Did you know the self-storage industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the United States commercial real estate industry over the last 35 years? One of the coolest things about self-storage facilities is that the facility can legally conduct auctions to liquidate the contents of neglected spaces and possessions of people don’t pay their rent. Perhaps materialism got the best of them? They can’t keep track of their clutter or just don’t care? Well, as the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure – thus the huge interest in storage auctions, enhanced by a few hit TV shows along the way.
Nearly all Storage Auction bidders are in the business of reselling their finds and use a variety of methods for liquidating their hauls from listing items online to stocking their resale shops, usually small warehouses. Some even resell at Flea Markets or for quick cash, will take an item straight to the Pawn Shop. This has no doubt made storage auctions more competitive for the average person. The “professionals” have more buying power than most of the newcomers these days (don’t be fooled, you can still get burned, and even the pros have been burned once or twice), and in most cases you have a limited time to clean out the space, whether you like what you won or not.
Our friends at WorthPoint.com and StorageTreasures.com have put together this phenomenal infographic we wanted to share with you. It details the History of Storage Auctions and is quite interesting!
Here a few of our favorite fun facts from this infographic:
- Did you know there are an estimated 75,000 – 80,000 storage auctions a year?
- 1 in 10 U.S. Households now rent a self-storage unit.
- 2.35 Billion is the total square footage of self-storage in the U.S., or a land area equivalent to three times Manhattan Island.
Crazy if you think about it, right?
In the end, Storage Auctions are a win-win for storage facility owners. There’s a chance they can recoup monies lost in rent defaults then re-rent the space and perhaps make some quick cash from hungry treasure hunters willing to pay up for!