I’ve sat in the Private Deal Room for over 17 years, and I can tell you exactly how a deal dies. It doesn’t die because the price is too high. It dies because the data is scared.

I see two types of data tapes come across my desk.

Type A is clean. It’s standardized. It tells a story. It triggers a bidding war because buyers feel safe.

Type B is a crime scene. It has gaps. It has codes nobody understands. It screams "distress."

Most Creditors and Fintech founders think the value of their portfolio is determined by the FICO score of the borrowers. You are wrong.

The value is determined by Confidence. When a buyer’s analytics team ingests your file, they are hunting for Red Flags—indicators that this file will be a compliance nightmare. For every Red Flag they find, they shave 10% off the price just to cover their backside.

If you want to command the Hartman Standard premium, you need to kill these 5 signals before you go to market.

1. The "Null" Field Virus

Nothing scares a buyer more than empty columns. I’m looking at a spreadsheet right now where the "Employer Name" column is 40% blank. The "Last Payment Date" has giant holes in it.

To a buyer, a blank cell doesn't mean "unknown." It means "uncollectible." If they can't see the data, they assume it doesn't exist. And they aren't going to pay you for data that isn't there.

The Hartman Fix
Enrich your data before the sale. Use a vendor to fill in the blanks. Turning a "Null" field into a "Verified Place of Employment" can increase that account's value by 300%. Spend the money on the scrub to make the money on the sale.

2. The "Kitchen Sink" Mix

I see banks do this all the time. They take their Credit Cards, their Auto Deficiencies, and their Overdraft accounts, throw them into one massive spreadsheet, and say, "Let's sell the debt."

You think you're being efficient. I think you're being lazy. Buyers are specialists. An Auto buyer doesn't want your Overdrafts. A Credit Card buyer doesn't know the first thing about Repossession laws. When you mix the assets, you force the buyer to price the entire pool based on the lowest quality asset in the bucket.

The Hartman Fix
Segmentation is key. Sell the Auto to the Auto specialist. Sell the Cards to the RMAi buyer. The sum of the parts is always greater than the whole. Stop blending your whiskey with your water.

3. The Statement Black Hole

Here is a legal nightmare waiting to happen: The "Charge-Off Date" is today, but the "Last Statement Date" was six months ago.

If there is a 6-month gap where no statement was generated, you have created a legal black hole. In court, a judge is going to ask: "How did the balance grow from $500 to $800 if you never told the consumer?" Buyers know this. And they will price your file at zero to avoid that judge.

The Hartman Fix
Audit your statement generation logic. If there are gaps, be transparent about them in the Offering Memorandum. Do not let the buyer discover them during Due Diligence; if they find it first, they will crush your price.

4. The "Zombie" Accounts

Zombies are the accounts that are legally dead, but you're trying to sell them as alive.

  • Chapter 7 Bankruptcies (Discharged)
  • Deceased (No Estate)
  • Fraud Claims

If I run a sample on your file and find 5% Zombies, I don't just deduct 5% from the price. I deduct 15%—because now I don't trust anything else in your file. I assume the whole thing is poisoned.

The Hartman Fix
Run the Sterilization Protocol. Scrub the file. Remove the Zombies. Sell a 100% clean file. It’s better to sell a smaller, cleaner file than a larger, dirty one.

5. The Silent Chain of Title

You are selling a portfolio you acquired in a merger three years ago. The data tape lists you as the creditor. But the original contract lists the old bank.

Without the specific "Certificate of Merger" bridging those two names, that debt is unenforceable. You are selling a car without the pink slip.

The Hartman Fix
Build the Chain of Title package upfront. Include the merger documents as "Exhibit A" in your data room. Prove you own it before I even have to ask.

The Bottom Line

Every time a buyer has to ask a question, the price goes down. Every time they have to fix your data, the price goes down.

The Sellers who win in this market are the ones who remove the friction. They present a file that is scrubbed, segmented, and documented. They don't just sell debt; they sell Operational Certainty.

Stop leaving money on the table. Clean the data. Command the market.