Author Topic: Sparkrent being discontinued  (Read 9924 times)

oceanowl

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Sparkrent being discontinued
« on: February 11, 2015, 11:13:21 AM »
Hey All,
I've been using Sparkrent for online payment with my two rental units, and just got a notice that they will discontinue service as of the end of March. Looks like they are transitioning to something having to do with Quickbooks, and it seems like there will be a monthly fee. What other online systems do you all like to use? I really liked how user friendly this system was for the tenants-it really cut down on the BS that we sometimes got from tenants about mailing checks or doing direct deposits, and I liked that it sent auto-reminders and late fee notices, and that it only charge by transaction instead of a monthly fee. Any suggestions for similar services that you like using?
TIA

Secretly Saving

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2015, 01:01:38 PM »
Good question!  We just have direct deposits for our rentals.  I'm curious to hear what other suggestions people share though.  Thanks for posting this.

Beaker

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2015, 01:31:20 PM »
I'm in exactly the same boat, so interested to hear what people say.

One option: https://www.erentpayment.com/

I know literally nothing about it aside from that another forum user recommended it in another thread, but it's on my "to investigate" list.

Secretly Saving

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2015, 01:46:52 PM »
I'm in exactly the same boat, so interested to hear what people say.

One option: https://www.erentpayment.com/

I know literally nothing about it aside from that another forum user recommended it in another thread, but it's on my "to investigate" list.


erentpayment.com is on my list to research.  I know some of the other Mustachians use it.  Hopefully they can chime in.

richschmidt

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2015, 02:06:12 PM »
I'm in exactly the same boat, so interested to hear what people say.

One option: https://www.erentpayment.com/

I know literally nothing about it aside from that another forum user recommended it in another thread, but it's on my "to investigate" list.



erentpayment.com is on my list to research.  I know some of the other Mustachians use it.  Hopefully they can chime in.

I offerred erentpayment.com to one of my tenants, and they used it a time or two... then we switched to sparkrent... and now they'll be moving out before sparkrent closes. So we'll see if I get any of the others up and running on erentpayment.

Probably not, since 4 of our 5 tenants live within a block of our house. (Two are in our house.) The other one is a whole 5-6 blocks away. So they mostly just stick their rent in our mailbox.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2015, 10:51:31 PM by richschmidt »

sierrafi

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2015, 09:46:24 PM »
Has anyone used www.cozy.co?

On its face, it looks like it is better than sparkrent.com





richschmidt

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2015, 10:52:18 PM »
Has anyone used www.cozy.co?

On its face, it looks like it is better than sparkrent.com

Wow. Looks like a great deal... Free!

I'm signing up now. Anyone used it already?

oceanowl

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2015, 10:56:48 AM »
I checked out Cozy. As much as I like the sound of it, I'm a bit skeptical about a service that is completely free. I don't see a lot of ads, so how are they making money if not taking a small percentage? I'd rather not sign up for something else that will vaporize 6 months after I implement it.

Beaker

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2015, 11:03:44 AM »
I checked out Cozy. As much as I like the sound of it, I'm a bit skeptical about a service that is completely free. I don't see a lot of ads, so how are they making money if not taking a small percentage? I'd rather not sign up for something else that will vaporize 6 months after I implement it.

Looking at their "About" page, they were founded in 2012 and are backed by a bunch of venture capital outfits. At some point in the (probably not too distant) future they'll either have to start charging, fold, or make money some other way.

I think you're right to be concerned that it might be one of the latter two options.

oceanowl

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2015, 11:18:12 AM »
I would also definitely be interested in hearing from anyone who has used erentpayment.com. They seem like they've been around a while.

arebelspy

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2015, 12:43:24 PM »
My local rentals tenants direct deposit into my bank account (some online, some fill out deposit slips and take the rent to a bank teller).

My out of state ones pay at any 7-11 (IIRC after googling the service is PayNearMe, but it might be a different one).

I don't collect rent, ever*.

*Okay, an exception happened once, when they were late and I served a notice to pay or quit, I collected in that circumstance - but other times that happened I did not, they direct deposited a day or two later.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
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Beaker

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2015, 01:00:33 PM »
My local rentals tenants direct deposit into my bank account (some online, some fill out deposit slips and take the rent to a bank teller).

My out of state ones pay at any 7-11 (IIRC after googling the service is PayNearMe, but it might be a different one).

I don't collect rent, ever*.

*Okay, an exception happened once, when they were late and I served a notice to pay or quit, I collected in that circumstance - but other times that happened I did not, they direct deposited a day or two later.

Do you find a lot of tenants are confused about setting up direct deposit? I just tried to figure out how I would direct deposit to someone else, and it's not immediately obvious to me.

I had several tenants that were confused about SparkRent, which was stupid simple to set up, so I have to imagine direct deposit would be worse.

arebelspy

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2015, 01:35:29 PM »
Do you find a lot of tenants are confused about setting up direct deposit? I just tried to figure out how I would direct deposit to someone else, and it's not immediately obvious to me.

No.  I give them deposit slips to go into the bank, and the ones who want to figure it out online do.  About 1/3-1/2 of them do so.  I don't troubleshoot that, they can talk to the bank about how to set it up.  It's their job to get me the rent.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

ravi

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #13 on: February 13, 2015, 04:24:45 PM »
Hi, Ravi from Cozy here.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have about Cozy. I've seen a few here already, so I'll try to address them (I've also addressed them in a little more detail on our blog, at cozy.co/blog, and on our SparkRent comparison page, at cozy.co/sparkrent).

The main question we get, particularly from SparkRent users, is how Cozy makes money, and how we can be a sustainable business by offering the rent collection for free. We make money on credit reports, which cost tenants $19.95 when a landlord requests one. We are also developing some premium features, like alternate rent payment methods, that will be available at an additional nominal charge. As mentioned above, we also have some large investors, like Google Ventures and The Social+Capital Partnership, that are helping fuel our growth.

That said, the core functionality that exists today for free will remain free. We built Cozy with independent landlords in mind, and we know margins are tight. Unlike SparkRent or some other services, we're squarely focused on the large number of independent landlords, and that's the segment we're serving. This is our core business.

The truth is, up until last September we used to charge $9 per unit per month for Cozy, and you can still find articles dotting the internet referencing that charge. Since we removed that monthly fee, we've seen unprecedented growth (both in terms of users and revenue), and we're planning to stick to this model. We're just getting started.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend! Feel free to reply with any questions. Or sign up and try it out at cozy.co/signup! (There's no cost!)

-Ravi


arebelspy

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #14 on: February 13, 2015, 05:46:04 PM »
Thanks Ravi.  I'll definitely be checking out your service.  Welcome to the forums!
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

iamlindoro

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2015, 06:54:46 PM »
Just wanted to chime in and say that I appreciate when services engage in a way that is honest and seemingly transparent.  We seems to see a reasonable amount of astroturfing so it's really nice to see this kind of genuine participation.

Ricky

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #16 on: February 15, 2015, 11:24:18 AM »
Check of Square Cash. You and tenant link your bank card to the app and all they have to do is open up the app and send the rent amount to your email address. Free, quick, reliable, painless. They don't even need an app necessarily. There's a way to send the cash by CC'ing Square's email with the amount in the subject line.

adamcollin

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #17 on: February 16, 2015, 12:09:13 AM »
My realtors provide this service through their website only.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2015, 12:11:46 AM by adamcollin »

clarkfan1979

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2015, 06:38:52 PM »
I have tenants direct deposit into my account on-line. The process is a little different depending on the bank of the tenant. However, they are responsible for figuring it out and I have never had a problem.

amandaelliott

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued - Another SparkRent alternative
« Reply #19 on: February 23, 2015, 12:42:20 AM »
Hi,

I am Amanda and work at SimplifyEm and you may want to consider our service SimplifyEm Pay Rent. Our company was founded by two former VPs from Intuit and our goal is to make the service easy to use. SparkRent users can take advantage of the free JumpStart program to get started with the service.

We offer two options - Do it yourself - where you can sign up for the service or Do It for me - Fill out a form and the operations team sets up everything. You can contact me if you have any questions or can sign up at http://www.simplifyem.com/pay-rent.

Amanda

NinetyFour

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #20 on: February 23, 2015, 04:42:30 AM »
Following...

DangleStash

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2015, 08:22:31 AM »
Depending on how many units you have, you could use Venmo for it.  You have the ability to "charge" people in it, and when they pay it hits instantly.  They can pay with a credit card or debit/bank account, and any processing fee hits them.

The service is free.

RenterUP

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #22 on: March 04, 2015, 11:48:32 AM »
This is David from RenterUp and I'm happy to jump in the discussion here. We developed RenterUp to satisfy my personal need for simplified rental management via my iPhone (or any smart phone)....I am a part-time landlord with 7 properties and needed something I could access from anywhere.

I encourage you to give us a shot. Our platform is free for your first unit, forever. Even in our free version for one unit, we offer late fees, notifications, maintenance requests, messaging center, and soon....application management with credit, criminal, and eviction reports. We will also be releasing a variety of other payment methods in the very near future, which we are excited to announce.

Visit us at renterup.com or call us at 800-270-9123 or email me directly at david (at) renterup.com

Have a great day!

easyrentcom

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #23 on: March 05, 2015, 04:59:00 PM »
Hi,

This is Ben Gabler, CEO of Easyrent.com. We've been helping other sparkrent users onboard to our platform and are giving them an extended 60 days free to move everything over and get situated. Unlike sparkrent, we do not require you to have your own merchant account. On top of Rent Collection our platform includes tenant screening powered by Transunion, listing syndication to over 2 dozen partner sites including Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com, Expense tracking, and much more. Setup is painless and takes just a few minutes.

According to other users that have moved over from sparkrent, our platform is the not only easier to use but is also the closest thing to the sparkrent experience.

For more information please see www.easyrent.com or email me directly at bgabler (at) easyrent.com

malacca

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #24 on: March 06, 2015, 03:17:31 PM »
I just met with some guys from a start up called RadPad. They do rental listings but also have a service where tenants can pay their rent using their Debit or Credit cards. The money is then transferred to your account.

No fee to landlord for anything.

No fee to tenant for Debit card.

3% fee to tenant for Credit card.

Surprisingly, they said 20% pay with credit card and pay the 3%.

www.onradpad.com

planner10

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #25 on: March 07, 2015, 11:50:30 PM »
Hey guys, we've been using erentpayments for years.  No complaints!  Easy to use.  It's a $3/month fee and they auto apply late fees, etc.   The few times we've had questions they answer very quickly.

However, As long as the other guys do that as well, I don't know how you'd beat free ...

If we weren't going to try to sell this summer I'd definitely be changing.

michaelav

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Re: Sparkrent being discontinued
« Reply #26 on: March 08, 2015, 05:36:45 AM »
why don't you check out American Volume:
Next day settlements for all Credit card types
Ability to work with almost any gateway and frontend provider
ACH processing capabilities
Unique approach to online merchants and their business models
Competitive pricing models

it's a great solution to replace Sparknet