Terry Considine: Michael, it’s Terry. And we’re — a bunch of hands go up in the room. People are eager to answer that question. The short answer is, we don’t know how long it will continue. 13 years has been a long time, but we see continuing opportunities to do better. And so, we’re not calling pause. We expect to have that kind of discipline next year, and we’ll see what happens thereafter.
Michael Goldsmith: Thank you very much. Good luck in the fourth quarter.
Terry Considine: Thank you, Michael.
Paul Beldin: John, do we have any additional questions?
Operator: Next question is from Rich Anderson at Wedbush. Please go ahead.
Rich Anderson: The anticipation was killing me. Quick follow-up on the topic of bad debt because it is — it does stand out as an outlier for you guys. What about — Essex said something like $120 million of rent that they have not received through the pandemic and subsequent because of delinquencies and people walking in the dark of night, perhaps growing a mustache, changing their hair color and moving to Tijuana. But I’m just wondering if there is any expectation to go after those people that are no longer residents of yours. And if it’s just too much work to do, you have to say, put your hands up and say we’re not going to get that back? I’m just curious if there is an additive component to 2024 from those sources.
Keith Kimmel: Rich, it’s Keith. Thanks for the question. First, I just want to start, why I think our result is different, which is we spend a lot of time on the resident quality. And when we look at FICO scores at 725, what that means is people live up through their obligations, and they fulfill them. And so, we haven’t had the experience that you just referred to with somebody else. What we have found is that we have the majority of residents, while they may have had a disruption at some point, found a way to get back on track. As it relates to, is it worth the time, I will tell you that I am personally involved with seeking out those who have done us wrong, and to the extent of actually going after them in small claims court.
And one of the things that’s interesting is that in California, they had lifted the actual maximum small claims amount that you could sue somebody for if it was actually related to COVID rent. And so, I’ll just give you — a one anecdotal example is there was an individual who had left us for about $85,000. We knew that they were somebody that actually could pay the rent. We had a proof of a guarantor that was a multimillionaire. We sued them in small claims court. We won. We then pursued them and they wrote us a check for the amount of money that they owe us to make it go away. So, it’s one out of a few hundred that exist that are in that kind of a situation. But I will tell you, I’ll be relentless to go after people that have done us wrong.
But the more important point is the majority of our residents did us right by paying as — because we have such an emphasis on the quality of our resident.
Terry Considine: Well, Rich, thank you. John, if we don’t have another caller pending, I would like to thank everyone on the call. I can’t think of a better note to end on than Keith’s emphasis on our customer selection. And for many of you, I look forward to being together in Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating. And we ask that you please disconnect your lines.
