Any great tips on avoiding deposits for utilities?

[Alan Brown]

Just bought 12 units and the utility wants me to pay an average utility deposit for ALL of them together, which represents something like $4200 up front... I want to make sure that if a unit goes vacant, the utilities will revert to me, so no frozen pipes, etc... but I'm not going to give them that kind of workable cash!

Any ideas?  someone mentioned a surety bond, which seems a little overkill.  

thanks

[Allen Fletcher]

@Alan Brown

First thing you should do is go down to the office that handles accounts for the utility companies and talk to the people there. When you show up professionally dressed and with a good demeanor it will make it much harder for them not to want to work with you. Ask lots of questions and find out if they have other apartment buildings then ask how they deal with those. Once you have that information you can try to work out an agreement with them. You may have to negotiate with someone much higher up the chain than the front desk.

Hope this helps,

Allen Fletcher