Borrower outreach: DIY or have servicing company do it?

[Linda Hastings]

A lot of times when you hear note investors talk about deals they have done, they talk about conversations with borrowers in the first person. For example, "I reached out to the borrower. They wanted to stay in their house, but their circumstances were X Y Z, so I was able to work out this or that to modify their loan payments, etc". 

This got me wondering if most note investors actually contact the borrowers themselves or if they are really using a servicing company to contact the borrowers,  but find it easier to talk about the results in the first person rather than "My servicer talked to the borrower and then told me and then I told them to offer the borrower..."

So, for all the NPN investors out there, I'm curious:

1. Do you do borrower outreach yourself or go through a servicing company?

2. If you do it yourself, what safe guards do you put in place to make sure you aren't violating any debt collection laws? Do you record the conversations?