LADERA RANCH, CA--(Marketwired - May 8, 2013) - Strategic Capital Holdings, LLC (SCH) has entered into a partnership with StorageBattles.com to offer online storage unit auctions, a secure and user-friendly technique designed to better serve bidders and increase revenue and productivity for the SmartStop® Self Storage portfolio.
"This is really the next evolutionary step in the self-storage industry, to migrate away from in-person auctions to online auctions," said H. Michael Schwartz, president of SCH and CEO of Strategic Storage Trust, Inc. (SSTI), a publicly held REIT targeting the self-storage market. "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."
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.
By using StorageBattles.com, Morrison said, 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. And there are other advantages. The technology allows multiple auctions to be held at the same time, potentially attracting thousands of bidders. That, in turn, boosts the loss recovery rate from a national average of 50 percent for an in-place auction to an average of 117 percent for a StorageBattles.com online version, according to StorageBattles.com president and CEO James Grant.
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based StorageBattles.com approached SCH with the prospect of a partnership, Morrison said. "The principals behind StorageBattles have been in the self-storage industry for years," Morrison said. "So, we all speak the same vernacular... They are people who understand the business."
Grant said StorageBattles.com is the largest and fastest growing online self-storage auction company, with about 3,500 facilities and 250,000 buyers registered with the company. Online auctions, he said, were propelled by reality television shows such as "Storage Wars." Simply put, companies upload pictures of repossessed items and buyers submit offers until the bidding ends.
"Using my website saves your managers' time, saves your people time, is less inconvenient, and you're going to get higher dollars recouped," Grant said.
Morrison agrees.
"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," Morrison said.
About Strategic Capital Holdings, LLC and Strategic Storage Trust, Inc.
Strategic Capital Holdings, LLC (SCH) is the sponsor of Strategic Storage Trust, Inc. (SSTI). SCH's sponsored programs have a combined portfolio of self-storage facilities which includes approximately 78,000 units and 9.5 million rentable square feet. SSTI is one of five publicly registered self-storage REITs in the United States and is one of the fastest growing self-storage REITs nationwide. The SSTI management team is comprised of industry veterans with extensive institutional experience in the acquisition and property management of self-storage properties. SCH sponsored storage facilities are being branded as SmartStop® Self Storage throughout the country. SSTI's portfolio includes approximately 70,000 self-storage units and 8.8 million rentable square feet of storage space. For more information about SCH or SSTI, please call 949-429-6600 or visit www.StrategicStorageTrust.com
About SmartStop® Self Storage
SmartStop® Self Storage offers affordable, accessible and secure storage space for residential and commercial customers. SmartStop offers secure interior and exterior units as well as outside storage areas for vehicles, RVs and boats. In addition to features such as keypad access, security gates and video surveillance, the facilities also utilize well trained on-site associates to provide customers with the highest standard of service in the industry. To view our properties and locations or to find a nearby storage facility, visit www.smartstopselfstorage.com.
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by our use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," or other similar words. Because such statements include risks, uncertainties and contingencies, actual results may differ materially from the expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans or predictions of the future expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to: uncertainties relating to changes in general economic and real estate conditions; uncertainties relating to the implementation of our real estate investment strategy; uncertainties relating to financing availability and capital proceeds; uncertainties relating to the closing of property acquisitions; uncertainties relating to the public offering of our common stock; uncertainties related to the timing and availability of distributions; and other risk factors as outlined in the Company's prospectus, as amended from time to time. This is neither an offer nor a solicitation to purchase securities.