Asking for experience, strength and hope on the best way to handle utilities for REO listings.

Currently, I order water, gas and electric from the appropriate company according to where the property is located.

One of the electric companies that services the majority of my area is TXU Energy. Their customer service call center is in the Phillipines.....which means that if you are just handling routine business, it will be in their "script" and the rep will be able to handle it most of the time. I have stopped ordering new service on their voice line, and instead order on their website. It takes 5 minutes to order service on the website, where it takes 45 minutes for the Phillipines rep to go throught their entire script. I have no choice but to call them to turn off service.

Gas service is not a problem for me, usually good.

The local cities for water.....some are good, some are horrible.

I guess my question is, do you all set these accounts up individually, or is there a way to have a "master" account, that allows you to add or delete the addresses when needed?? If yes on the "master" account, who is the best person to set those up with.

I am the broker/owner of my firm, so I have no problems setting up an account in the company name.

Any ideas, suggestions and experience would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

John Ensminger
Dallas, Texas
john@LSRB.net

I have a commercial account set up with the utility companies and can call quickly and add or subtract any home from service with ease. There is almost no wait time if you have a commercial account. Also some companies ask for security deposits, with the commercial account I had to pay 1 upfront security deposit of $200 that I got back after the 1st year, with interest by the way.

Thanks Art!

I will set them up tomorrow.

John Ensminger
Dallas, Texas
john@LSRB.net