#TeamTalk: Q&A with Tommie

Welcome to #TeamTalk, where we'll share a quick Q&A with our team members throughout the Best Egg organization. First up, we'd like to introduce Tommie Pullins III , Lead Operations Associate for Best Egg Flexible Rent.

• Having previously worked in evictions, what challenges did you see with renters?Biggest challenges I saw while working evictions was that all customers were a life incident away from being unable to pay rent that month. Numerous unexpected situations from a car repair, death in the family, medical illness, loss of job or even just an unexpected financial obligation would put renters behind. Adding late fees and dispossessory fees easily made it difficult for a tenant to recover and even if they paid the balance in full it led to a vicious cycle that not only affected their success paying month to month but damaged their credit as well.
• Why do you believe in Flexible Rent?I just feel it is a progressive concept that can help a tenant, such as myself, efficiently budget and add to my quality of life without having to feel overextended because of the constraints placed on me by the lease agreement. A typical lease agreement leaves no room for life events and any change made by the tenant is met with punitive actions. Need to break your lease?? Can’t pay until the 7th but rent is due by the 3rd? The tenant will pay a fee and can also be labeled as irresponsible which is unfair and could make it hard for them to rent elsewhere. It is nice to be able to break up payments according to the schedule I set and know that is does not consider me late. Something as simple as your pay cycle changing could make it hard to pay rent by the 1st and it would be great to have an option to help you adjust to whatever life throws at you and know you still can maintain the roof over your head avoiding something as painful as eviction.
• What benefits have you seen renters get from using Flexible Rent?Peace of mind would rank the highest for customers but the ability to make smaller payments and gain the benefit of credit reporting is high on the list. So many customers let us know that it has been a game changer allowing them to make partial payments.
• Anything else you want to share?I believe that everyone can benefit from this option. It is not just for customers in a financial bind. I believe the pandemic showed us we all must learn how to adjust when life happens and many of us found out an emergency fund is simply not enough.? Having the ability to be flexible long-term with such a huge obligation as rent can alleviate stress and help us make better decisions with our finances. This is a win-win for landlords and tenants and I can’t wait until this becomes a “new normal” as a payment method for rent in the future. Everyone deserves a little flexibility.