The story starts here.
Karin returned to her office and brought in the mail. She
flipped through the stack on her way to the kitchen. She brewed a fresh hot pot
of coffee, not because she was tired or needed caffeine, but because it was her
comfort drink. A warm cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar was just what
she needed to settle her nerves. She opened a few envelopes at the table while
she waited for it to brew. She flipped through the remaining ones hoping to see
an envelope from Mindy Vasper in the pile, but there wasn’t one.
She carried her coffee back to the front office and unlocked
the drop box she offered at the front door for renters to drop off their rent,
saving them postage and allowing them to pay at the last minute without
penalty. Her rule was that as long as it was in her box by midnight, it was still
on time; but a check dropped in the mail box on its due date would not make it
on time. Karin hoped to find an envelope here from Mindy, but after opening and
processing all of the paperwork that had come in, she still did not have any
rent from that apartment.
Karin opened Mindy’s file and called the number that she had
listed for her. The automated voice on the other end of the line told her that
the number had been disconnected. She double checked to see if she had an
alternative number to try, but there wasn’t one. Karin would have to file the
documents with the court first thing Monday morning to continue the eviction
process, but first she would go to the apartment to see if Mindy had moved out
on her own. The disconnected phone line gave her hope that the unit would be
empty when she arrived. It saved both her and the property owners a lot of time
and money if tenant’s who failed to pay their rent would move out on their own
rather than waiting for the legal eviction process to be completed and the
sheriff’s department to force them out. Evictions were a costly and annoying
part of Karin’s occupation, not to mention bad for her business.
Every day that Karin was unable to collect rent on a unit
counted against her vacancy/non-payment rate. She’d taken a class titled
Statistical Process Control at the local community college, where she had
learned the methods of evaluating a process using statistics to find the most
efficient, productive and profitable procedures. These methods were used by
automakers, hospitals, and other corporations around the world to make the most
efficient use of their resources. Karin had applied these methods to evaluate
and alter the methods by which she processed incoming applications, filed
paperwork, and handled rental payments. A few simple changes implemented
consistently over the course of a few months had allowed her to see immediate
improvement, but the most impressive numbers came a year later when she was
able to prove that her new methods had lowered the vacancy rate significantly.
Clients who had experienced rates of vacancy and non-payment as high as forty
percent on some of their units were seeing rates of less than ten percent on
every unit across the board, and Anderson Properties showed an average rate of
less than five percent over the entire company for the year.
These numbers allowed her to offer clients a guarantee that
they would receive rent for at least ninety percent of the days that their
units were under her care. This also allowed her to make an increasingly
accurate budget for her company, as she was able to count on consistent income,
and gradually work towards using the same methods to control her expenses. But,
every day that even one person didn’t pay threatened those numbers that she’d
worked so hard to obtain, and she had just used her excellent stats to write an
impressive proposal that she submitted to the Piermont Group promising the same
guaranteed rates for their complex.
One eviction could take months of time and
mountains of paperwork, but if that person were to move out voluntarily, she
could have the place spruced up and rented again in a matter of days, or even
hours in the best of cases. Even with everything else that was on her mind,
dealing with Mindy Vasper had to be at the top of the list.
“Knock-knock,” Michelle said as she peeked in the front
door. “I thought for sure you’d have your closed sign posted on the door
already.”
“I’ve been out all day. I figured I better be open while I’m
sitting right here in the window where every tenant who drives by can see me.”
Karin said.
“Do you experience a lot of tenant drive bys? Do you think
they are watching you?” Karin smiled at Michelle’s teasing.
“No, I’m sure they couldn’t care less about when I work or
don’t work as long as I answer my cell when they call and want something fixed.”
Karin said. “But, there is one tenant that I was hoping would stop by with some
money.”
“Well, I’m sure they won’t mind if you turn off all the
lights, post your closed sign and went out for a drink.” Michelle said.
“You’re probably right.” Karin said and then she closed the
file she’d been working on and did just what Michelle had suggested. Michelle
shared all the latest salon gossip as they walked down the street to Finnegan’s.
"Mrs. Bennett’s funeral was today,” Karin said after they’d
sat down and ordered a round of drinks. “I listen to people’s sob stories all
the time – why they are being evicted from their current place, but think I
should disregard all that and rent one of my places to them anyway, or why they
can’t pay their rent and think I should take a loss and give them a break on
the rent – getting people’s emotional baggage dumped on me is half of my job
description, and usually I just let it roll right off, but today, I just can’t
seem to shake it.” Karin stopped talking as their drinks arrived.
“Today, it’s just weighing me down. All of the grief and
drama in that family… it’s just monumental,” Karin said.
“I thought you said her kids were great,” Michelle offered. “Maybe
it’s just that they are hit hard by losing their mother.”
“They are,” Karin answered. “and they miss their mother
something awful. That’s the monumental grief. But, the grandkids are all drama.”
“Are they still planning to sell all of her property?”
Michelle asked.
“They listed the Lakeshore Drive house, but they are going
to keep renting out the rest of the properties.”
“Are you going to be managing them?”
“Yeah. Troy returned the signed contract today and he is
working on collecting all of the paperwork for each unit. I’ll start creating
files for each unit tomorrow and then send out an introduction letter as soon
as I have all the documents. I have no idea how Mrs. Bennett did her paperwork,
and Troy doesn’t seem too sure about where all the papers even are.”
“It’s great that you are getting a new client. Isn’t that
what you’ve been wanting?”
“Yes, yes it is,” Karin said and finished the last of her
drink. She slammed the empty glass down on the table and said, “especially
since I’m going to have never-ending medical bills to pay.”
Michelle did not say anything, but wrinkled her forehead in
confusion.
“After the funeral,” Karin began slowly. “I went to the
hospital to talk with the billing and accounting department about Virginia’s
bill.”
“Oh,” Michelle said, suddenly understanding.
“She did wake up today, which is good, but there is
significant brain damage. I don’t really know if it’s due to smoke inhalation
like the doctor implied or if it’s from years of drug and alcohol abuse.” Karin
waved to the waitress and before she could get to their table, Michelle held up
two fingers and spun her hand in a circle around the table indicating another
round. The waitress nodded and Karin continued.
“It’s probably a combination,” she said.
“So, what are they going to do?”
“Well, ironically, the rest of her body isn’t in too bad o’
shape, so she doesn’t need to stay at the hospital, but she can’t live on her
own… not that she has a home to go to anyway.” Karin said.
“So, like a nursing home?”
“Yeah, something like that. I need to do some research and
figure out what her social security disability benefits will cover,” Karin said
and then she sort of laughed. “See, that part is ironic to me too; all these
years that she spent convincing the government that she was disabled and now
she actually is.”
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