Have you ever taken over a large property with huge delinquency??

 

I had this happen to me before.
First, send out balance dues with a deadline.
Residents will start coming in. Make notes on their accounts so you keep track of the correspondence, any promise to pay dates, etc
Anyone who hasnt responded to your notice, call them and let them know it needs to be addressed, and your willing to help the best you can but ignoring the notice isnt going to help either.

Get with your local counsel first, you may need to notify all residents that prior arrangements may have been made in the past but effective immediately you’ll be following the terms of the lease and rent is due as stated. Then you can set up a plan internally

The property i currently work at had a delinquency of $80,000 when I started. Every month I had a goal to keep it under and a list of residents that you know to file on due to their payment history and communication. my judge is still honoring the cares act so it is taking me a little longer than I expected. Make sure that residents follow through with their promises to pay...my delinquency now is under 30,000 but I can't get it under 15,000. this has been my situation since April of 2021.

Just took over an 80 unit property in June that had over 100,000 in delinquency because the previous owners let residents pay only a percentage to keep from eviction. I’ve been working with residents, given them information for rental assistance, worked out payment plans and we are now at only 20,000 past due.

Yes, agree, take every case individually, assess it, and proceed accordingly, wether to evict promptly, assist the tenant with resources available, its a win win situation, its a difficult task, but it’s worth it

Many moons ago before Covid I took over a property that had a high delinquency. I started by sending out 3 day notices just to get people to come in to talk to me. Then I set up promise to pay agreements and explained that they had to be followed or an eviction would be filed. I let everyone that came in to talk know that I needed them to communicate and ignoring calls or notices, or not calling me if something changed was not okay. If notices didn’t get their attention I started knocking on doors.

Unfortunately I had to evict a few. Took almost a year to get the delinquency down to almost nothing.

Yes! On a case by case basis, and ID them. I had several girls living in their grandmother's apartments, a man who moved in his gf after his wife left him, a guy who wasn't even in Texas (the apartment was vacant, with a leak and moldy) and the worst of all, a girl living in her sister's apartment without me knowing, until several months later. Sis came home from out of state with her bf, who was on-the-run. She ran her sister out and stopped paying rent. Walk every apartment. Use abandonment letters immediately and introduce yourself to everyone you see in the parking lot.

This was done by a friend of mine. She went to Goodwill and bought furniture and some other items. Placed them by the curb so it looked like a forcible eviction. The money came rolling in from her delinquents as a result.

In NH, the local agencies have more money than they know what to do with for rental assistance since Covid began. Federal government handed out TONS of money to them. They send us flyers and emails ALL the time asking if we have residents in need. I would check with all local and state agencies, gather the info for the residents to give to them in an easy, simple “here is how to get assistance” punch list. One of our residents received 20K in assistance last year and he is working!

Stay on it be consistent

When I look at my top offenders they either need to be on a super solid payment plan, or waiting on federal assistance. If neither of those are the case, file eviction right away. Non-Renew the problem people.
This will get it cleaned up a lot within a year.

The key then is making sure you’re not bringing in new problems. Thoroughly check applications for compliance and fraud issues and deny when necessary. Otherwise you will never get ahead.

Evict, change your rental criteria and non- renew based on payment history. You need to rebuild, teams don’t have time to chase money every month and empty promises.

Daily contact. Calls, texts, knock doors until you have a signed promise to pay. Then one miss on the promise to pay- file, no exceptions. Also, ask for check stubs. Walk them through how to make a payment out of each check rather than one big payment from on check. This way they don’t feel helpless or as if they can’t buy food or some thing that they may need. If they get for checks a month, instead of a $400 extra monthly payment, at one time, have them break it down to four $100 payments.

It feels a little mean but we've requalified all residents upon take over and given those that no longer qualified a deadline to leave - in a very landlord friendly state well prior to covid days - get legal to check this idea before ever attempting it.

I believe we requalified with the same criteria they initially had to qualify for which they contractually are supposed to maintain. A lot no longer met the criteria they moved in on.

Start with the ledgers and see if there are any errors like double billing. Send out balance letters to everyone and provide them an opportunity to dispute. My Recent take over a lot of residents continued paying in the sellers portal. The seller should have shut it down the day we got keys. Residents had screenshots and confirmation emails to back it up. Also the same with rent relief. We ended up with a binder of receipts

The same happened to me...the seller had to send us substantial payments for "missing" rent payments. Gotta love takeovers...lol!!

This one was a nightmare to the tune of like half a million between four properties and even after we sent them what was missing they still claimed to not have received several charity payments

Daily contact and try to work with them on a payment plan. Had huge success with listening and setting up a plan. Sometimes it just so overwhelming they don’t know how to start to pay it back

Took over 458 units with $95k in DQ. Rpm approved additional late fee waive, made 90 day action plan with bi weekly payments and just said pay or move. End of story. Zero evictions later, 7 skipped units, and 150 days later, I had $0.30 delinquency. Whole team effort though.
Leasing withheld non- emergency work orders. We added balance due letters to packages when they ignored us.

Graduating color paper on balance letters. These go 2x per week. White- yellow- pink- red. If we get to red, you're likely already under eviction.

File eviction the day you're permitted to. Word will spread you mean business.

I’m down with all of that. However I question the “withheld non emergency work orders. I didn’t think you could do that legally?

At the time it was legal... I do not know if it still is. it worked wonders at the time.

Yes, in the past I had a 604 unit property with 15% delinquency and took it down to 1.6%. I was very consistent every months with three day notices to vacate. Sending out notices of small balances and visiting doors and speaking with residents about balances.

Communication and phone calls to schedule meetings to explain the consequences in person is effective and be open minded and friendly. It worked for me! Good luck!

Yes I have. I called, I sent notices, I made payment arrangements. When all else failed I strategically took them to court and evicted them. Then I filled it with people that were qualified and paid.

Personal, consistent contact. Know the resources available to the residents. Charge late fees. Get late rent letters out to everyone owing a balance and be prepared to handle the phones and traffic. For payment plans, make them pay 50% upfront and then arrangements on the balance.

I added up all the late fees each chronic late payer had paid to us over their residency. Then sent them a letter with the total amount of late fees paid and that really made some people think and start paying on time.

Immediately send out a notice or strict compliance that rent is due on the first. Those typically need at least 30 calendar days before they can be considered in effect. Make sure each delinquency is correct & start sending out 3 day notices on those over $100. The 3 day notices will get peoples attention enough the contact you to discuss. Once you find out why they are behind help put them in touch with people to help. I have a list put together of places that help with assistance. If you find they don’t qualify for help give them the opposite to put together a repayment plan. If nothing evict. Make sure you keep good notes on each collection effort. This will be helpful if questioned during an eviction process.

We paid a percentage of what was collected as a commission.
80% is making the calls, sending the letters and keeping consistent, our team just needed some motocross keep it top of mind.

Everyone setting up payment plans-are these managed in office using your management software or a 3rd party provider?

Most of us had the same answer. We have to change there thinking pattern now. They are so use to getting free assistance that they think they don't have to pay and wait for us to do the paperwork for them. I'd a new day in our industry

HUGE fistbump. That is brilliant. Kudos to your friend!

Whatever program, strategy that you decide on -- be consistent and follow through. I have seen property managers undermine themselves by waffling and not being responsive.