperwork & garbage.

After you've purchased several units from each of the storage facilities in your area, you'll have a better understanding of the type of merchandise that is predominant at each location. It's not wise to stereotype a facility based upon it's surrounding area, because you'll find good units in depressed areas and low quality units in wealthy areas. However, sometimes there will be exceptions.

I found a storage facility a few years ago that I absolutely love. It's surrounded by new construction, mostly upper middle class. This facility is my honey hole, because the units consistently deliver the finest furnishings and high quality merchandise, auction after auction. Best of all, it's suburban/borderline rural location deters most of the competition.

It boils down to demographics...

What are demographics?

Well basically it’s the makeup of a population.

For example, if there are 3 auctions happening at the same time and one is in an area with a high median income, and the other two are in an area with a low median income, I will ALWAYS opt for the one in the high median income area.

It’s a matter of statistics.

Typically, in poor neighborhoods you will find trashy and unkempt units. On the other hand, in rich neighborhoods you will often find units of higher quality. Of course this is not always the case, but more often than not, it is.

People with money aren’t going to store their stuff in the ghetto, and poor people aren’t going to drive out of their way to store their garbage in a nice neighborhood that charges higher rent.

How do I get this information? Simple!

I use this ugly, but beautifully helpful, website called ZipWho.

Right now, let’s go to ZipWho and have a look. Once the page loads (I told you it was ugly), enter the zip code of an auction location in to the basic search box and hit “Basic Search”. You will be given some useful information on the right side.

The most important piece of information here is the “median income”.

If you don’t know, median income is basically taking all of the income for that zip code and finding the middle. Half of the people make more than that amount, and half of the people make less.

The important thing is, the higher the median income, the wealthier the population is… and the better odds that the lockers will contain high-end items.

As you can see, there is also some other useful information that you might find useful: percent of men and women, household size (if you need kid stuff), ethnicity (if you are targeting a specific customer), median age, etc.


All of this information is beneficial to you if you know how to use it!

Do you have a lot of Hispanic customers?

Maybe you should buy more units in predominantly Hispanic zip codes.

Do you have a lot of college students as customers, then check the median age for better odds of scoring a PlayStation or Xbox.

The only difference is the financial level of the surrounding demographics.

 I completely agree.