Despite the protestations of a few old-timers in the business, it seems that online storage auctions are here to stay.
This fairly new method of selling items has gained a lot of popularity and momentum recently, and for good reason. Online auctions earn higher bids and attract a wider variety of buyers.
They’re also simpler to run and result in fewer crowds and liability hazards for storage facilities. They’re also much more convenient for buyers.
Recently, Strategic Capital Holdings LLC, better known as SmartStop Self Storage, has switched its auction model to exclusively virtual auctions.
These will greatly reduce the amount of stress and hassle associated with large live auctions, and it’s proven that online auctions tend to earn higher bids toward paying off liens.
The California-based storage company takes advantage of vague wording in its lien laws that allows online auctions to be held. Other states lag behind in this regard, but changes in state lien laws may make online auctions more accessible in other areas soon.
Until then, storage facilities in other states, like Texas, must continue holding live auctions alone or concurrently with online auctions. Once these laws are changed, virtual storage auctions can become the real future of the industry.
The shift to online-only auctions by a company as large as Strategic Capital Holdings LLC is a sign that the industry is changing, not just succumbing to a passing trend. SmartStop Self Storage is one of the bigger brand names in the industry, and other storage facilities are bound to follow suit once they see how successful the change is.
In order to handle its volume of virtual auctions, Strategic Capital Holdings LLC has partnered with Storage Battles, an online auction site that takes a percentage of each sale. Of course, this will cost Strategic Capital Holdings LLC millions of dollars more than it would to list the same units for sale on OnlineStorageAuctions.com, which is a completely free online listing service.
Not only does OnlineStorageAuctions.com list auctions and allow online bidding, it also advertises each auction across a number of marketing channels to increase its visibility.
Since the site is new, it’s likely that Strategic Capital was simply unaware of this free service. In the future, if additional storage facilities begin moving to online auctions, they may be more likely to work with a completely free resource than lose up to twenty percent of each sale.
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