Value Add / Collection of Bad Debt Ideas for Owners

[Chris H.]

Good Afternoon BP!

I wanted to offer my assistance to anyone out there who may be looking for value add opportunities and collection ideas for their apartment communities.  I have 15 years of interest in selling to this space and am fairly knowledgable of different value add opportunities that are out there for apartment owners.  I am a newbie investor who really can't offer any advice on investing, but could certainly help with with value add opportunities as well as ways to potentially maximize your bad debt collection from those residents who you had to evict or who have skipped out on their lease.

One of the best things I recommend an owner does with their residents is to get multiple emergency contacts on their application.  If your application has only one space for an emergency contact, you might want to consider an additional sheet with a few more.  This will give you more numbers to call to track down that tenant who skipped on you.  You have to be careful as not to violate the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) when making these types of calls.  Also, in my experience in multi family (on the collection side), the owner does not update any pertinent information during the renewal period.  It's a good practice at lease renewal to ask the resident to update some of their contact information as most property management companies and owners don't do this.  I have see applications that were 10 plus years old and the only thing that is stays current on their application is their date of birth and their social security number.  Owners may want to think about a form that the resident fills out at renewal that updates all of this pertinent information.  This way, if the resident skips, it gives you more numbers to call to get 100% your money versus share it a percentage with a collection agency....and if you do use an outside agency, it gives them more numbers to call as well.  Fun fact...if you see your resident list their father's work number on their application for the emergency contact, your chances of collecting that debt drastically increases!

I thought I would offer something out there to the Bigger Pockets world.  I've been a member for a couple of weeks but have been cranking out podcasts like crazy. Like I said, I don't have much to offer seasoned investors from an investment standpoint, but could certainly help brainstorm and share some of my experience in multi family. 

Have a great weekend everyone and please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

My Best, 
Chris Hazlett