February 2021 Newsletter
Improving Your Collections In a COVID Era An Art vs Science
Understanding and adapting to today's NYC residential rent collection takes more creativity, system, and maneuverability than any time in the recent past.
At STRATCO, we have applied a minimally invasive and scientific approach to both maximize the opportunity to reach 100% collections and reduce administrative costs on our projects.
The Challenges
- Many individuals are out of a job, facing unemployment, and/or declaring financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Tenants receiving unemployment benefits tend to pay other bills and credit cards before rent.
- Tenants may feel that they don't have to pay rent given the eviction moratorium.
- Tenants have financial insecurities and are unwilling to part with their money to pay their rent.
- The asking rents on vacant apartments are dropping, so tenants may feel they will have a better deal if they hold out.
- Management companies are not fully staffed due to social distancing concerns and cannot address this challenge head-on.
- Tenants are not responding to typical forms of communication such as mailings.
The New Rules of Engagement
- The housing courts are facing a backlog and are ineffective
- There is an eviction moratorium, and landlords are not reclaiming their apartments any time soon using the non-payment proceeding route
- There are various forms of city, state, federal rent subsidy programs to fund tenant's owed back rent
The STRATCO Solution
- At STRATCO, we have created a scientific approach to qualify each tenant for the various subsidy programs and increase building cash flow.
- Our approach has been successful in screening over 90% of a building community. This has resulted in vetting all potential subsidies per tenant, outlining payment plans, and have an accounting of how the back-rent will be funded.
- This has overwhelmingly led to a decrease in legal and property management resources.
- Each building-specific strategy considers the primary first language spoken by the tenants.
- The building ownership team receives real-time information outlining action items related to management, legal, and leasing.
- Having a mastery of the rent relief programs and designing the process to the tenancy's unique needs is a must-know to turn the corner.
- The above are a few examples of how we have turned an area of concern into an opportunity for stabilization.
Should you be facing a challenge in your portfolio, feel free to contact us for more information on how we can add value to you.
Thank you,
Robert Sedaghatpour
646-760-9723
robert@stratcoproperty.com