Our story starts in Fallon, Nevada where highway 50 and 95 slice through each other’s proud American pavement. It begins with a bowling alley and an AWOL obligor. An obligor who has, in fact, managed to default on both his building note and, consequently, the bowling lanes within that building. Of primary concern to us are these lanes and their spherical counterparts.

You see, our client – a bank in San Francisco – financed the construction of 7 new lanes and a slew of multicolored, metallic bowling balls to roll down this freshly placed wood.

Now, there are a few facts we know about this bowling alley
that are of particular interest:

• It has 9 bowling lanes, 7 of which were paid for by said client.
• The building is owned by a third party and he has foreclosed on the tenant.
• The owner of the building has taken over running the bowling alley because the lessee has skipped town.

The bank who financed the new lanes and bowling balls for nearly $55,000 knew they were in a pickle, so they reached out to a collection team to assist in recovery of the debt. The collection team returned some time later, empty-handed, unable to track down the obligor or any assets. Enter Orion First Financial.

This is how it all went down:

We first had to establish with the building owner that the lease agreement with the obligor included a landlord waiver and that the lanes were the property of our client. Next, we negotiated with the property owner to sell the lanes. Initially, he balked. But once he understood that we would have no other choice but to come in and physically remove the 7 lanes, rendering the bowling alley a profitless shell, he relented and we negotiated a sale price of $20,500.   Talks with the property owner revealed that the obligor had owned and recently sold another property – a local minimart – suggesting that there were sufficient assets to cover the default deficiency.

While going this route is never fun – we knew it was time to get litigious. After securing legal counsel and arranging to file suit against the obligor, further investigation revealed the identity of the new owner of the property sold by the obligor. Once we identified and located the new owner, legal counsel was directed to arrange for garnishment of the note payment pertaining to the sale of the minimart property. Our client received payments through garnishment totaling $32,000. In all we collected enough to pay off the balance of the loan to the bank and cover all associated fees for recovery.

We recovered all $52,500 for our client.

No stone left unturned. Building rapport. Asking the right questions. Due diligence. At Orion, we understand that it takes comprehensive inquiry, creativity and grit when it comes to collecting for our clients. These are hallmarks of the Orion way of business. All at once old school – relying on a network of relationships forged over years in the equipment finance industry – and modern in our use of technology to track down those delinquent debts.

We know that effective recovery starts with strategic discovery. If you’re ready for that boost to your bottom line, then we’d like to extend to you a free 30-day evaluation of your non-performing assets – No Commitment, No Strings Attached.

Give us a call (888) 705-8778 to find out how our Contingent Collections services can recover your money. Check out our Contingent Collections page for more information.

Orion First Financial – Your Back Office Collection Specialists