Assistant Managers! What are your top tips on managing collections & or delinquency?

Assistant Managers! What are your top tips on managing collections & or delinquency?

Consistency and communication

Qira can lower your delinquencies (sometimes to 0%) and completely eliminate post move-out collections. All at no cost to the property. Send me a message if you want to talk about how it works.

Besides calling and emailing I will put delinquency letters on their doors! The in your face method works on some!

Constant communication and being friendly so they are not afraid or embarrassed to let you know what's going on.

I would start with letting prospects know from the beginning that rent is due the 1st, with a grace period until the 3rd. If you're new, I'd send out an email explaining moving forward this is how it will go unless the resident communicates with you, and you can see what you can work out with them.Let them know commutation is key. I send out an email reminder on the 1st and 3rd. Third, stating last friendly reminder rent is due tomorrow, unfortunately after the 3rd late fees will apply.( If you need the letter let me know). On the 4th , I email, call, or speak to them as I'm passing out 3 day notices and write down when they will pay. I'll call them if I haven't heard from them up until the day it's time to process eviction . Until they give me a date. Once residents give dates I wait until their date to follow up with them if they don't pay the date the promise. Of course update delinquency notes for every interaction or attempt made . As well as with a friendly approach at all times. Building that resident retention helps.

Notes notes notes !!!! I keep track of everyone vie excel notes to make sure I’m on track.

PERSISTENCE

What I have found helps me the most is not giving out dates or too much information. Saying things like “I will need to begin the eviction process on (the date which you deliver the NTV)” will create a sense of urgency while still maintaining communication. A friendly reminder that a court date could be scheduled rather quickly with minimal notice. Once a court date is scheduled letting them know that it has been scheduled without giving a specific date will help keep the urgency there as well. I also let everyone know that communication will allow me the opportunity to help as much as I can. Transparency is key as well, if you know you can’t approve an extension, don’t delay the process to make them happy. Be honest but kind. When all else fails I like to explain the perspective of business. At the end of the day it is our job as AM’s to protect the asset. I have been able to have zero delinquency in most months and have only had to evict one person at a property that was notorious for past due balances before I got here. Each property and tenant requires a different approach. Being nice is always the best approach but there is a fine line of being too nice that you have to tread lightly not to cross in order to have a successful period. edit* keep your team informed that way they are prepared to handle the conversations when you are out of office or on site.

Calls and notes constantly

Lots of calls and emails!

Payment arrangements with them. I mean ultimately you are trying to help them with not sending them to collections. We give them 10 days after we do their final account statement to do a payment arrangement. If they don't want to then they will suffer the consequences and be sent to collections.

To eliminate all of the calls and emails, KEY texting can help! FCC compliant and you can download all of your texts. Quick 10 min demo at [email protected]

Denisse Dorantes

Karen Murray yellow notices on garage doors how'd that work? Got their attention didn't it!

Stacey Spinner stuck on their overhead door, right at eye level. Received a lot of calls & walk-ins to complain they were embarrassed. In the end, we received payments... a lot of them!

Persistence....

I’m not an assistant but I don’t have one, lol so… I send a sheriff’s notice and I ask that it be hand delivered vs posted. We have to serve it prior to filing in court either way so sometimes that will add urgency. But, if you evict one or two in court it will get around and help fix your issue honestly. They will know you are serious and it’s like high school so people will know in record time once they are served.

If they come in your office for packages, leave a love note on the package that you need to chat with them.

consistency is a big one and follow through with what you say. contact residents every day until you get an answer when they will pay, file evictions when you’re supposed to every month no exception and keep your notes accurate that way your entire team can speak to delinquency on the spot as a united front when folks come in office.

Communication and lots of it! They tend to appreciate it (sometimes) if you teach out *before* fees are incurred, so just before the first, after the first but before late fee, right before filing for eviction, and a couple of days before the court date.

I would love to teach a class on this. The trick is to talk them out before you have to file. This was my forte when I was on site as a Manager And I have carried it with me to teach my teams that I supervise as a Regional. There is a local JP  that I used to work with and he says the same thing.  The other thing is consistency and staying in touch every day. It sounds like a lot but I learned this from an old VP and he was correct. My delinquency was always under $500 or zero and my teams carried that lesson through the years.Covid is over and we have to stop  thanking with the Covid mentality. It is time to get back to normal and enforce the lease.

Veronica Erim-Shults PM me friend. I’d love to have you as a featured guest at my next training session on this in March.

Does anyone use any rent payment incentives like credit building through reporting on time rent payments (RentPlus, etc) or rewards (Flamingo or Amenify, etc.)?Roughly 78% increase in on time rent payments when using a credit reporting program like RentPlus and 35% increase when using reward programs.

I could talk about this ALL DAY!!! Over communicate! Call, post notices, knock on doors, letters of abandonment if they don’t answer after several attempts (THIS IS A FOOL PROOF WAY TO GET THEM TO ANSWER ). Talk to all lease holders. Don’t rely on one to relay the message. Let them know during your conversations exactly when the UD is available, costs associated with the filing, etc. if it isn’t noted in activity, it didn’t happen. Work that delinquency EVERY SINGLE DAY. I manage all the move out balances and use excel and my outlook calendar. Because I have multiple properties, they are color coded in my calendar and each property has its own tab in my excel doc. I usually make contact once a week after they move out to discuss payment plan options. If they don’t cooperate, off to collections. After residents move out all remaining balances that owe money come to me in the corporate office to allow the team on site to focus on current residents. Also, be sure you are filing all legal docs on time to ensure no delays in the ud process.