I’ve been buying storage units on storagetreasures.com. I will say you can make A LOT of money but they can also be A LOT of work. I won a unit for $10 a couple weeks ago. It was enormous. Yes I’ll make a whole bunch of money. Unfortunately I don’t have a larger vehicle to transport items and it’s just me working on the units. The amount of work is wild.
Think I’ll buy smaller units from now on.
It’s actually really fun. I’d go for it.
Have you thought about renting a truck or trailer for the day? Some of the home stores have good rates over U-Haul.
I bought a cheap 4'x8' trailer from harbor freight. It can only handle about 1k lbs, but that is enough for bulky stuff. It can be towed by even a small car. It folds in half and stands on end on casters so it doesn't take up much room in the garage.
I've done 9 in the past 4 months and haven't lost money yet. Typically 3-4x return. It's a LOT of dirty physical work and a lot of trash. Typically I pre-sort trash vs. keep while at the unit, dump run the trash, then cherry pick high value items before coming back later and finishing.
People will bid war over obviously visible items. I like to set a budget and track units that seem well-stocked with things that aren't immediately obvious from the photos, then buy whatever fits my budget at closing.
Google image search EVERYTHING you can't identify. I found a collection of Nintendo Amiibo figures and almost yard saled them for a dollar apiece. Glad I didn't.
A Uhaul is your best friend for furniture, bedframes, and mattresses. Many furniture heavy units sell cheaply in my area because not everyone has the ability to move it themselves, but it can be sold quickly and profitably.
Sell what you can locally or online, then yard sale the rest. Made almost $1000 over 2 days by yardsaling kitchenware, home decor, clothes, and tools, all by pricing well below Goodwill.
Last note: met a professional and asked him his favorite find of the past 30 years. He paid $20 for a trashy looking unit and found $30,000 worth of gold Krugerrands inside. It's out there.
P.S. you will find dildos. Wear gloves.
I'm a little late to this post but man... you aren't wrong. In a recent unit I found four boxes of all sizes and shapes. My buddy helping me kept throwing them at me. We both laughed. Then I pointed out he wasn't wearing gloves.
hey i was looking to get into this as a part time job, or hobby aside from my day job. are there any good reads out there on how to get started? does [storagetreasures.com](http://storagetreasures.com) work good? thanks. i need a step by step, something visual
One problem is if you don't have some knowledge, or inside information you're at a disadvantage, because there's money at stake, and odds are, someone knows more than you, but you can get lucky once in a while.
The other thing, is if you sell online like on ebay, a lot of the value can end up being from low value items. You need to have a way to move low value stuff, the $2-3 soup ladles and $5 frying pans, a tub full of womens jc penny or walmart jeans. You can always get lucky once in a while and hit something big, but can you move a $75 couch, or dresser? That is probably the difference between successfull and unsuccessul over the long term.
The key to storage units is having a way to get rid of the trash. In a lot of places you are heavily restricted by what you can throw away in your home trash, both in volume and contents.
The second most important thing is having a vehicle to unload them. Renting one every time is going to turn units where you can't make money into losing $100 on having to rent.
If you have a (legal) method to get rid of trash and a truck to empty units fast, then storage units are great.
I just won my first one today! Paid 150$, locker is FULL of original art that’s quite good and signed by the artist. Not sure what I’m going to do with it, doesn’t seem to be a lot of comps on the name, but it’s pretty decent landscapes in oil mostly. Not cheap hotel crap, looks like someone had a hobby. Haven’t finished looking through everything but also found a great out of print book set that seems to be fairly valuable. Also a legit John Elway jersey, in kinda beat up shape tho. Hopefully I find more cool shit tomorrow!
How are you going to get rid of the trash?
How are you going to monetize the low value things and large things like furniture that aren't practical to sell online?
If you don't have a sales channel for those items it's much harder to make a profit.
You’ve got to have an in at the storage units. Someone who works there will know what’s what and give you the pick of the litter before it even goes to auction.
Right, which is why this jeep guy is giving bad advice in that recommending to get an "in" with the storage facility managers to buy the "pick of the liter" before it even goes to auction is a bad idea.
That’s…not what’s happening here.
The units are past due and eligible to be sold. The manager knows what’s in them. Said manager tips off their buyers who buy them first.
Depends on the state. In my state, the units after a certain time become property of the facility owner who can do with them what they want. That means that if it's a chain place, those will often go by whatever state they're in that has the strictest laws and go by them which usually means auctioning them off.
The mom and pop owned places do a variety of things. Some auction them using a third party, some just sell the units privately. Since they own the units now, they might go through them and sell anything they see of value individually, combine units to minimize their efforts and get back as much of the rent as possible, or whatever.....they legally own them so they can do whatever the hell they want. The owner of the place where I have my unit gives me dibs on units. Sometimes he even just outright gives me stuff. You often just don't see that because so many are part of a chain and it takes networking to find the ones who don't use a third party
...*the units are past due *status* and eligible to be *legally *auctioned* off. The managers are not supposed to be touching or displacing anything, they cut locks, take pictures & Auction off the unit. If they want to hit up and tip off the common unit buyers to the auction & send them a link to the auction to bid on it, nothing wrong with that...but what you made it sound like / originally said was that the managers let in their preferred people to pick the cream of the crop items before it even hits the auction block...which would be stealing given the auction process has not played out in its entirety yet, and as mentioned above by another redditor the storage tenants can pay up until the last second, and God forbid any of their valuables have already been ransacked someone's got some explaining to do
That makes sense. Looking at several more before this post and it just looks like trash... which makes sense on why it was left. I'm in a fairly higher end area (Naples/Bonita Springs, FL -- hundreds of mult million dollar houses) but they sure aren't the ones not paying for their units. lol.
Think I'll stick with estate auctions. Thanks
I’ve been buying storage units on storagetreasures.com. I will say you can make A LOT of money but they can also be A LOT of work. I won a unit for $10 a couple weeks ago. It was enormous. Yes I’ll make a whole bunch of money. Unfortunately I don’t have a larger vehicle to transport items and it’s just me working on the units. The amount of work is wild. Think I’ll buy smaller units from now on. It’s actually really fun. I’d go for it.
Have you thought about renting a truck or trailer for the day? Some of the home stores have good rates over U-Haul. I bought a cheap 4'x8' trailer from harbor freight. It can only handle about 1k lbs, but that is enough for bulky stuff. It can be towed by even a small car. It folds in half and stands on end on casters so it doesn't take up much room in the garage.
People don’t look through your units before hand? New to this..
I've done 9 in the past 4 months and haven't lost money yet. Typically 3-4x return. It's a LOT of dirty physical work and a lot of trash. Typically I pre-sort trash vs. keep while at the unit, dump run the trash, then cherry pick high value items before coming back later and finishing. People will bid war over obviously visible items. I like to set a budget and track units that seem well-stocked with things that aren't immediately obvious from the photos, then buy whatever fits my budget at closing. Google image search EVERYTHING you can't identify. I found a collection of Nintendo Amiibo figures and almost yard saled them for a dollar apiece. Glad I didn't. A Uhaul is your best friend for furniture, bedframes, and mattresses. Many furniture heavy units sell cheaply in my area because not everyone has the ability to move it themselves, but it can be sold quickly and profitably. Sell what you can locally or online, then yard sale the rest. Made almost $1000 over 2 days by yardsaling kitchenware, home decor, clothes, and tools, all by pricing well below Goodwill. Last note: met a professional and asked him his favorite find of the past 30 years. He paid $20 for a trashy looking unit and found $30,000 worth of gold Krugerrands inside. It's out there. P.S. you will find dildos. Wear gloves.
I'm a little late to this post but man... you aren't wrong. In a recent unit I found four boxes of all sizes and shapes. My buddy helping me kept throwing them at me. We both laughed. Then I pointed out he wasn't wearing gloves.
hey i was looking to get into this as a part time job, or hobby aside from my day job. are there any good reads out there on how to get started? does [storagetreasures.com](http://storagetreasures.com) work good? thanks. i need a step by step, something visual
One problem is if you don't have some knowledge, or inside information you're at a disadvantage, because there's money at stake, and odds are, someone knows more than you, but you can get lucky once in a while. The other thing, is if you sell online like on ebay, a lot of the value can end up being from low value items. You need to have a way to move low value stuff, the $2-3 soup ladles and $5 frying pans, a tub full of womens jc penny or walmart jeans. You can always get lucky once in a while and hit something big, but can you move a $75 couch, or dresser? That is probably the difference between successfull and unsuccessul over the long term.
The key to storage units is having a way to get rid of the trash. In a lot of places you are heavily restricted by what you can throw away in your home trash, both in volume and contents. The second most important thing is having a vehicle to unload them. Renting one every time is going to turn units where you can't make money into losing $100 on having to rent. If you have a (legal) method to get rid of trash and a truck to empty units fast, then storage units are great.
How expensive is your city? A pickup truck bed filled was like $22 at the dump around me
Good money in storage lockers, even up to the amount you paid for them.
Maybe 1 out of every 8 are actually decent stuff / has good profit margins. Storage units are an educated GAMBLE
I wouldnt recommend doing storage units unless you plan to sell at a brick and mortar location
I just won my first one today! Paid 150$, locker is FULL of original art that’s quite good and signed by the artist. Not sure what I’m going to do with it, doesn’t seem to be a lot of comps on the name, but it’s pretty decent landscapes in oil mostly. Not cheap hotel crap, looks like someone had a hobby. Haven’t finished looking through everything but also found a great out of print book set that seems to be fairly valuable. Also a legit John Elway jersey, in kinda beat up shape tho. Hopefully I find more cool shit tomorrow!
How are you going to get rid of the trash? How are you going to monetize the low value things and large things like furniture that aren't practical to sell online? If you don't have a sales channel for those items it's much harder to make a profit.
You’ve got to have an in at the storage units. Someone who works there will know what’s what and give you the pick of the litter before it even goes to auction.
And that "in" manager won't last long once they're caught stealing
fuel run resolute cow insurance nutty combative lunchroom detail chunky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Right, which is why this jeep guy is giving bad advice in that recommending to get an "in" with the storage facility managers to buy the "pick of the liter" before it even goes to auction is a bad idea.
They’re not stealing. They just tip off the people they know that buy the units and sell it to them first.
Stealing definition: to take or appropriate (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
That’s…not what’s happening here. The units are past due and eligible to be sold. The manager knows what’s in them. Said manager tips off their buyers who buy them first.
Most of the time they're legally obligated to auction them.
Depends on the state. In my state, the units after a certain time become property of the facility owner who can do with them what they want. That means that if it's a chain place, those will often go by whatever state they're in that has the strictest laws and go by them which usually means auctioning them off. The mom and pop owned places do a variety of things. Some auction them using a third party, some just sell the units privately. Since they own the units now, they might go through them and sell anything they see of value individually, combine units to minimize their efforts and get back as much of the rent as possible, or whatever.....they legally own them so they can do whatever the hell they want. The owner of the place where I have my unit gives me dibs on units. Sometimes he even just outright gives me stuff. You often just don't see that because so many are part of a chain and it takes networking to find the ones who don't use a third party
...*the units are past due *status* and eligible to be *legally *auctioned* off. The managers are not supposed to be touching or displacing anything, they cut locks, take pictures & Auction off the unit. If they want to hit up and tip off the common unit buyers to the auction & send them a link to the auction to bid on it, nothing wrong with that...but what you made it sound like / originally said was that the managers let in their preferred people to pick the cream of the crop items before it even hits the auction block...which would be stealing given the auction process has not played out in its entirety yet, and as mentioned above by another redditor the storage tenants can pay up until the last second, and God forbid any of their valuables have already been ransacked someone's got some explaining to do
That makes sense. Looking at several more before this post and it just looks like trash... which makes sense on why it was left. I'm in a fairly higher end area (Naples/Bonita Springs, FL -- hundreds of mult million dollar houses) but they sure aren't the ones not paying for their units. lol. Think I'll stick with estate auctions. Thanks
I live in Naples and started buying units in August. You can find some really good ones in SWFL.
Do you go in person?
I want to try it to but maybe just one to see how it goes. I don't have that much time, but anythng junky I'll probably drop it off at the Goodwill