Author Topic: How do you collect rents?  (Read 3810 times)

umterp1999

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How do you collect rents?
« on: April 06, 2017, 08:25:09 AM »
In the process of getting my property ready to re-rent.  What are preferred ways of collecting rent?  My last tenants were older, not tech savvy and sent me a check every month.  It's fine, but I would prefer electronic transfers, just to make my life a little easier, and make rent collection more automatic.  What do you use?  Paypal?  Google Pay?  ACH?  Or is doing it old school with receiving checks via mail still the preferred way? 

jviska89

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2017, 11:21:47 AM »
We just bought our first property. 3 units and everyone is under 32 years old. We got them all set up on cozy.co (not .com)and love it so far. No cost to us or them and makes late payments far less likely. The transfer does take 5-7 days it seems, but not really an issue for us yet.

Cwadda

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2017, 12:03:00 PM »
I've heard good things about cozy. I will be looking into once I close on my first rental property. Also, I think the Venmo app is excellent.

SEAKSR

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2017, 05:18:32 PM »
Does cozy allow payment using credit/debit cards? I actually deposit cash to my landlords acct every month, and I hate going to the bank.

redbirdfan

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2017, 11:09:54 PM »
I believe cozy allows debit cards.  I'm not sure about credit cards.  I use popmoney for fee-free direct bank-to-bank transfer.  The money takes about 3 days to post. 

marty998

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2017, 03:14:19 AM »
Automatic bank transfers. No one complains about "forgetting to pay the rent".

tralfamadorian

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2017, 09:10:12 AM »
I use cozy.co.  ACH transfers are free; debit/credit payments add a surcharge for the tenant.  The transfers are a little slow but I presume that is how they make their money since it's a free service.  They also allow the tenants to decide amongst themselves if/how they are splitting rent if that is something you deal with.  I have also used their listing service; easy and glitch free. 

Dicey

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2017, 02:33:49 PM »
Our oldest tenant pays by check, and it's always a week early. The rest pay by automatic bank transfers, which are never early, Ha! We also keep a cushion in that account, but no one's ever bounced a check. We use what accumulates to pay our taxes and for projected maintenance costs. It is completely separate from our personal banking. Different bank entirely. Deposits are held separately there, too.

Megma

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2017, 09:00:34 PM »
I use cozy.co.  ACH transfers are free; debit/credit payments add a surcharge for the tenant.  The transfers are a little slow but I presume that is how they make their money since it's a free service.  They also allow the tenants to decide amongst themselves if/how they are splitting rent if that is something you deal with.  I have also used their listing service; easy and glitch free.

+1 for cozy. I've been using them about a year after looking fot recommendations here. The transfer seems to vary from 4 to 8 days depending on my tenants bank.

I also used their background check and credit check service when screening tenants and it was fine but I've only used it a few times so far.

gregg687

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2017, 09:06:23 AM »
Automatic bank transfers with my new tenants.  It has been working well.

Disposaleer

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2017, 09:47:25 AM »
+1 for Cozy. I switched both of my rentals over this year. I used their screening services as well and had no issues with the reports.

If you want to go even more electronic, I use uploaded my lease to DocHub which allows me to overlay signature blocks and email it to multiple people for legally binding electronic signatures.

Capt j-rod

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2017, 10:02:57 AM »
I pick it up in person... most of my tenants use a money order. I like to show a presence and I fix little things before they become big things. I also make it a point to pro-rate a lease so the tenant pays rent during the best time of the month. I have a 50/50 between the 15th and the 1st. It is easier to get the payment when the paycheck goes in their account. Remember, most renters are poor money managers. Online is cool, but I like to see my property and its condition regularly

tralfamadorian

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2017, 11:13:35 AM »
... DocHub which allows me to overlay signature blocks and email it to multiple people for legally binding electronic signatures.

I use pdffiller for leases and pet addendums and have been happy with it.  It's $72/year and so far the convenience has been worth it.   

Cwadda

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2017, 02:12:59 PM »
Has anyone else used Venmo? It's a mobile app that allows you to link your bank account and pay phone-to-phone. Transfers to the bank take 1-2 days.

Coach Carson

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2017, 10:24:35 PM »
For my primary rental business I use Buildium.com for property management, and they have a built in bank-to-bank payment that costs me $.50/transaction.  Well over half of our tenants use this, another portion deposit directly to our bank using a teller (the people who don't use internet payments). We still have a few who mail checks, but we're phasing that out.

For a personal rental I have, our tenants just pay with bill-pay from their bank to my bank. Free and works well.

NoNonsenseLandlord

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #15 on: April 13, 2017, 08:53:10 PM »
Anyway I can get it!!  Never make it tough for your customers to give you money.

Most pay with a check in the rent box.  Some do PayPal, using the free personal option.  Some do the bank-to-bank transfer, similar to PayPal.  Some with BillPay from their bank.  Some mail a USPS check with a stamp.  Some pay cash, which I pick up in person.

CptJack83

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2017, 08:25:37 PM »
Has anyone else used Venmo? It's a mobile app that allows you to link your bank account and pay phone-to-phone. Transfers to the bank take 1-2 days.

I use Venmo and love it.  I have college rentals and all the college kids already use it (they actually all started to ask if they could pay by it.).  It's not sophisticated rental management software but super easy to send/receive and transfer to your bank.

mr_orange

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Re: How do you collect rents?
« Reply #17 on: April 14, 2017, 08:38:50 PM »
We use property managers for our properties.

There was a Cozy competitor called TenantCloud that was funded by CTAN locally about a year ago now.  You may try looking at their services as well. 

I used to use a service called ClearNow to process rents when I did it myself.