I response to Richard Alpert’s question (below), we got the following suggestion:
Best direct deposit tool I have found is the Chase bank quickpay. It’s free for anyone to use even if you don’t have a chase account. You set up email addresses for each user. Chase does the bank numbers behind the scene. Really useful and easy to use. Renters can set up recurring payments. I believe you can even send a month reminder.
https://www.chase.com/online/services/quickpay.htm
After last week’s Tip of the Week, I got four emails to add to the discussion and two complaints.
from Gary S.:
DO NOT MAKE RENT DUE ON THE 30TH. Febuary has 28 days and I have had one tenant who tried to get out of the late fees beccause of that. Also some months have 30, some 31. MAKE it clear when the 5 days begin because some people will try to stretch it. But they usually are the one that don’t make it a year.
from Sofia J.
I’ve been reading your columns on getting paid your rent on time and I must say that some of the responses come across as extreme and money-grubbing. I know that we all get a rotten apple now and again, but if you have that many troublesome renters perhaps you are not doing due diligence earlier on in the process.
We consider our initial tenant screening as our most powerful tool for keeping poor tenants out of our properties. Not only do we do the standard credit/background check but we do a criminal check, we speak to all of their previous landlords for two years prior, we confirm their stated gross income, and most importantly, we require the rent to be NO MORE THAN 35% of their gross income. This last item seems to make a big difference. We would rather take a little longer in getting a vacancy filled than have to deal repeatedly with non-payment or late rent payments and problem tenants. Our rental requirements are very specific and we provide these to anyone who demonstrates an interest in our units.
Of course when someone is late we immediately give notice that there are late fees due and accruing until the entire rent gets paid.
Well, thanks for sharing your experience with other rental property owners.
from Gary Kodish of ECS Cards. They do, among other things, electronic rent collection for landlords.
More than a third of American households are paying at least one of their monthly bills electronically, many are paying even more than that via Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT). Before long, these same families will be paying all their bills electronically, and it won’t be much longer before the rest of America catches up with this growing trend. You can set up with your tenants to be ahead of the curve.In a perfect world, the rent would always be on time, every month. But this world isn’t perfect, and unfortunately, neither are our tenants. That’s where electronic rent collection comes in. You can help your tenants strive for 100 percent on-time rent payments by making it easy for them to pay you on time. By offering you the ability to take advantage of the fast growing field of Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT), “lost,” late, and “forgotten” rent payments can be a thing of the past.An innovative service for facilitating the collections of repetitive payments, EFT is fast and cost-effective. All payments go through the Automated Clearing House Network, a highly reliable and efficient nationwide, batch-oriented electronic funds transfer system governed by the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) Operating Rules which provide for the interbank clearing of electronic payments for participating depository financial institutions.Here’s how it works:
1. You have new tenants sign a form that allows rent to be deducted from their bank accounts. Or you ask existing tenants to start paying rent by EFT. The advantages to the tenants are that they don’t have to write checks for the rent or worry about forgetting to mail the rent check or take it to the manager’s office. They don’t have to worry about their rent being late and reflecting on their credit.
2. Rents are deducted from a tenant’s bank account on an agreed-upon date each month (preferably the first of the month or pay day).
3. Rents are then automatically transferred to the landlord’s bank accounts on an agreed-upon date.
4. Deposits go in as cash.
The advantages to landlords:
1. No need to chase down rent payments or go to tenants’ employers
2. You learn about NSF payments in three to four days, as opposed to two to three weeks.
3. You won’t hear “the check’s in the mail” ever again.
4. Tenants can pay by credit card.
5. Your bookkeeping is much simpler.
The cost:
One-time, set-up fee $95
Cost per rent payment range from $3.00 each up to $5.00 each, depending on how many rent payments you collect.
A batch fee of $10 per month.
For more information call Gary Kodish at ECS Cards, 1-800-755-4327 ext 222 or visit their web site at www.ecscards.com/?rpr.
You can also go to Bill & Pay which provides the same service but with a waived setup fee for Rental Property Reporter readers.
Neither is a paid advertiser of the Rental Property Reporter. I have just brought this to your attention so you can see if it is a rent-collection program that will work for you.
If you are not already collecting rents electronically, you owe it to yourself to explore this system.
One Comment on “How to Get the Rent on Time Part 4”
Dorris
August 3, 2013 at 6:32 pm
Hello there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I
truly enjoy reading your posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that
go over the same topics? Thank you so much!