SCH, StorageBattles.com Form Partnership

LADERA RANCH, CA-Strategic Capital Holdings LLC and StorageBattles.com have entered into a partnership to offer online storage-unit auctions, a “secure and friendly' technique designed to better serve bidders and increase revenue and productivity for the SCH's SmartStop Self Storage portfolio.

According to H. Michael Schwartz, president of SCH and CEO of Strategic Storage Trust Inc., a publicly held REIT targeting the self-storage market, “This is really the next evolutionary step in the self-storage industry, to migrate away from in-person auctions to online auctions. StorageBattles.com offers an efficient way for consumers to view as many available auctions as possible in the privacy of their own homes versus driving to each individual property.”

GlobeSt.com was unable to reach Schwartz prior to deadline to discuss why the online auction process makes sense for self-storage and why this sector is doing so well right now. Until now, SCH relied on its district managers to oversee auctions, which typically draw 40 to 60 bidders to facilities designed and built for safe and efficient storage, not public sales.

“The in-place auction is a very disruptive process that competed for our managers' time, distracted them from their main responsibilities and sometimes inconvenienced our customers,” said Ken Morrison, president of Strategic Storage Property Management LLC, which oversees the SmartStop portfolio.

Morrison added that by using StorageBattles.com, SCH district managers gain back the equivalent of two to three business days each month to focus on revenue-generation activities such as sales training and increasing occupancy. “By selling online, we provide a service to the bidder because now they have a venue in which they can purchase the units online … and at the same time it gets us our unit back so we can rent it quickly to a paying customer.”

Also, the technology allows multiple auctions to be held at the same time, potentially attracting thousands of bidders. According to StorageBattles.com president and CEO James Grant, that, in turn, boosts the loss recovery rate from a national average of 50% for an in-place auction to an average of 117% for a StorageBattles.com online version.

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, Auction.com is seeing great success in auctioning multifamily properties from its site. The online real estate marketplace sold 12 multifamily properties totaling 1,716 units during a three-day auction in April and has sold 5,700 units for more than $125 million so far in 2013.