This would bankrupt a significant amount of your employers or customers.

I am shocked and amazed at the number of people who rely on our industry for their income as a vendor or management company employee, spreading or sharing the mantra of “just waive rent for April and May and tack it to the back end of the lease”.

This would bankrupt a significant amount of your employers or customers.

As an owner, I am willing to work with my residents who have been impacted by job loss or reduction in their income and we have a fair plan in place to accomplish this, but in the end I have to collect their rent sooner rather than later to remain in business.

Think about what you are posting and ask yourself does it help or hurt the hand that feeds me.

Ellen Collier Maxime we are saying tenants need to pay 15% of rent per week, which equals out to 1.5 months. They should be getting enough for unemployment to cover that. Late fees stop when you talk to us. We are taking a page from Reagan, trust but verify, we need to see term papers unemployment papers or furlough doc from employer. If you pay nothing you get nothing from us. No work orders nothing. We are still filing on everyone as a just in case and will dismiss when payment plan is worked out. We do not charge for cost of filing

Will you share your plan?

We call our plan, Pay us When You Get Paid. Residents must notify the office before rent is late, provide proof of unemployment filing and sign a promise to pay form that state they will pay rent with unemployment benefits and stimulus checks. We will waive late fees for residents that work with us. We are calling and surveying all residents beginning tomorrow to measure the impact on our residents.

We are also forcing tenants to use portals. No phone calls we have gone remote we want everything in writing so all remote people can see. We are not accepting manual payments anymore. We already refunded the cost of an ach to all epays - ach, credit card or rent money. Office is closed so we are not a train station for c19

Spot on John. The impact is real... I’m going through it already.

I agree completely, John.
No matter the size of an operation, its financial health is predicated upon receiving rent each month.
Good owners will work with their residents who really need help. That will look different for each company.
We need to remember that and avoid disparaging a company that has a plan different than ours.

This is a time when many under-capitalized companies and investments are exposed.

John Ridgway it’s going to be sad to see the wreckage when this is over. I know you’re a smart owner, and that you’ll weather this storm. God bless you and yours, my friend. ????????

Texas Apartment Association created forms for working with the residents. Members, Click and Lease through Bluemoon has them available now! If your not a member, join your local Apartment Association!

Mary Ocheske-Mocniak Bluemoon has the new forms available on 3/25. Those of you in Texas please read them.

as a small business owner rely heavily on the Apartment Industry and hope when this is all over we all use each other to navigate our business and we all come back stronger.

Say it again for those in the back of the room. If rents are collected and we are not able to proceed on evictions of those who take advantage of the situation payroll will not be met, repairs will not continue and as you said many will be forced into closing doors

As a property manager with 40 years experience. I think that the issue with so many of us, is we know the residents and cant help but feel sympathy for their plight. We talk to them, we know their children, pets etc. We want to help them as much as we can. Residents actually believe that property owners are all muti millionaires and there is unlimited funds. They think " one months rent is $800, that wont break them" they dont realize the big picture. They only think of themselves. They dont think of the owners expenses, mortgage, insurance, taxes, cost of repairs etc. To balance empathy with our residents, and responsibility to our owners investment is a tightrope we walk every single day. But when there is a disaster, it makes it even harder. It's extremely difficult to set aside our feelings and deal with these residents that are (for the most part) really great people that are scared and stressed out

Agreed- these are going to be very stressful days ahead and we will need to assist the teams to keep aggressive in collections while being empathetic . Keeping residents updated with constant communication will help tremendously - keeping the sense of community goes a long way !! Just curious is anyone giving move in specials at this time for immediate move ins ? We had 12 leases last week at one community .

It is very difficult. We are a small owner operated apartment community. We are offering to waive late fees, and April rent will be divided throughout the rest of the lease term. This will impact our business but also understand that how we react to this will impact our good reputation for years to come. Not to mention the fact that we are very appreciative of our residents, everyday!

agree that kindness and good business can both function together here. This is also NOT the kind solution. The government has suggest 6 months to make up payments. You can’t just “tack it on the end” because a lease has a contractual end date. Residents often live paycheck to paycheck. Having to pay even two months deferred rent will be impossible on top of current rent. The solution IMHO is:
- tell them how to defer credit cards and car payments that really can just be tacked on the end.
- suggest they call until its company, if not all bills paid, and see what programs are available.
- they should make a partial payment now to have less to pay back. Keeping housing is critical. There are resources for food, not for housing.
- if they did not lose their job or have a reduction they need to pay.
- there are unemployment benefits even for those not laid off if hours are reduced.
There are even more options. A rent deferral will hurt the very people you are trying to help because they will not be able to catch up. This was an ill conceived idea.
What should have happened instead?
Residents say they can’t pay, owner go to bank and day they can’t pay. Government backstop the banks.
Evictions for those without job impact proceed via teleconference.

Agree 100% Our apartments don't acquire equity how can we add it to the end of a lease!

We are doing the same. Residents know they owe it and most do not want to get behind. We are going to work with written payment plans and see how this goes

I agree completely. We all have someone to answer to regardless of our position in a company. There are too many resources for tagging the rent at the end to be the answer. I have quite a few clients offering these resources to their residents and even more offering the leg work to get their rents paid.

It's my understanding that if you have a gov't backed loan, FHA, Freddie, Fannie, you will have to waive late and eviction fees to assist with the hardships.

We are human and this crisis has no boundaries. As an industry I know we are all working our way through unchartered waters. And while being strong we also need to be kind . We have many different challenges but I can promise our industry of professionals around the world are doing our best to protect our residents our staff and our assets. Stay healthy and stay positive.

Well said, fair and balanced for all parties is the right approach or the problem will grow. Unfortunately as much as it is the new normal, this will rub hard on those living beyond their means to cash in their reality checks and get right.

As a rental property owner, I was just having this discussion. We are in crazy times and all need to think things through. Everyone is saying rent should be “waived”. That would be all well and fine if there weren’t mortgage payments to make, vendors to pay, repairs to be made, employees to pay. No one thinks that far out. No one except those that are responsible for all these things. I will work with anyone for a win-win. I cannot, however, bare the full brunt of the situation. Let’s all do our part and work TOGETHER!!!

I'm a little miffed about the "No work orders". I find this a problem especially if this is something serious or an emergency Down the road it could cost your company lots of money. I would think this is still a fair housing issue. Thoughts?

This is very short and to the point, well written, thank you.

Thank you. Much appreciated. I am curious though.

Our company maintenance workers are allowed to do emergency service orders and exterior repairs only. They do however have to ask questions before entering residents homes and wear protection. They are instructed about social distancing .