Evaluating Time and Space with the Abandoned Storage Unit Business

One thing to think about in the Storage Wars business is how much time you have available to work it and how much space you have to sort and temporarily store items.

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Evaluating Time and Space with the Abandoned Storage Unit Business

Do You Have The Time To Work A Unit?

Let's talk about time. Some auctions are on a Tuesday morning.  If you work a Monday through Friday daytime job and have children's sporting and church events all week in the evenings, do you really have time to get out of the unit before the deadline? Some Unit businesses want the auction purchaser completely out of the unit by noon the next day.

Every storage unit business owner is different. Some will give you more time if you ask.  Ask the owner, sometimes the auctioneer is not the owner and cannot give permission for that. They may give it to you through the weekend just for asking. That is not uncommon. Sometimes,  if you want more time, you have to pay to rent it. Some will let you rent by the week. Others are by the month, even if you are out of it early.

Because of our busy lives, there have been times that we could not attend auctions because of lack of time to go through it. We prefer a Tuesday morning auction because there is less competition and we get a lower price. At a Saturday auction, we see ten times the amount of competition and we end up paying more for the unit we want.  However, the timing is sometimes better for us on a Saturday if we need to be out of the unit right away.

Do You Have The Space To Store Items?

Do you have a place to bring the items to until you can sell them or sort through them? How large is it? That may tell you what size of a unit to purchase or how many you can purchase. If you have a small garden shed that would hold a riding lawn mower for this business, you will not want to bid on a large 10 foot by 20 foot unit packed full of items unless you plan on renting that unit for a while. What if the unit you purchase has furniture items in it? If they don’t sell right away, you will need a place to keep them out of the weather.

If you have little storage space, you may have a disadvantage in this business. You will have to incur more costs with renting the unit; or, wait for a smaller unit to bid on. You may not see a smaller unit until next month, or a few months. This problem could be solved by taking large items right to the dump, which in our area costs extra money, plus you miss out on making money back on the resell-able large items.

Learn all about the abandoned storage auction resale business in our book.

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