[equaviator]

It’s a business and has been long before cable TV took notice.

How have these reality TV shows influenced the business? Has it been good for business? Has it been good for TV? Is it good for America?

I don’t have a problem with it unless they go too far by including house and apartment rental properties where evictions have taken place.

I don’t know if that’s even legal but where does it end?

[woodbutcher1963]

It has been bad for the people in the business of buying these auction units because there is now a lot more competition and prices have gone up.

So it is good for the auctioneer and the owner of the storage facility but bad for the buyer.

For every one unit that makes the show, there are problaby 4-5 that are just full of junk.

[ExTxMarine]

I don’t have a problem with it unless they go too far by including house and apartment rental properties where evictions have taken place.

That is part of the funny issue here! Just four years ago they had MULTIPLE house-flipping TV shows, which included repossessed homes and county auction houses but the Sunday TV shows weren't asking people to think about the people who grew up in those houses or the families who lost their home due to huge inheritance taxes, etc...

As a matter of fact, many news stories were proclaiming the smart, quick-money available in house-flipping!

Like you stated, this business has been around for many, many years (just like house-flipping), but it is just another part of the life in which we live!

[FreedomPoster]

>>How have these reality TV shows influenced the business? Has it been good for business?

I spent some time this weekend with a high school friend who is in that business. He has about a third of a million SF to rent total among 5 locations. We talked about that a little.

One thing it has done is make deadbeats aware that Yes, your stuff can really get sold off, and storage operators can and will really do it. Apparently many didn’t believe this before the shows.

He said it has made opening auctions more of a PITA as there are often crowd control issues, when it used to be maybe 3-4 guys would show up.

He’s really just trying to get back what he is owed on his lien, which is all he can do. Any excess has to be given to the deadbeat, which can sometimes be a problem. They’ve often skipped the area with no forwarding address.

The saddest thing he sees, and he says he sees it frequently, is grandma dies, kids/grandkids shove all her stuff in a storage room, and then stop paying. He’s liquidating a couple rooms of old furniture, a few linens, kitchen stuff, a bunch of knick-knacks, a family bible, and 5 generations of photos in albums and/or boxes. He’s a real family- and family history-oriented guy, and that stuff bothers him, which is certainly understandable.