The Real Storage Rental Wars

The storage wars phenom on reality TV does no justice to those who are losing their possessions due to hardship/economic problems - which is the vast majority of the units sold. Add in huge increase in rental fees, domination of the industry by a handle of providers, and weak at best attempts by gov't to improve or standardize the loss process, and you have the current renter nightmare. It’s a bad downward spiral and the storage auction process is near the smelly end of it - loose your job, loose your house, get sick, no insurance, loose a spouse/partner, pay for a parents health care, move most of your worldly possessions into storage, and loose them in just a few months if you can’t make the rent. Single moms with kids are perhaps the largest category of people loosing their goods. But oh, it makes for good TV even if most shows are "salted/staged" and a handful (not even most buyers of these units make much money on them) get rich on the plight of others. Hundreds are sold every week - right here in the Bay Area. Storage locker rental fees in the Bay Area have risen as much as 35% in the past year. It costs upwards of $4,000 a year now to store the contents of a decent sized house in a storage unit for 1 year. Not to mention late fees, insurance costs, lock sales (a $2 lock made in China goes for about $16) and then there's boxes, and tape, and wrap, and blankets, rental trucks, and . . . . My advice - sell it - don't store it - because there's a good chance you can loose it after your pay for it - again and again.