Stage Auction Unit

Drew_Scadoo

When staging auctions units with things tenants have left behind, can be a pretty fun task for this team. What do you do with the money you make from a staged auction unit? This month we are using the money to buy Halloween decorations instead of office supplies   

Orkocean

When we do have build up units any money earned is deposited into the system via a company unit with admin adjustment charges to equal the amount. 

i43storage

I put it in my pocket. 

Orkocean

Forgot to add we don't full on "Stage" units either. Typically if it's a unit being sold other than auction it's someone who has relinquished their rights to the unit and in that case we either leave it as is or remove any obvious trash that may discourage bidders. Being in the industry for years and attending other auctions i've seen enough "bad apples" to not trust a full on staged unit. Can't tell you how many stories i've heard from bidders of manager units that half the boxes ended up being empty even though they staged them to stand out.

Drew_Scadoo

O dang empty boxs no good, by stage I mean put items in clear view of photos and line up so they know exactly what they are bidding on don't want to deal with the refund mess if they feel they have been robbed lol 

JamesStorage

We have never staged units at our facility. If an auction doesn't win anything, we just throw away whatever gets left behind. I don't know if we're missing out on anything though. When we have an auction, we cut the lock, post pictures of what we see online and go from there. Do you think we're missing out on anything by not doing staged auctions?

Drew_Scadoo

@JamesStorage Have you ever had a tenant leave behind a desk or lamp "somthing like that". Instead of just throwing it away you can put that stuff into a unit and then do an auction every month or when the unit fills up and then use the money for yourself or put back into the facility like buying office supplies 

Orkocean

I will only stage relinquished/build up units and then only just to make sure what's in it is viewable. As far as regular auction units I will never enter the unit when cutting the lock. We cut the lock, take a grid of pictures, seal it up and take pic of seal tags. The only time an auction unit will ever get entered is after it's a no sale and then we have to clean it out. During that time if I see anything that's of value I will put it into a build up unit. And always check pockets of clothes you're tossing, it's amazing how many times money has been found when i'm cleaning out units. 

JamesStorage

@Drew_Scadoo I suppose I view it somewhat differently because I don't actually live on site. We're an office building with some amenities, so I never needed things like lamps etcetera. We also have a very small parking lot, so a live auction would be a nightmare

Orkocean

@Drew_Scadoo anything bigger than a coke can or a bag/box we can't see in goes thru the auction process. IF someone leaves a lamp/desk in one of our units it will go through the process, No one needs the craziness people have now a days of coming back trying to sue saying that the desk was a family heirloom or whatever.  Just as an example we just had one go through the process on lockerfox at our Vegas site, nothing but a single duffle bag you can't see into. The last I saw it was at a $30 bid before it ended, not sure what it finally sold for though. Always remember, one mans trash is another mans treasure.. I love when people PAY me to come remove trash from a unit

MrFugate

When I worked for P.S. years ago we had a manager that would stage units (abandoned goods ) , one time she let it slip to an auction buyer ,at a live auction, about something that was in the unit that you could not see from the door. That buyer told others and over 1/2 of the areas buyers would not go back to her property after that. 

So If you stage a unit DON'T tell anyone. EVER... lol

ESS

If a unit is relinquished to us, we can go in and condense units to clear out the others for rent. We don't actually stage them though. However, if there is some really good stuff in them, we will make sure they can at least be seen, but we don't try to hide the fact there may be junk in them. If they cut the lock and it's deemed junk, I'll try to get the tenant to relinquish so we can throw it out and don't waste bidder's money or time. I work for a pretty honest company and love that about them  

themage

We don't do online auctions (yet), so we don't have to inventory or photograph auction units before hand. We cut the lock and photograph it for the first time in front of the auction attendees and they see it as it was left.

We do stage the "Manager's Bonus" unit, but just to make everything visible, and we inform the attendees beforehand.

Our auction regulars really seem to like that they see it the same time we do.

Drew_Scadoo

We don't have any live ons, at our sites but we have put together some that sell for over $100 by little work and thats $100 less we have to spend on toilet paper