09 Aug 2019
It all starts with one [delinquent tenant](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/delinquent tenant) – there’s nothing drawn-out or romantic about losing money. In order to collect your losses, you’re left with one option: running a [lien sale](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/lien sale). After you’ve sent your lien letters and posted the sale in the newspaper, the fun part begins. However, before planning your first [online auction](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/online auction), there are some things you should know first.
Read up on some of the best tips for making the best profit back from your online lien sale.
When planning for your online auctions for the month, it’s best to plan the time you schedule your auction carefully. In order to optimize the bids on your auction, it’s best to schedule your auction during the middle of the week as opposed to on the weekend.
Plan your auctions to end from early to mid-day, when bidders are more likely to be more active online and when your store will be open. If you end your auction during the evening, you not only may have bidders attempting to reach you after hours, but you also risk not have as many bidders during the auctions final minutes. Everyone has to eat dinner after all, even bidders.
In order to earn a dedicated group of bidders, planning your auctions regularly is incredibly important to your facility. When you schedule your [auctions](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/planning auctions) regularly, around once a month, the bidders in your area will learn this pattern and check regularly for your auctions. When your auctions are unpredictable and sporadic, the bidders in your area won’t be nearly as attentive otherwise.
The second thing to remember when you’re scheduling your first auction is that it’s best for maximizing your bids if you spread out your best units. It’s simple economics – supply and demand. If you can avoid it, do not have too many [storage units](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/storage units) in a single event and spread out your [best units](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/best units).
When you have too many units in one concentrated area, even area with the most saturated bidder base may not draw out the best bids. In order to optimize the price the delinquent storage units go for, you must find the sweet spot; the perfect amount of units in order to maximize that profit. This perfect number may vary on any number of things – may it be the season, month, or day of the week.
As mentioned, it’s also in your best interest to spread your best units out between your auctions. If you put all your best units in one event, only that event will be at its most profitable, and it may not keep the bidders in your area coming back for more.
Well now that you have an idea of when you want to schedule your storage auction, you have to consider how to show these great units off. Unlike a live auction, on an online auction you have to provide your bidders with the best possible way to view your units. This calls for taking the best possible photos to help out your bidders.
We suggests taking around seven photos to show off the best parts of the unit. The first picture should show off the full unit. Following the first picture, the following four pictures should be focusing on the 4 corners of the unit. Pictures six and seven should focus on something special that you may only see upon closer inspection of the unit. This special find can make you more profit than you realize.
Armed with these tools, planning and setting up your online auction should be as easy as 1-2-3.
