In the past, storage facilities rarely ever recovered their lost rent & fees from the sale of a delinquent tenant's unit. Nowadays, this is not the case. Storage auctioneers, however, have always made a good living off these sales, especially the auctioneers who handle the larger storage facility chains like U-Haul Storage Centers, Extra Space Storage and Uncle Bob's Self Storage.
I have several acquaintances that are auctioneers and from my understanding, it’s a good time to be an auctioneer in the storage auction niche. Fueled by shows like Auction Hunters & Storage Wars, there has been a migration of new bidders attending storage auctions in America. Storage units are selling for double, even triple the amount they used to sell for and storage auctioneers & storage facilities are laughing all the way to the bank.
Most storage auctioneers earn 10-25% of what the storage unit sells for at auction. On average, there are 3-5 storage units for sale at each facility, and on some days, an auctioneer may have 10 or more facilities to conduct auctions at. These auctioneers could easily earn several thousand dollars or more in a single day. Not too shabby for a days work.
In 2012, storage auctioneers are expected to have record earnings as well. The storage auction reality shows have renewed their contracts for additional seasons so, there doesn’t appear to be any signs of a slow down in their near future.