Here are the results starting with the service that rated the highest in our survey.
1. http://www.houstonstorageauctions.com
This service has a coverage area of 60 miles in all directions of
downtown Houston, Texas. The website looked great and was very easy to
navigate. They claim to list over 300 storage auctions every month and
after we reviewed their sample list, which is an actual previous edition
of their auction list, it appears that they do provide thorough
content. This service actually calls over 1400 storage facilities twice a
month. They are a pay service with rates as low as $7.49 per month.
They also have a great storage auction blog, which was very informative
for a newbie like myself.
2. http://www.atlantastorageauctions.com
This service covers the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. The
website was very simple to use and very straight forward. Their sample
list is an actual previous edition and the content appeared to be
thorough. This is a pay service that allows you to purchase one week for
$4.00 or an entire month for $10.50. This service also offers a free
e-book, which provides you with the basics, as well a paid e-book which
claims to go into more detail and reveal secrets about the storage
auction business.
3. http://www.centralfloridastorageauctions.com
This service is affiliated with service number 2 on our list. It
provides storage action listings for central Florida. Since it focuses
on one specific area, the content is quite thorough. The website layout,
pricing and e-books are the same as it's sister websites, which are
also rated highly.
4. http://www.storageauctions.com
This service provides coverage for the entire State of California. They
separate their auction list into Northern and Southern California
editions. They claim to provide over 800 storage auctions every month
and based upon review of their sample list, it looks as though they are
very thorough as well. The website has some good information for
beginners; however, they do not offer a e-book or blog. Also, since the
auction list is sent by email on a weekly basis, or by newsletter on a
monthly basis, there is no instant access to their auction listings.
They also only accept payment by the year. Northern addition is $84,
Southern addition is $89 or get both for $155.
5. http://www.tennessestorageauctions.com
This website is also affiliated with #2 & #3 on our list. This
site covers storage auction listings for the entire state of Tennessee.
The content looks good and the website was easy to use. The pricing is
similar to it's sister companies on our list and it also offers a free
and paid e-book.
6. http://www.auctionzip.com/
This is by far the largest national auction website. It is very well
built and fairly easy to use. The problem with this site is that it
lists a majority of auctions other than storage auctions. For our city,
it failed to list 90% of the storage auctions taking place. It has an
impressive auction forum which could benefit newbies like myself.
7. http://www.selfstorageauctionsaz.com/
This website is affiliated with the Arizona Self Storage Association
and lists auctions for the entire state of Arizona. The site is well
made and easy to navigate. They do list their auctions for free;
however, the list appears to be limited. Not bad for a free information
source.
8. http://www.txssa.org/auctionmaster/Resultslist.asp
This site is owned by the Texas Self Storage Association and covers
the entire state. The website is free, well built, has a blog and is
very informative about storage laws in Texas. However, not many
facilities advertise with them. I saw about 30 auctions listed for the
entire state that month.
9. http://www.storageauctionlisting.com/local/
This service covers the Orlando, Florida area. It appears that they
list the auctions of the major storage facility chains and they do have
some okay content. They may be reselling information that you can get
for free, but for a $2.00 first month trial and $4.95 each additional
month, it may be worth the risk. I think they are trying to communicate
that they offer hard to find listings; however, despite all of the
babble, they never get around to saying it. The website does not look
professional and the content looks like the owner has never used Excel
before. I would be cautious.
10. http://www.findselfstorageauctions.com/
This is a free national storage auction listing service that charges
the facilities a fee to post their auctions. I performed a search and
there were no auctions listed in our entire state. In all fairness, this
is a brand new website that hasn't had time to expose itself fully to
the market. The website looks clean but with limited content, it is hard
to recommend at this time. However, in the future, this site could be
the number one player of the national storage auction listing services.
11. http://www.storageauctionsflorida.blogspot.com/
Although the content was average, you can tell that you're missing a
lot of the actions. Although, for a free storage auction listings
website, it's not bad. The website is pretty basic, it looks like it was
set up quickly. And, you know the old saying...you get what you pay
for.
12. http://www.orangecountystorageauctions.com/
Although, their site looks very basic and kind of thrown together,
they do claim to call storage facilities in their area. From what we
have seen from the other storage auction listing services that actually
call the facilities, they may have listings that the other services that
cover Orange County, CA. don't have. Since they don't have a sample
list, we cannot compare them to http://www.storageauctions.com,
which lists over 800 auctions every month for the entire state. But,
for $7, it may be worth the risk. I would possibly join, then compare
their listings to http://www.americanauctioneers.com, which is actually owned by the auctioneer on the television show Storage Wars.
It's all down hill from here!
13. http://www.storageauctionsin.com/
This storage auction listing service covers several states including
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee & Texas.
They claim to list 200 auctions per month for our state, which our city
alone has over 250 auctions every month. This should immediately tell
you how much you are missing. As far as the services that cover
multiple states are concerned, this one is better than the rest. Of
course, that isn't really saying much. We compared the auctions from a
major city on their list with another storage auction listing service
that only provided auctions for that city. Their list had 7 auctions on
it, while the other local list actually provided 41 on the same day. I
think that speaks for itself. Prices are reasonable though at $7-$10 a
month, however I think you could get the same information by spending 5
minutes online doing research.
14. http://www.freestorageauctionlists.com/
This homemade website lists about 5% of the auctions in our area. The
content really wasn't there, with no auctions listed for our area for
two weeks at a time.l At least the auction listings are available for
free or are they? I'm still kind of confused about this, because you
can buy a storage auction list for your area for $10 on his website. I
guess free storage auction lists isn't so free is it? He also sells an
e-book for $10.
15. http://www.storageauction.net
This website has a national coverage area; however, this service only
listed 3 auctions for the entire month in our city. This site is free
but it requires you to enter you email address. I will say that I
haven't received any spam to this point. This is a good looking
professional website but the content just wasn't there.
16. http://www.localstorageauction.com/
This company claims to be a national storage auction listing company.
It had a ton of auctions listed; however, despite their URL, I found 1
storage auction listed for our state. It had zero listed for my area.
The site looks good, and they did have a lot of collectible & farm
equipment auctions listed; however, I feel like I got the bait and
switch.
17. http://www.storageauctiondepot.com
This site is quite unique and I have to give it props for creativity.
It is a virtual storage auction service which allows you to bid on
storage units from the comfort of your home; however, only a few
auctions were listed for the entire country. You do have to pay a $5
annual membership fee to use the service. Issues have been raised as to
whether this service has legal authority to sell storage units online.
Since they do not hold an auctioneers license in any state and they are
dealing with storage liens, if you were to buy something from them and
the owner disputed the legality of the sale, there could be legal
trouble. No auctions were listed for our state. When I visited the site,
I entered my email address in order to view the auction listings. A
week later, I found that they had used my email address to initiate a
transaction on my PayPal account with no authorization. That takes a lot
of nerve. I guess when you get desperate, you will sink to all kinds of
lows.
18. http://www.storageunitauctionlist.com/ This is a national pay site. I read this on their website “ Given that http://www.storageunitauctionlist.com
covers every single facility in all 50 states you can pick auctions
that nobody knows about. “ This is a blatant lie. This company barely
skims the surface. From the sample list on their website, it appears
that they only cover the large chain facilities. The large chain
facility auctions are the easiest to find because most of the auctions
are posted on their own websites. In our area, they listed less than 15%
of the auctions that the newspapers list. This company is basically
charging people for information they could get with 5 minutes of
research on the internet. Rates range from $15 per month to $140 for the
year. They have a blog; however there are only 3 posts on it. An e-book
is also available for $20, but if the content is like their blog, it
may be disappointing. This site gets 2 thumbs down.
19. http://www.storagetreasures.com/
This website is attractive and claims to list auctions on a national
level; However, this website was a total waste of time. They lure you in
thinking all you have to do is enter your email, but then you are
transferred to page after page of requests for your personal
information and they even have you fill out a survey, only to leave you
with no auctions listed. What a huge disappointment. Even though they
claim to be free, I was left feeling like I should have been paid for
the survey I filled out.
20. http://www.storageauctions.tv/
This could be an email fishing site. The system is very confusing and
even after providing my personal information, no auctions were ever
provided. I'm not sure if it is just bad web design or if it is set up
that way to get your information and then get you so angry you just want
to leave. Total waste of time in my opinion.
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