No matter what country we’re talking about, the scenario is the same: garage sales. Auction sales. Estate sales. These are all breeding grounds for plenty of inventory that can be purchased at cheap prices. However, does that necessarily mean that you’re going to be able to enter this world and get some good premium investments? That’s what we’re looking on today.
Even if you’re not in the US, you might be familiar most with the rash of TV shows that have come on covering the thrill of auctions. It’s way beyond eBay now — a lot of people are going to storage centers where expired lockers sit, waiting to be bid upon. When people abandon stored property, the owners of the storage unit auction off the entire locker. However, this is done as is — you’re not allowed to really go back and try to inspect the locker before you bid on it.
There are some risks here that need to be addressed. For one, you can be outbid and then get into a bidding war. You also run the risk of paying way too much for the locker and not making a profit.
While the professionals on TV make it look easy, the reality here is that they are professionals for a reason. They have the connections to sell property fast, and that’s something that most newcomers to this scene aren’t going to have. So you have to ask yourself how much knowledge you really have about the world of auction hunting. It’s not enough to just watch the show. You’re going to need to make sure that you actually think about the type of knowledge you’re going to have to obtain. If you don’t really like doing research as it is, the reality here is that you’re not really going to do very well at auction hunting at all.
You will also need to figure out what you’re going to do with all of the stuff that you don’t want out of the locker. If you try to build a team, you’re going to need to pay someone else for their time – whether or not you make a big score. In addition, you will most likely also need to rent a truck –and pay for the gas. These are costs that come into it when you’re thinking about making this into a side stream of income.
There are going to be times where you win big and there are going to betimes where you lose big as well. So you really need to make sure that you really want to pursue this.
One final note that we will add is that if you are going to explore your options in this field, that you really need to make sure that you are treating it as a business. That means that you need to be tracking your mileage as well as how much you make as well as how much you have to pay out. There are other fees that will just depend on the storage center. In addition, you will need to have cash on hand in order to purchase these things — credit is not enough in this world, though having a line of credit to make bigger scores might really be exactly what you need. It just depends on you.
So from here, the time is definitely right to start thinking about auction hunting if you already know what you’re getting into. For the rest of us, it just makes a great TV show to watch.


