COVID-19 Update From WILMOTH
For Your Tenants
Last weekend we began our outreach to your tenants by personally delivering pizzas to communities we serve. Don't worry- we followed all social distancing protocols and left the pizzas on doorsteps. We are just trying to reach out and make sure everybody is OK and know that (while we are not in our office) we are still here. Real (not virtual) people serving real people.
We have continued the program daily with delivery from different team members and some utilization of delivery services. We are also mailing grocery cards to tenants who are filing hardship requests. We will keep this program going as long as needed to say thanks to everybody.
It seems your tenants truly appreciate the outreach!
Indiana "Stay At Home" Orders
So many orders and so much time to consider them. It seems like it has gotten very confusing as to what you can and can't do. Indiana has extended their Stay At Home order until April 20 BUT Indianapolis (Marion County) has extended until May 1. So, at some point we assume the two will meet.
Professional Services ( property management and real estate brokers) were originally listed as "essential services." This exemption has met with quite a bit of questioning by the public as the real estate industry kept trying to function with normal human interaction. The latest extension of the stay at home order included new language that stated all Professional Service business (including appraisal and title services) should be conducted virtually or by telephone and face-to-face encounters should be postponed.
WILMOTH Tenants
As of April 10, we have 31 hardship requests out of 704 tenants.
The state of Indiana had published this website for tenants and homeowners to provide resources for difficulties associated with making their housing payments during this time. We have added this information to the Hardship request also. If you have other properties in Indiana you may wish to direct your tenants to the site.
Where Does This End?
Not surprisingly, with this weeks unemployment filings, United States unemployment is now almost 16%. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Secretary are projecting unemployment could go as high as 30-32%. To put that in perspective, the highest rate of unemployment during the Great Depression was 25%. In less than a month we are over the 2008 unemployment rates (10%) and approaching Depression levels!
It is interesting to note that in our portfolio of managed properties, with the April rent payments we are at 72% current. When you consider we average about 10%-15% late, we have been fortunate to only see a 12%-15% increase in delinquencies...for April.
The Questions In This Unemployment News Are:
1. How long does the economy stay shut down? President Trump is really pushing to begin gradually opening it back up at the end of April.
2. How many jobs are lost despite the economy opening back up? It is inevitable that there are permanent job losses from this event.
3. How quickly does all of the government assistance get into actual consumers hands?
The answers to these questions will significantly matter when we look at our May delinquencies. Our opinion is that May will likely see further increases in delinquencies with improvement occurring in June. As people get back to work with stimulus funds in hand we believe the portfolio delinquency numbers will gradually return to normal throughout the summer.
Thanks for Reading!
Your WILMOTH Team believes an occupied rental is the best situation and will find creative ways to collect your rent on any schedule possible.
As Jennifer shared with you a few days ago:
Be kind to one another, stay safe, be healthy and STAY AT HOME so we can be together soon! | 
