AUCTION CLEANING DEPOSIT

stormee

HOW MUCH  do you charge for your cleaning deposit when auctioning off a unit?
HOW DOES this work? Is everyone charged a deposit up front? And then all the money is given back afterwards?
IVE NEVER DONE ONE SO I have a few questions! If you are doing an ad.. Is this done AFTER the locks are cut? Or do you just always put a specific thing when you put what the contents are? Im not 100 percent sure of the specifics, I know you don't go in there and touch anything! But for the ad, do you just put household goods? 

CVSSSTORAGE

it depends on the size of the unit. If they are regulars who purchase from our auctions they do not have to pay a deposit. 

Orkocean

$100 cash per unit - 72 hours to be cleaned, empty, no lock or no deposit returned. If it's a regular and they buy more than 1 unit we usually only hit them for the one deposit.  Been tempted to up it though, 8 years of storage, never had issues... until we come to Cali. In less than a year I want to say i've had 5 or 6 people so far leave their deposit behind as they just cherry picked what they wanted from the unit and never get heard from again.

stormee

@Orkocean Is that something you list in your AD? For example, My AD says "A cleaning deposit will be taken" but it does not list specifics, Would you recommend adding that in the AD?

Orkocean

It's listed in the ad, we do online auctions so it's also listed on our auction postings. If you do live auctions and have a "rules page" you give to bidders I would suggest having it on that as well.

MamaDuke7

We charge a $100 cash deposit for each unit.  When the unit is empty and broom clean they get it back.  We just hold the cash in the safe until they are done and then hand it back after they sign that they are receiving it.

It doesn't go in the ad, but it goes in the auction terms.  We do ours online, so it's in writing on the auction page.  When we did them live, the auctioneer would tell the bidders when they went over the rules at the start of the auction.

For the ad, it gets done after lock cut so that you can list any specific items that give the auction more value in order to draw more bidders.  I would look at several of your competitor's ads to get the idea for what needs to be included, as that varies by state.

i43storage

I like to put as little as possible in the ad because they are SO bloody expensive.  We just verbally tell the people who come to the auction that there is going to be a deposit in case they don't take everything.  If they don't, we keep the deposit and then put them on our naughty list. 

Orkocean

Yeah I get chuckles when I read ad's and see things listed that don't need to be and in some cases shouldn't be. The biggest one is when I see unit numbers posted in ads.. ugh...

stormee

Would anyone be willing to send me a templet? An example of what one generally should look like
@MamaDuke7 Where do I need to start as far as looking at competitors? Just in the local paper?

Orkocean

Just google storage auctions in your zip code and typically the local listings that newspapers in your area have will show. 

MamaDuke7

stormee said:

Would anyone be willing to send me a templet? An example of what one generally should look like
@MamaDuke7 Where do I need to start as far as looking at competitors? Just in the local paper?

Yes.  In whatever paper you would place your ad, there will be ads from other storage facilities.

MamaDuke7

Orkocean said:

Yeah I get chuckles when I read ad's and see things listed that don't need to be and in some cases shouldn't be. The biggest one is when I see unit numbers posted in ads.. ugh...

I think some states still require the unit number in the ad.  CA did until I think it was 2011 or 2012.

Orkocean

MamaDuke7 said:

Orkocean said:

Yeah I get chuckles when I read ad's and see things listed that don't need to be and in some cases shouldn't be. The biggest one is when I see unit numbers posted in ads.. ugh...

I think some states still require the unit number in the ad.  CA did until I think it was 2011 or 2012.

Interesting... every state i've been in it hasn't been required so that's a new one to me.

i43storage

Orkocean said:

MamaDuke7 said:

Orkocean said:

Yeah I get chuckles when I read ad's and see things listed that don't need to be and in some cases shouldn't be. The biggest one is when I see unit numbers posted in ads.. ugh...

I think some states still require the unit number in the ad.  CA did until I think it was 2011 or 2012.

Interesting... every state i've been in it hasn't been required so that's a new one to me.

Yes.  We used to have to put the unit number.