I have a feeling that the new shows in other cities will reflect the higher prices. I don't think the show will be as exciting watching someone pay $1000 for a 10x10 full of clothing inside trash bags. The show is quite entertaining but along with auction hunters, it essentially ruined an industry. Just look at what happened to the fishermen on Deadliest Catch. After the first season, there was a migration of workers applying at the docks, looking for fast money. There were so many people looking for jobs that the fishing industry in that area changed their profit sharing to a much lower salary.

All I can say is we have to ride it out, it will eventually get better.

I have purchased some pretty nasty units over the last year. One was literally covered in rat feces. It was stuck on almost every item. One unit was a dumpster. It looked good from the door (pressure washers, safe, japanese dolls) but it was 90% trash. It was a hoarder unit and this guy hadn't thrown away any paper or food wrappers in years. But, the nastiest unit I ever bought contained some guys geriatric porn collection. It made me gag. I like to make a profit on everything that I buy but how do you resell something like that? I know there is a market for everything but it was a little too disgusting to sell. It went straight into the garbage.

Really, its about having more options. In the Houston area, there have been so many new buyers attending storage auctions that it has become almost impossible to buy a unit that you can still profit on. I was talking to a storage facility owner a few weeks ago who is located in a rural area. He said only 2 people usually show up to his auctions. Auctions that are advertised in smaller local newspapers generally have fewer people who attend. This is what our service is all about....helping storage auction buyers get off the beaten path and attend auctions that have fewer buyers in attendance. If my members are able to attend just 1 auction and purchase just 1 unit at a price lower than what they would pay at other auctions, then our service has paid for itself.

Also, I agree, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks but, the old timers are usually my best customers. They are the ones who depend on storage auctions to make their living. Since the auctions advertised in the mainstream are flooded with new buyers, they have to get off the beaten path if they want to survive in this business.

The purpose of this survey was to find a fair price point for services like ours. I currently own & operate https://auctionstx.com/houston-storage-auctions/ and we actually call over 1400 storage facilities twice a month. It took over a month to build our database and it requires constant updating. We are currently the only service to provide information on 100% of all storage facilities in the greater Houston & surrounding areas. We provide listings for roughly 300 storage auction events every month including 25-40 auctions that cannot be found on any other website.

 Yes, there is free storage auction information available in every city but, in the greater Houston & surrounding areas, we have over 1400 storage facilities. There are two main newspapers that publish notices for about half of all storage facilities in this area. There are also over 40 smaller local newspapers within our area, most of which don't post their content online.  Nobody is going to subscribe to and read that many newspapers. It would cost several hundred dollars a month and consume hours of your time every day.

Most other major cities in the U.S. don't have a service that covers 100% of all auctions. Some areas have newspapers & auctioneers that may handle a majority of the market but they only promote storage auctions that they are profiting on somehow. Unless a service like our exists in your area, or you are willing to devote a majority of you time to collecting information, you will always be missing some of the auctions in your area. Of course this may vary depending on the size of your town. Also, Keep in mind, our service unites over 40 smaller cities within the greater Houston & surrounding areas and we are very thorough at collecting the information we provide for our subscribers.

Anyway, getting back to the subject. The question is not if it will work, it does, (the creator of this forum currently operates 3-4 services like ours). Rather, the question is, if this kind of service existed in your area, at what price would you consider joining. This question is Hypothetical, we have no plans of expanding nationally.  Information collected from these results will only be used to offer our current & future members a quality service at the most reasonable price.

Great Question!

Yes, the weekend storage auctions are harder to find. I own and operate a storage auction information service in the Houston area. We actually call over 1400 storage facilities twice a month in order to find every storage auction event in our coverage area. Most of the major storage companies do hold their auctions on weekdays. These facilities have larger advertising budgets and typically put their public notice in mainstream newspapers. What I have found is that a majority of smaller independent facilities, especially in rural areas, hold their auctions on Saturdays. Our storage auction schedule usually lists several auctions on Saturdays every week. Most of these independent facilities advertise their auctions in smaller local newspapers and unless you happen to live in that specific area or you subscribe to our service, you would never know they were occurring.

My advice to buyers that live in areas that don't have storage auction information services that cover 100% of all auctions, is to call all of the facilities in your immediate area and get on their auction call list.

   

Most storage facilities reserve the right to dispose of the property in the storage unit any way they see fit. Our company in Houston calls about 1400 storage facilities twice a month, so I can give you some inside information on this subject. Believe it or not, about 15% of all storage facilities in the greater Houston and surrounding areas don't even have auctions. Most of these facilities claim to almost never have a delinquent tenant. There are laws which the storage facilities must follow; However, no one is really enforcing what the storage facilities do. Especially, the smaller facilities in rural areas.

I have spoken with other facility owners that don't have auctions but personally invited me to come by and make them an offer on delinquent units.Some of these facilities have garage sales and sell the items individually. Others claim to just take the contents to the dump. Some facilities will hold an auction but if the storage unit doesn't sell at an appropriate amount, they will refuse the bid. I even know of one facility that files a public notice, but when you arrive, they start the bidding at what is owed in delinquent rent and moving costs (Usually $1200-2500). At this facility, they don't let you view the contents, they just hand you a itemized list of the contents. Since nobody in their right mind is going to pay that kind of money without inspecting the condition of the merchandise, the contents almost always revert back to the storage facility. This facility conveniently has a resale shop next door which happens to be operated by the facility owners wife.

SB 690 was recently introduced to the Texas Legislature to amend the Texas Property Code, Chapter 59, which deals with storage lien sale notification requirements for storage facilities in our state.

One of the main changes being proposed involves the option for storage facilities to publish legal notices on free websites for the storage industry. Currently, storage facilities in Texas must run their legal notices for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation, which can be quite expensive.

This prospective change may cause some confusion. Once storage facilities realize that they can save hundreds, if not thousands per year on their advertising expenses, they will abandon ship, and begin posting public notices for  storage auctions on their own websites. Public notices in newspapers will be obsolete.

So how does this affect you, the storage auction buyer?

If every storage facility in your area listed public notices in different online source, this would make an already imperfect system all the more confusing. Can you imagine having to visit hundreds of websites to find auction information in your area?


I hope you found this article to be informative and have a blessed day.

Travis Lane