this is a vicious cycle. Community managers that always give resources will always fight with Delinquencies.
Agencies are made for emergencies where someone lost a job, had an unforeseen medical emergency, car issues etc. People use and promote use of these agencies month over month. Agencies run out of money and bam you’re right back where you started.
Instead look at the qualifying criteria. Is it 3x income? Needs to be if not. If they need to use agencies month over month they can’t afford to live there, plain and simple. You would be better off giving them an incentive to relocate to more cost effective housing to meet their income.
How to fix it?
Qualifying criteria for income 3 X the rent.
A letter to all residents explaining what the process for non payment will be! Due X day, late penalty X day, notices X day, attorney X day etc.
Create a calendar for yourself to follow monthly so you do not miss those dates. Follow through!
Collection efforts start on the 1st not when late fees are due.
Do NOT take partial payments!
Cash for keys if they are too far behind. You’ll never get your money anyway. Better to get the unit back cleaned and quickly. Saves on dumpster costs and legal fees.
Call, knock, use resources like call them at work, call emergency contacts, get resourceful. Be careful when calling emergency contact. Say “a personal business matter”. Late night’s and weekends when folks are home knocking doors.
Buy red paper to print notices on and tape to their door.
Consist effort will work!
1. Reevaluate the application approval process & make sure that you & your team are verifying employment. There’s too many fake stubs being used these days.
2. File eviction. Better to start this lengthy process sooner rather than later. You can always dismiss a case at a later time if they become current.
3. Create a payment plan for those currently delinquent.
4. Perform lockouts (if allowed), with those who refuse to answer your calls or respond to notices. This will force them to have face to face interaction with you.
I've fortunately never been even close to that situation, but I have posted many notice to enter "to confirm occupancy before filing for eviction". That tends to get many to pay up or call.
I’m of the belief that people become delinquent because the mgr allows it. A mgr must be firm in this department. The person being hurt by the mgr being soft is the resident!
Step one is identifying where the breakdown happened that allowed delinquency to soar to that level: Poor team training? Inaction? Subpar application screening or qualification criteria? Lack of legal actions?
The next step is to take action to correct those items: Start legal actions STAT. Evaluate training, collection procedures, applicant screening, qualification criteria, and revamp accordingly.
50% is beyond fire alarm time.
Solid training and consistent collection action results in meeting or exceeding the standards I set for my teams: less than 10% of GPR at the start of the month and less than 1% of GPR at the end of the month.
At My last property we allowed you to buy out of your first eviction filing but if we had to file a 2nd time in a 12 month period we would not accept payment and they had to do. Yes we initially took a little dip in occupancy but then re leased those apts to qualified applicants. Delinquency went from over $100k down to under 2% in less than a year
Issue 6 month leases (no upcharge) moving forward until you evict the delinquents and have a ‘clean’ 6 months on the current tenants. The you can renew for 12.
Start knocking doors. Do what you have to do to collect and/or the eviction process. Might be a good idea to take a look at the rental criteria as well. Honestly it starts at your applicants and how well you scrutinize the application verification. Are you sure that you're verifying current and previous rental history? Are you following up with verifying income? How well are you looking at paycheck stubs. Because the big thing here in Houston are fake check stubs. Are you looking at each paycheck stub in the amount of taxes taken out? Are you looking at the deductions? For instance there will not be a line on a paycheck stub for a 401k but doesn't show a year to date contribution. Also, federal income tax taken out is not going to be the same amount every paycheck stub that includes salary as well will always be off by a few pennies. It has gotten so bad that not only do we require check stubs but we also require bank statements showing the direct deposit. Also there should be a minimum time that they've been at their job. We require them to be at their job for at least 6 months.