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Car Lot as Opposed to Bank Loan

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Car Lots

A car lot will usually not let you get passed one month overdue before putting the car out for repossession. A car lot will do this because in most cases the buyer has much worse credit or had a riskier past. A car lot will charge the maximum interest allowed in most cases as well. It is a clear scenario of taking advantage of a problem buyer. You can look at it that way or you can look at it in a way the buyer really didn’t any choices to begin with. A car lot will put out the repossession order without letting the buyer know. It will usually get the car back and then speak to the buyer about what can be done to get the car back.

In my time doing repossession for car lots, some people would get repossessed over and over and continually pay the repo fee and be back in the car the next day. My question is why or how can the pay the high repo fee, plus the car payment so easily when the car gets repo’d when they could have paid less then half of that money to keep it current? Ok perhaps the first time, they didn’t realize the car would be in repo status so fast. But when it goes into repossession more times you would think the buyer would learn and save a 300 repossession fee plus whatever else they charge to get the car back.

Bank Loans

A bank does things much differently. A bank will call the loan holder over and over and over. They have an arsenal of telephone people in the loan department, they can even set automatic calls for however many times a day they want, sometimes as much as five. At least you get to keep driving the car in that time. Answer the phone, make a promise to pay the following week or month. The bank really wants you to keep the car, they want their interest and late payments. Now they really love those late payment fees. If they take the car, they have to liquidate it for pennies compared to even the interest the buyer will pay. People that finance through banks have a much bigger head start in figuring out how to hide the vehicle. They also usually tell the buyer they are coming making them well aware of the repossession order. Also a bank is more lenient in making a deal, possibly adding two late payments to the end of the loan.

While both have advantages, the bank is clearly the better choice on many fronts. Just for some people a bank loan is not possible given the previous credit problems.

More qualities of a good repossession training course

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If you are interested in working the repossession field then you will absolutely need some kind of training. It doesn’t matter which field of repossession, either way it is a good idea or even a requirement. If you have options in your area do some research and make sure it is a good coarse. There are several important things when looking for a good repossession training coarse.

The Course is Worth the Money

One of the important things to look at if you have the chance to choose between several is pricing. I always like to find the best value for my dollar. Not only getting good value but not getting scammed by over paying when the guy in the next city was doing it for half price. If the coarse is good, we should have a recommendation here at Repossession Head quarters. If you do not see one, please feel free to ask through our contact page.

The Person Teaching the Course has Experience

I remember taking my first repossession course in Tampa, it was with a guy that had been in the industry for many years. He was a car repo guy so allot of the stuff didn’t pertain to what I was looking for, but allot did and even though it was a required 40 hour course and exam. It was worth it for me. I totally recommend taking it for anyone who wants to be serious about this work. I would recommend taking the coarse in person if possible. If not check out one of the online courses that we may recommend here. Some of the important factors will be

  • Legalities of doing repossession work (some more common instances)
  • How to make contact if needed
  • Properly inventorying personal property, label and store
  • How much you can charge for storage
  • How not to try and get new business by extorting banks with collateral teases.
  • Do’s and don’ts of the industry
  • and much more in the 40 hour class time, usually very interesting

Taking the course could mean the difference of getting sued for wrongful repossession, or perhaps breaking the law. For someone not knowing exactly what to do in this work, he is looking for trouble. Take the course and be happy you did and enjoy your long career as a repossession agent or even company.

The truth about repo shows

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repossession-carTo start with let me say that with all the laws surrounding privacy and repossessions in general, there is no way someone could make a tv show with actual repos, unless they took a real risk in getting sued, blocked out everything including street names and tags, and even more so blocked out any face involved. I am not sure how it would go if they got the actual debtors to sign releases allowing them to air this privacy, but my opinion is that the shows are fake. Without naming names, especially the recent shows out there.

I mean could you imagine the lawsuits involved with the physical contact alone. Every state has a breach of peace law and as soon as the debtor comes out and raises a stink, it is supposed to be over. In fact it doesn’t even have to be the debtor, if anyone comes out and raises a stink the repoman has to go, no questions asked.

I watch the shows on occasion and laugh when I see the physical fighting going on. The fact that they make contact with each and every debtor for the keys, the fact that they opening tell a non registered owners what it is about, that sometimes they complete repos with the police involved which sometimes really does happen but it is typically not allowed in most states.

But then if you think about it, how else could you make the show popular. Even high actions companies like mine was with some of the hardest skips in the world would have been boring most of the time for a TV show unless they filmed only the juiciest parts that occured only here and there.

Or even when effectively repossessing inside the ghetto being antagonized by by standers, being called racial slurs, getting threatened and the list goes on, still wouldn’t be worthy enough for a TV show. These shows bottom line have to be false, I even wonder if some of them truly are repossession companies or just 100% actors. If they were repo companies I highly doubt they would risk losing their license for a TV show.

The repossession industry is one of the most regulated industries in several states. States love to fine the crap out of you and if you should be located in an anti small business state such as California, they would have zero problems shutting you down for the smallest incident.

It kind of reminds me of some of the other supposed reality shows out there in the recent years. At first you think, wow the storage locker business might be a better industry then what you thought, which really isn’t right. Imagine the guy out of work that see’s one of the storage shows and takes the little money he has a buys a locker at auction. Chances are it won’t even come close to some of these fabricated lockers going on the TV shows. Same in the repo business, imagine the guy that watches the repo show, starts working and starts having physical conflicts and gets himself sued thinking all along that’s how it is. In a state like Florida, a repo agent must attend a 40 hour schooling and take a test. It is also the sponsors responsibility to advise the learning agent what is ok and what is not. But think about all the states that do not have the schooling requirement. For this reason I think it is imperative to do the schooling prior to doing repos whether it is a requirement or not.

The Identity Theft VooDoo Trail Scenario

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In the repo game we all have experiences that we remember throughout our career and in many cases throughout our lives. Personally I have had a tremendous amount of both domestic and international cases that will sit clearly in my head for the rest of my life. The funny thing as I have mentioned before is none of my repossession cases aside from those of the buy here pay here lots in the very beginning of my career were local.

Almost everything I did was out of state or in other countries. InVoodooDoll many cases a trail through several states would be a better way to put it. This particular case was given to us by several banks at the same time. They all got together and decided to send my company the cases all stemming from the same guy. Although we didn’t do auto repos at the time, we still did major skip on fraud cases and that is what this seemed to be. It was nice because it got my foot through the door with 2 banks I had not previously worked with.

Identity Theft

There were aprox 12 cars involved in this assignment so our first priority was to find the debtor, find the guy that actually signed on these vehicles. Instead of finding him we found the first victim. The first victim was a home owner that for a little extra income decided to rent out one of the rooms to his house. He rented a room to our guy and a little over a four month period passes. Our guy had not returned for about a week, did not call and did not pay. He walked into the room and was shocked to find several things, most apparent was a bunch of candles and other objects typically used in Voodoo type ceremonies. As he further searched through this emptied room, he found some envelopes that had his name on them, they were credit card offer envelopes and other mail that this fraud tenant had stolen.

The chase continues

He immediately ran his credit report and sure enough, there were several credit checks he did not authorize from mortgage companies to auto finance. He called those companies and sure enough, he had bought several cars and a home. He was devastated and little did he know it was far from over. It really is tough cleaning up your credit after actions such as these.

While there we were able to find the name he used to sign the lease and we contacted that person in another state. They proceeded to say they found the strangest voodoo candles in the room as the guy never came home. I asked if he had checked his credit recently and he did not. I advised him that I felt he should go check his credit. Turns out he too had a house, and several cars. We contacted the banks and they also had these listed, however they were already charged off, which they gave us the vehicle accounts and we do not get involved with the mortgages. Later the mortgage fraud teams from the banks were seeking help.

At this point we knew this unknown voodoo guy would be using his last victims identification to rent another room. Sure enough we found him in the very next state again. We were running about 1 to 2 months behind and we needed to catch up. The good news was as we continued to get to the next house, we kept adding more repossessions to the mix, some were too new to be put into repo status, but at least the banks were aware. There was millions of dollars in mortgage fraud involved and more good news was we began to locate some of the vehicles. They were all strawed out. The guy would rent or lease these vehicles to people and he would come by a certain time to pick up his cash, or somehow get the cash to him.

The cars were his biggest mistake as he profited peanuts as opposed to the mortgage fraud which homes were listed in the comps for half a million and really only worth 300. You knew this guy and his mortgage buddies were walking away with hundreds of thousands per house. Not only that, but it was the car deals that did him him and allowed us to find him eventually.

Voodoo Fields

This next state was even more freaky as the room he rented was close to a what is known as a Voodoo field and an area that is known for people to conduct ceremonies. The agent we sent over there, prior to going knew right away and said that field is the voodoo field.


As we closed in, we began getting more calls from previous states on the straw purchases. People would call and tip us off as to where the vehicles were, thinking back, I truly believe it was him himself helping us with the cars as he realized it was a mistake. Perhaps he figured if he gave up all the cars, we would be done and he would only have to worry about the mortgage fraud people who were far too busy to really focus as we did.

To conclude this story, we ended up making contact with him directly at a home, he decided to live in under his alias, we repossessed the car he had in the garage and knew it was him. Although, our repo job was complete and case was closed.

How to get more repossession accounts

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When first getting into the repossession business, while it might be exciting you got an account or two locally with the local car dealers. it is extremely important to know that you will need more new repossession or skip accounts in the very near future.

The repossession industry sucks in some ways that especially now with the way the economy is and corruption is, banks will close or merge more often then we like. You think ah ok good. No, wrong. These banks that merge might have their repossession agent for years and he will get your contract moving forward. So imagine, you have a family to feed, bills to pay and you rely only on one major bank. There is a good chance you will sooner or later get screwed.

I remember when one major bank merged with another, luckily for us we specialized in high end skips, vessels and aircraft and we were known nationwide in that industry. If it were cars surely we would have lost them immediately as some banks favor a car repossession company they been working with for years. Perhaps it is the company that throws big Christmas parties for them each year, or sends the better care packages. We used to have to spend thousands of dollars Christmas time in packages to show our appreciation of all the orders each and every year. When you have service contracts with big companies gifts are a must during Christmas time. Just as they would send us Christmas cards or small gifts each year.

Getting more repossession accounts

What you need to do is continually ask for letters of recommendation as you grow. Let’s say you have a one time repossession deal with a bank in California. It is only a one time deal since they do not have anything in your area normally. You do a great job for them, ask them for a letter of recommendation and add this letter to your arsenal.

We actually have a beautiful package that we send out to new banks or banks that call us asking for our rates. We made up a really nice presentation with a cover letter including bios of our partners or workers. Our specializations, pricing and locations. In the back you will find our arsenal of recommendation letters. We even added some awards letters from major banks for doing such a wonderful job with the accounts from A to Z.

It will be imperative for any new bank to have someone to call and ask how you do with them. So my recommendation to those starting out is to get letters even from the small car dealerships you do work for. Never screw up the jobs and never fight with the managers.

On occasion our bank would send us an auto case that they just could’t find. So rather then flying out, we would find the unit and forward it to an agent in the area. let me tell you, learn who you send orders to before you send them out.

Some of these repo guys are so mistrusting in the industry from all the crap they deal with that they begin to start treating everyone like that. I send this repo to the guy to pick up, 2 days later his $300.00 check wasn’t across the country, he called me on my cell and started cursing about his check going as far as making threats. Just be careful who you use. Do some research or call a bank or car dealer in the area for a recommendation.

First time doing car repo’s

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It was a few months after I began my new career learning with the large repossession company doing mostly yachts and a few planes here and there. While that was a good job for most people to do only, I had come from a career that became destroyed while I was making a very good living. The one new repo career that I entered was simply not enough to cover my horrendous bills that I accumulated while making well into the 6 figures.

I had no choice but to go ahead and start doing auto repossessions at night. They were all skips as that was how I made my deal to get the jobs to begin with. I went to the dealers who did not know me and I told them, I know you have in house repossession guys as I can see the truck from here. I also know there is no way these guys can find all the skips. I assured them i could and that they had nothing to lose. If I did not get the car there was no pay. Bottom line for me it was easy to get the accounts on a contingent basis. They gave it it a shot and the way I really started rolling was when they came in the morning to see all of their cars were already inside the gate.

Relentless Pursuit in the Dark

I was relentless, I didn’t have time to perform skip trace like I did with the higher end day job cases. What I did was take the orders out and not come back until I picked them all up and amazingly enough this worked. I was persistent enough to make it work and the trainee assistants I took with me were also amazed at how each and every vehicle was not at the given address but within 2 or 3 hours we would be driving it back to the dealership. Another thing was that I could not use the tools that I had at my day job so I had really no choice but to do skip trace the old fashioned way and while out, believe me it works. Make contact with people at the given addresses, call numbers on the order, let them know how you need to find so and so and continue the relentless pursuit and watch, soon enough it will happen.

Keep in mind these buy here pay here lots in Florida are typically in the lower end areas. They were not nearly as easy as an order from Bank of America or Suntrust. These were true skips way beyond the past due dates, that were openly being hunted by there in house day guys.

Adrenaline Rush Repoing Cars

Never a dull evening, whether getting tailed by someone that was hiding the vehicle, to calling in the repo and the cops say to wait right where you as the VIN is not showing up. You must call in each and every repossession right away in the state of Florida so be damned sure you correctly VIN it out. No matter what we did, at 2am there is always actions that makes the adrenaline flow. Being a Repossession man is not for the weak at heart. It is also not for the fighter tough guy. This job requires allot more then fight skills and good stomach.

Sometimes a case would come around where we had to drive to farm areas. One in particular I will always remember even though I have done hundreds like that. We had to drive what seemed like an hour through the Orange groves on a small 1 lane dirt road path with extreme fog around us. I was thinking how can we not get shot in this area? Showing up at some secluded farm house at 3 or 4am in the fog.

Constant racial slurs happening and Florida law states cannot carry a gun. While all this adrenaline going on, no weapons for protection allowed. This could be why so many repo guys get shot and killed. Render us helpless while the bad guy has a gun.

When you start repossessing cars, it is likely an experience you will never forget. If you are good, it is also a good paying experience.

What is training like to become a repoman?

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I remember clearly the days when I decided to become a repoman. Things were changing in my previous work so I knew I needed a change. A guy that funded my previous company luckily mentioned this industry to me and set up a meeting for me to meet with what I would have to consider the highest end repossession companies in the world. They didn’t repo cars, they didn’t have trucks, they had no lot. In fact when he mentioned to me what they did exactly, I was surprised. I thought what? I never heard of that before.

Repossessing yachts and aircraft is not a typical job or business you hear of everyday and less before the ridiculous TV shows started. In fact one of the shows met with us and asked if we wanted a show and we declined.

I went to meet with this guy and have an interview if you will. I drove over and found the place was set up in a huge office building like what you would find a law office in or a CPA firm. There was a receptionist as you walk in, there was pictures on the walls with high end desks and offices everywhere. I was amazed and even more so surprised that such an industry could be so high end.

I met with the owner and we chatted for about 40 minutes and he said to come in a 9am which I did. That week I went and did my 40 hour training course and brought them the passing certificate.

Skip Tracing Yachts and Aircraft

The first thing he taught me on was how to locate yachts everywhere besides where we were. I was locating yachts in Bahamas, Jamaica, Europe you name it. It was when I realized I was a natural at locating assets no matter where they were in the world. it was a puzzle and as long as you have patience and a little intelligence it can be done. I have spoke to other skip companies that basically call the debtor trying to scare him into giving up the collateral or run a simple comp and have the repo company run previous addresses. This might work sometimes but if you want to be proud to maintain a 98% success rate, you better start doing things the right way. In doing this you won’t even have to solicit yourself to banks, they will call you, which later proved to be true.

It’s like in the internet industry and internet start up business, businesses will contact people they want to work for them that may not even be looking for jobs.

Working from A to Z

It was then that I quickly learned to stop my crap of trying to do a shortcut here and there. This work required discipline, it required me to work each case from A to Z. I remember those words as if they were told to me yesterday. I sometimes tried to get away with doing something from A to M and it just didn’t work. If you had to call each and every marina even if you thought it wasn’t there, you did it. If you had to write down all the previous docks this yacht had been to in the last year, you did. Not ahh. I’ll skip that one.

First time repossessing yachts in the field

I remember when I graduated the skip tracing enough that I was sent in the field. I was thrilled to be able to fly all over the place and visit while doing these jobs. The first few cases I did with a partner which was important. But even still, I am not a boat captain so I still had to make arrangements to meet with a captain once close to the vessel.

It was nice, especially getting on a nice sailboat on a perfect day sailing it to another marina to safety while enjoying the ride. Where else is work this nice.

I have experienced a ton of different scenarios that I can possibly share on this blog as we progress. Some strange, some violent with lots of threats.

There were a list of things that had to be done upon repossession of a boat. First of all the bank required at least a roll of pictures inside and out. Secondly the bank required to know the condition of the vessel so we did condition reports which were very detailed, involving engine, hull scratches, dents, interior condition, bottom paint. These condition reports were for the purpose of the bank having a somewhat rough estimate of us liquidating it. What low price should we get, despite us giving them the value.

How hard is it to go into the repo business?

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Going into the repo business will vary from state to state as far as licensing, insurance and bonding goes. However I will give you a run down of how much it may take to open a repossession business in Florida for starters. Another thing to understand is the repo business varies greatly depending on your specialization, depending on your tools, depending on your office or lot size and the list continues on.

I have opened and worked in all of the repossession industries based in Florida and give you several typical costs to open a repo company in each field. To start with lets go with a small time car repossession business.

When I first started doing cars in Florida, I was already becoming an expert in vessel repossessions world wide so for me personally I did not need to purchase a repo truck. Not purchasing a repo truck or a truck that could do repossessions in any way, in fact I didn’t even purchase a truck period. My offset was always having an assistant with me. if I had no assistant, I would simply call a tow company to assist me in transporting the vehicle.

I rarely had to call a tow company to help me as I always typically had keys. If the car was high end like a Lamborghini in another state or a tougher job and the finance company was willing to pay, I would actually make the keys prior to flying out and completing the repo which I will get into later how to repossess in other states. It really is a business of organizing everything and planning, unless it is just a “the car is here at this address, no keys go and pick it up with the truck” type deal. You really have to be on the ball and plan out each and every case. You have to think about all the things that can and will go wrong, think about your safety and always remember to avoid confrontation.

In Florida I had to get an E license for a repossession agent which costs are listed here. Then I had to get an R License which is a recovery agency license that costs

  • Application fee $50.00
  • Finger print processing fee is $42.00
  • License fee is $450.00
  • Total just for license $542.00

Remember there are more requirements that must be paid for, such as office to hold license is a requirement. Cannot perform repossessions from a house location.

I had an office but I did not have a lot to store vehicles, so since my clients were local by here pay here lots, they would give me the keys to the gate to drop off vehicles each time. This also kept my expenses down.

Insurance for Repossession agents in Florida

Several years ago, strangely enough the State of Florida decided to waive the insurance requirements for recovery agencies. However, without insurance don’t even try to get a bank or finance company to use your services, it will not happen. You may however be able to get smaller car lots to give you the jobs anyways, they may not even ask to see it, but rest assured any legit finance company will ask for Insurance and a large bond. I would absolutely consider getting both and making them an expense of your operating costs.

Our insurance was much more expensive as we repossessed high dollar vessels and aircraft so we never had an issue. I would venture to guess a small liability policy will run a couple grand a year, with trucks probably slightly more. Please check with one of our sponsors as to the coverage costs.

All in all, to start out it doesn’t have to break the bank, however in Florida you must go through all the steps to get to that level which can be time consuming. Always good to learn for a while first in an industry like this.

Common Terms in the Repossession Industry

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The following are some of the everyday terms used in the repossession industry. The definitions are in layman terms, if you want proper definitions check the legal guides or wiki’s.

Debtor

Is the person that is behind on the asset or the person that signed for the asset to begin with. Anyone accountable will be considered the debtor.

Straw purchase

Is when someone used their own credit to buy an asset for another person. Someone that may buy the car for themselves in the beginning but later transfers the collateral to an unknown buyer.

Asset

The unit that is used for collateral in each particular case.

Replevin

Is a court order allowing the repossession agent to pick up the asset with a court order, usually escorted by the police department. If the debtor does not comply with a replvein or court order, the case can be turned into a criminal case usually citing the debtor in contempt. It is a legal action.

Skip

An asset that cannot be located by means of the original documentation during purchase. It could also be if a finance company calls a debtor and the debtor purposely hides the unit. Skip tracing will need to be completed in order to find the asset.

Fraud case

Is a case where the unit cannot be located and the person originally defrauded the finance company knowingly when purchasing the asset. Possibly using a fake social security, possibly using false information, buying the unit with intent to not pay for it. or basically any fraudulent means.

Charge off

Is when collateral has not been paid in several months and the account is getting ready for charge off. Sometimes banks will increase the pay amount to have an agent be more aggressive in finding a unit that is close to charge off.

Auction

Most assets that are repossessed will go to an auction or liquidation sale. By law aircraft must be sold through auction sale, similar to that of a house.

Bust out

This sounds worse than what it really is, this term was used in one of the agencies I worked for. What it really means is making contact with the debtor of the unit when unable to locate it. usually a straw purchase type situation or when keys are needed.

RO

Registered owner of the asset

Voluntary Repossession

This is when the RO calls the bank to surrender the asset. When the debtor is cooperative in returning the unit he or she can no longer pay.

Break Order

This usually comes with a replevin order. It gives the Sheriff the right to open a garage or storage facility in order to collect the asset.

Arrest of Asset

This term I have heard several times when dealing with boats that have been seized usually by the marshals office or other federal agency. It usually means that the bank, the repossession agency are out of luck and will either lose the asset completely or have to wait a long time to retrieve the asset.

Agent

A licensed repossession agent.

Comp

When a skip trace agent runs a comprehensive report on someone in effort to locate the unit.

Brought Current

When a debtor brings the loan current and the bank accepts the late payment.

There are many more terms in the financial and repossession industries that are used everyday. i will update this from time to time.

 

Do you need to go to school to become a repossession agent?

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Many people wonder if there are any education requirements necessary before embarking in a repossession field. There is a small school requirement in certain states. However as far as college goes, it is not a requirement while certain schooling can lower your amount of sponsorship time by half. In order to do that, criminal justice classes from any accredited community college will usually suffice.

Not only will that short term education reduce your sponsorship time, depending on what choice in repossession you are looking in can probably raise your income level and leave room for the ability to become repossession manager or skip trace manager.

We always recommend taking classes on learning self defense. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training is extremely beneficial just in case someone out of the blue decides to jump you. It is always preferred if you can handle yourself. Never to fight or start a fight, simply to defend yourself from unwanted or unexpected violence. A repossession agent in many states cannot carry a weapon. So being able to defend yourself is important.

This type of training and college education will certainly be beneficial on your resume and give you the upper hand when applying for jobs.

In some states they require 40 hours schooling and a two hour test but no college school work is needed. The link to the schools available will posted on this page.