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Highlands Today

More Auctions, More Vacancies

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By TONY HOLT

Published: March 2, 2008

SPRING HILL - SPRING HILL - Five owners of local storage centers offered the same feedback about auctions.

They feel guilty whenever they hold one.

"I don't want to sell other people's stuff," said Beth Patrich, owner of County Line Mini Storage in Spring Hill.

She, like a lot of others, prefers to show compassion when it comes to someone's personal property. When someone cannot pay their rent on time, they are usually willing to work with them. Maybe they will waive or extend the penalty fee or accept partial payments.

Some customers, however, are never heard from again. In that case, the items sitting inside a unit are not removed until the next public auction.

"This is happening all over the country," said Bob Francis, a district manager with the Heron Group, which owns Broad and Wiscon Self Storage in Brooksville.

He is also the chairman of the Self Storage Association, a nonprofit trade organization of the self-storage industry.

He, like Patrich, loathes having to sell anything.

"Nobody ever likes to do auctions," he said. "You don't want to get rid of people's belongings."

Auctions have to be advertised twice in the local newspapers and certified letters are required to be sent to customers. Once you consider the loss of revenue from missing rent payments, it is rare that a business will recoup all of the money it has lost in the process, Francis said.

"Some people who go to these auctions are professional buyers," he said. "They sell used furniture, so they prefer to buy it a low price so they can turn around and make a profit."

Some desperate customers also use storage facilities as a place to dump unwanted items – or at least the ones they are unable to bring with them when they move. While that practice is frowned upon, it is a difficult policy to enforce, especially with the 24-hour access some customers have.

"Say someone is going to move to Michigan all of a sudden," Francis explained. "It's not uncommon for them to leave things behind. Sometimes, you just don't have any room."

The last auction at Broad and Wiscon Self Storage took place last week. The owners said it was the first auction since October.

Not every abandoned unit is filled with valuable furniture.

Sometimes a small business owner will need some extra storage space for supplies. Plumbers, contractors and computer repairmen often stash their equipment and tools in a storage unit. When business goes bad, they stop paying the rent.

It is often a challenge selling old pipes at auctions.

To make matters worse, they have been fewer and fewer customers to occupy the units being vacated. Storage facility owners like to see occupancies close to 100 percent, but that is becoming more difficult in the current economy.

"When people come into this business, they come in thinking it's recession-proof," Francis said. "There are benefits during good and bad times, but we've been holding at a low plateau lately because of the rough economy."

Patrich said she has seen two aluminum siding companies, a paint company and a sports equipment retailer go out of business in the last few months. All of them stored extra items at her business.

"It's really a sad thing to see," she said. "People just haven't been able to pay their bills."

She has held six auctions in the last 10 weeks. She was used to having them only once per year.

"It's possible I'm going to have another one here soon," she said.

In the previous seven years, Patrich had a 100-percent occupancy rate. As of last weekend, she had nine empty units, which is a record for her, she said.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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