I recently received the following question from a new member named Brian.
Hello Travis,
I just signed up and got the list. On the list, some of the locations have "The location above is selling xyz item". How do they know this? Should we be worried if they know whats in it?
Brian,
That's a great question. Storage facilities in the state of Texas are required to provide a brief description of the contents of the storage unit in the legal notice that they publish. Some storage facilities choose to ignore this as they do some of the other requirements in Chapter 59 of the Texas Property Code, but we won't get into that at this time.
Once the storage facility has made several attempts to contact the tenant for payment, with no success, they will cut the lock and usually inventory the contents of the storage unit based on what they can see from the door. Very rarely do they ever move things or open boxes.
Should you be worried about this? Not really. Most storage facility managers & owners are very honest and respectable people. I'm sure there are a few bad apples, as there is in any business, that do enter the unit and remove the valuables before the auction. However, if you are only bidding on what you can see from the door, what may have been removed from the unit will not effect you.
I hope this answers you question and alleviates your concerns.
My question was can we find out who owned the storage unit? Meaning what their profession was? How would one find out this information?
Excellent question. Unless there is an actual business name listed in the legal notice, it is almost impossible to find out information on the tenants profession. Your best bet is speaking with facility manager and trying to get some inside information. Sometimes, it is possible to tell what the person did for a living by reading the description in the legal notice. For example, if the contents are listed as a ladder, misc. tools, building materials, etc., one could assume that the unit belonged to some type of contractor. The legal notice does list the name of the tenant, but without an address, SSN or other type of identifying information, you are just spinning your wheels because it is almost impossible to locate these people. See the following example of an actual legal notice:
Demarques Tucker: furn Darrell Conley: furn, boxes, sprtng gds, applnces, TV/Stereo Equip LaTwanecia Willingham: furn, applnces Traqueva Langrum: hsld gds, furn, boxes, TV/Stereo Equip Adam Jackson: hsld gds, furn, boxes, TV/Stereo Equip Jacqueline Thurman: hsld gds, furn, boxes, tools Maria Rios: furn, dishes, boxes Geary Matthews: hsld gds, furn, boxes, sprtng gds, tools, TV/Stereo Equip Billy Greer: furn TeTierre Hamilton: hsld gds Jaime Mendoza: hsld gds, furn, boxes, sprtng gds, TV/Stereo Equip Maria Rios: hsld gds, furn, boxes Antrum Critterdon: hsld gds, furn, boxes, applnces; Stephanie Cannon: hsld gds, furn Andrea Williams: hsld gds, furn, boxes, sprtng gds, tools, applnces, TV/Stereo Equip Leonetta Green: hsld gds, furn, boxes, applnces,TV/Stereo Equip Tiffany Huitt: furn, boxes, TV/Stereo Equip Kenya Barnes: hsld gds, furn, boxes, account records Muriam Watkins: hsld gds, furn, boxes, tools, applnces, TV/Stereo Equip, accnt rcrds Tywanna Ferguson: hsld gds, furn, boxes.
Pretty vague and monotonous right? Some people actually do read the public notices to get an idea of what is inside the storage units before the auction. But, once you have been doing this for a while, you realize that it is a gigantic waste of your time. I say this for a few different reasons.
1. Over half of the units advertised in the legal notice will not go to auction because the tenants will get current on their payments before the auction begins. Nothing is more frustrating than getting excited about a unit and then finding out that the owner paid the bill just minutes before the auction begins. It happens a lot.
2. The person doing the inventory does not enter the unit, open boxes or move things in order give a better description of the contents. This is why the descriptions are so vague.
3. We do the research for you, that’s what were here for. Whenever there is a unique or valuable item in a unit, we list it in bold print. If there is nothing listed, it means that the storage facility did not list the specific contents in each unit or that the unit contains any of the following common items: furniture, appliances, electronics, household goods, clothing, tools, boxes, sporting goods, accounting records, etc. If there is a business unit for sale, and the contents aren’t listed, we research the business for you, so you can get a better idea of what may be in the unit. If there are any clues listed in the description of contents, we will inform you in the bold print below the auction listing. See the following example taken from this weeks auction list:
3 of the 4 units listed at the auction above appear to contain the contents of an entire restaurant. Freezers, coolers, stoves, benches, booths, high chairs, bar stools, tables, chairs, neon signs, shelves, POS systems, a meat slicer and it even includes the kitchen sink!
As far as trying to determine what could be in the unit beyond what one could see, research is most likely not going to help you. You will have to buy a lot of units to develop the skills and experience which will help you identify clues as to what may be inside the unit. Here is an example:
I bought a unit that had a good mix of common and high end items. When I was cleaning out the unit, I came across several large items that I could tell were used in a day care business. I spent some time doing research on the items and found that I had some very expensive day care furniture. The baby changing table alone retailed for $1500. Needless to say, it turned out to be a great unit.
Several months later, I came across a 10? x 30? unit that was packed full of stuff. It was very difficult to tell what everything was but, while I was inspecting the unit, I saw several daycare related items that were similar to the ones I had previously purchased. Even though you couldn’t really see what was in the unit, I had a hunch that there might be some of those expensive changing tables inside. I was lucky enough to buy the unit for a little over $500 dollars and I was really excited to see what was inside. Once I was able to move some things out of the way, I realized that I had purchased the contents of an entire day care. As I was crawling aver a mountain of toys, near the back of the unit, there were two of the expensive changing tables as well as some other very expensive pieces of children’s furniture. We made a small fortune on this unit. As you can see, it just takes a little time to develop the intuition and experience needed to help you determine what may be inside a unit.
I hope this has been helpful and if you or anyone else has a question, feel free to post a reply or send me an email. Have a great day.
I have found you also can’t always trust what is listed. I have been to auctions where a specific item(s) were mentioned in the ads and never saw them. This could be for several reasons. This is a great reply, keep in mind, you want information that others don’t have. The only way to get this is do your own investigation.