Storage Unit Auctions - How To Make Money

If you haven't seen the hit TV reality series called Storage Wars, then you're probably missing out on one of the better reality shows on TV. But chances are, if you're reading this you've seen the show and thought about getting into the storage auction action yourself. Before you begin, you're going to need to learn how to make money with Storage unit auctions.

Up front, I want to tell you that it's not as easy as it looks on TV. Not every storage unit contains hidden treasure. In fact, I'd say that only about 1 in 20 hold anything that is more than 5 times valuable as what the storage unit sold for. So if you're planning on becoming rich doing this, you might want to step back and take a long hard look at this business.

You may also find this Guide to Storage Unit Auctions helpful - "Storage Auction Secrets - Earn Cash Money From Storage Auctions"

One of the biggest obstacles that you're going to run into is actually finding the storage unit auctions. In some areas, it's far more difficult to find auction listings than what you'd think it would be.

For starters, before a unit can even be auctioned, it usually has to be at least 3 months pass due on the payment. This varies from location to location, but it's a general guideline. Then in some States the Storage owners must send out legal notices to the last known address of the renters of the unit. Then if they still do not get an answer or get paid, they schedule an auction. After this time, in most areas the storage unit is required to make a legal notice as to the intent of auctioning off the contents of the unit. Most do this by taking out a classified ad in a newspaper.

Now if you live in a metro area and most of the Storage owners use the local paper for their legal notices, you have it made. For whatever reasons though, many will use some out of the way urban newspaper or a business journal for their legal notices. Some of the Business Journals in major cities will carry legal notices from storage units, but some will not.

One of the best resources I've found to find Storage auctions is Storage Auction Listings. This is a website that list self storage auctions. Like I said earlier, not all states will have auctions listed there, but many do.

There are a few things I look for when I go to these auctions. First off, this should be a no brainer, but you'd be surprised at how many miss this one. Sometimes there are two or more auctions in a city at the same time. Always pick the one in the higher end of town. It's more likely to have better stuff in the units.

Also, if the storage unit is in a bad part of town, it's been my experience that there will only be junk there. I hardly ever go to any in the low income areas. It's just not worth my time.

When I'm looking into a storage unit, I want to see something of quality. It doesn't matter what it is, I'm looking for something that says the people who rented this unit had quality goods. That doesn't mean I'm looking for something valuable, everyone sees that. But if I'm looking at a unit full of stuff from the local Dollar store, I'm not going to give much for it. On the other hand, if I see some high quality name brand goods, it tells me that the person bought good quality stuff and there may be more hidden.

There's not much else to know about self storage auctions, or storage unit auctions, whichever you want to call them. Below is a sneak peak at Storage Wars if you haven't already saw the show.