The American Repossessor

Out of the Chat room into the Court room
By Susan Marston

The by-line, “Out of the Chat room into the Court room,” is an attempt to match recent internet discussions or issues with recent case law decisions.

Police involvement in self-help repossession is a recurring theme of on-line discussions. Some of the contributors to these chats claim to be ex-police officers who provide their opinions based on their criminal law experience. Unfortunately criminal law experience does not translate particularly well to the civil law self-help as a police officer learned in a case filed in federal court, which was decided in November 2009.

Before we look at the facts lets identify the parties.

Eric——owns a used car lot and works as a full time employee of the City Police Department.

David—-manages Eric’s used car lot.

Shayla—purchased a Honda for Eric’s used car lot and is the Debtor.

Ray——-works as a full time employee of the City Police Department. …more…

QUALITY, SERVICE, PROFESSIONALISM…
By Susan Marston

George Washington (1731-1799) said….” Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation.  It is better to be alone than in bad company….”

Having quality management systems in place, enables us to transfer not only our services to our clients, but they expand into our industry, helping their companies too, to become more professional.

Expansion is one way that a company can grow and to support that growth there needs to be policies, procedures and processes to enable the growth to survive, which in turn will help companies become more profitable.  Expansion is not a word you hear of much when we are in recessional times, however, many of our clients are doing just that, growing from strength to strength and being profitable in doing so.

Expansion…during these recessional times?

Oh yes you can, as any professional, qualitative and profitable service can do it – if you plan to make it work. Knowing your market, carrying out market research and planning will help your ‘expansion’ flourish. …more…

Recovery Survey: Repossession by the Numbers
By Susan Marston

ATLANTA — Auto Auction Services Corp. recently hosted a focus group for the repossession industry, inviting recovery agency managers to give their feedback about how they run their businesses, and what they need to continue serving lending institutions and other clients competitively.

This candid feedback session last October occurred on the heels of a nationwide recovery industry survey administered by AASC.

The nearly 100 survey respondents reported an average 200 repossessions per month and 37 regular clients. Most agencies have between six and 25 employees and run a business that is over 10 years old. Unique as they may be, repossession agencies are facing many of the same economic and business issues affecting most companies.

Despite media hype about the recession driving up repo volume, many agencies are struggling to secure new business and keep costs down as the industry becomes more competitive. “Managing client expectations” rounded out the top three business challenges facing repo companies. …more…

Bringing Recovery Agents Back into the Remarketing Process
By Susan Marston

Over the past decade, the role of the recovery agent has been in flux.  Margins in the core recovery business have eroded, competition from national forwarders has increased and service expectations from lenders have continually increased.  At one time, agents were able to balance low profits from recovery by playing a larger role in the process of selling vehicles, but issues of trust and transparency caused lenders to shift to physical auctions for this vital service.   Today, more often than not, an agent’s role is solely to recover the vehicle and wait for it to be taken to a sale.  Gone are the days of providing significant value-added services.  However, if an agent is willing to make changes to adapt to this new environment, opportunities do exist that can restore the recovery agent to a “full service” provider, specifically through adding online remarketing to your suite of services.   In fact, partnering with the right online auction can help grow your business, as others fail. …more…