I have a question for you. What is the one thing we landlords want? I’ll give you a hint. It usually comes on or about the first of the month. Yep, you guessed it, the rent. We want to collect the rent.
So here is another question. Why do many of us in this day and age make it so difficult for the tenant to get us the rent? Think about it. How many of you still require your tenants to mail you a check? Why do you make your tenants go through the process of finding an envelope, stamps and a check month after month?
There is an easier way.
Set up a system to allow your tenant to pay their rent online.
Almost nobody writes checks anymore. In fact, your tenants are already paying most of their bills online anyway. They do not have to find stamps for their utility bills or car payments. They don’t write checks at the grocery store. I’ll bet many of them do not even carry much cash and instead use electronic debit payments for almost everything.
Setting up a system for online rent payments is easy to do.
We used a system at clearnow.com for many years. I highly recommend them. We would still be using it today but our cloud based property management software has an electronic bill payment system included.
The clearnow.com system is a great tool all smarter landlords no matter what your level of experience or how many properties you have. Using this system will save you, and your tenants, time and effort. There are many other benefits as well.
- It is a great marketing tool for the landlord.
- Rent payments get directly deposited into your bank account. No more running to the bank every time a check arrives in the mail.
- Rent collection is much easier.
- You get a heads up e-mail if a tenant cancels their automatic payment.
- You can set up different debit days working with your tenant’s pay schedule.
- Tenants can build their credit histories.
On the down side, there is a small fee charged for this service, but I believe the fee is well worth it for the amount of time you will save. Plus, this service will not work in all markets or with all segments of the population. Some tenants simply are not going to have checking accounts. Tenants in those markets will still need to bring you a money order.
Online rent payment is the wave of the future however. Philly.com for example reports that rent payments made online have increased by over 66% in the last three years.
So do yourself and your tenants a favor. Set up on online rent payment system today. Once you do, you will never look back.
