Topic: Who is the Best Collection Agency Out There?

One of our communities in Southern New Jersey has relatively little to send to collections (about $3,000 per quarter).

Has anyone out there had good or great experience with a collections agency? By "good" I mean actual money coming in from folks who've skipped or been evicted.

Thanks,
Andrew Phillips

This is a perfect question for Bill Gray, The Landlord Doctor. Let me pass this along to him...

Hi Andrew,

I know that many of our members have been very successful with Rent Recovery Service www.rentrecoveryservice.com/

They allow you to do flat fee or contingency collections, depending on your needs/amount you are trying to collect. They also allow you to report your debtor to the major credit bureaus.

Sidney,
www.aaoa.com

While Brent is busy asking The Landlord Doctor his opinion, I'll give you one company you should at least take a look at: Hunter & Warfield -- www.huntwar.com. Been in the industry a long time. Chat with Tracy Legg.

Great question. I have worked for a couple tenant debt collection agencies over the years. I wish more management companies would put more thought into which company they hire. One issue with hiring an agency is that you really won't know how well they perform for 12 to 18 months. It takes that long for them to establish a track record either good or bad.

Of course in this economy collecting tenant debt is difficult to collect. But a good percentage is collectible if the agency is dedicated to collecting it. A year ago I wrote a blog article about this subject. I do not endorse any company in the article, but I am firm in my requirements for how to find a good company. Here is a link to the article. How do I Hire a Collection Agency to Collect my Tenant Debt

The most important advice I can give you is to not fall for the "rate game". You get what you pay for in the collection business. The article explains this further.

Bill Gray
The Landlord Doctor

I have heard great things about the Landlord Doctor, however, also feel free to review Vista Financial Solutions who we used. They have done excellent in collections for us.

vistafs.net/

Thanks,
Pedro

There are several competitive companies servicing the industry. I suggest trying 2 or 3 agencies simultaniously and comparing your satisfaction after a year or two.

I mentioned rentrecovery.com up there- but forgot to mention www.olddebts.com which is another good option to look at.

Federated collection bureau in Atlanta is excellent.

I'm digging up this topic again, since this is an area I'm now looking at. On the previous comments, 2 years ago, there are some good recommendations, but no real testimonies. I know people might not be able to go into specific details due to confidentiality, but anyone have some numbers?

I am not even certain what percentage of recovery to expect, and I know it depends on the part of the country, affordable housing vs. market rent etc. Someone I know told me recently, though, that in residential, market-rent housing, the best you can recover these days is 10%! Is it really that bad?

Mr. Mallory - I would be happy to share our in-depth experiences with apartment management companies. I would break the rules if I self-promoted, so feel free to give me a call anytime. 800.839.8186 x140

Davin,

Thanks and I just might. But I am hoping to get some hard numbers and facts on the board here so that others can benefit from the information too.

Hey Everybody,
As a note, Chuck is asking for testimonials from companies that have used collection agencies, not for submissions directly from collections agencies. If you are a collection agency, the absolute best thing you can do is simply answer Chuck's questions . Although many companies don't want to give away propriety information, it does give you the opportunity to show yourself as an expert and as someone who is helping out the community. You don't have to, of course, but that is what is being asked.

What is the success rate between a collection agency that asks for an up front fee and a commission (30%), vs an agency that just takes a commission at the end (30%)? Which would you recommend?

So your saying spread out our accounts. Because you can not submit the same person to three different agencies if they file with the bureaus? That is violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act?

According to my recent call these both are the same company???

MultiFamily Collections is a different kind of collection account. There are a lot of variables to it- like, your resident qualification criteria, like your company collection policies, like the demographic make up of your portfolio, the way the accounts are submitted, etc. As Davin referred to below, speaking to a knowledgable collection expert like himself, me, Tracy, Carol or Joel (and we all work at various agencies across the country) will benefit you the most in understanding what you can expect out of your specific debt portfolio.

As for the question regarding, placing an account with multiple agencies. Yes, it is a violation of the FCRA and can get you and the agencies into trouble.

All 3rd Party Collection Agencies, like the one I work for, all have to follow the local state and federal rules/regulations of the "Alphabet Soup" gang, including the FCRA, FDCPA, TCPA and the CFPB... just to name a few. I can tell you that things have changed dramatically in the last 9 years I have been working here.

Multifamily debt collections, although it appears to be a very simple process, it can get complicated very quickly! I hope this has helped shed some light on the topic of MultiFamily collections.

My company uses Rent collect global.

Why do you feel that this collection company is better than others?

The olddebts site has the same address and telephone number as the rentrecovery site. I tried to hire these people yesterday. I could not complete the form to submit a new account. I called on the phone and was told someone would call me back. Several hours later, I called back. I was told the problem was Google Chrome. I asked if Safari would work. I was told yes. I tried again on Safari. The submission form still did not work. I called the company again. I suggested that I do this over the phone or some other way. I was told that tech support would contact me. I have not heard from anyone. Apparently they only do collections for people with PC's. They don't deal with anyone who has an Apple computer and they are unresponsive to telephone calls. If anyone has a collection agency for a tenant that skipped owing me $2000 I'd be interested in hearing from them.

I was advised to use x company and they will send a demand letter and if not paid in 10 days they report to the credit agencies. I was going to do this until it occurred to me that the money judgment I collected in eviction court gets picked up automatically by the credit agencies when they do their monthly sweep of money judgments at the county court house so the credit report will document the bad debt for free, or it was already covered when I paid for the eviction.

They only do multiple flat fee; no contingiency collection at all.

Hi!

I am looking for a collection agency for collect a tenant debt here in Southern California.

Would like some information on this matter and look forward to hearing from you.


Thank you,


Jacqueline Torres

Jacqueline, have you looked at Assurant Recovery Solutions?