Of Rents, Late Fees & Errant Tenants
As a property manager or landlord, you deal with countless renters every month. Collecting rents, issuing late fees, moving in new tenants and sometimes even instituting eviction proceedings. Hopefully the latter doesn’t occur too often, but as any experienced property manager knows collecting rents and leveling late fees is a common, extremely time-consuming occurrence. And as is true in any business, time is money. By spending your time keeping track of the rent payments and late fees of numerous units and even numerous properties, you’re losing money every day and wasting time not focusing on more profitable ventures. Establishing an online rent payment system for your tenants may help you save your valuable time and cut down on stressful situations.
The Internet changes almost daily and with it so does the way it affects our lives. As computers, tablets and smart phones become more accessible to more people, the world becomes more Internet savvy. More and more people are comfortable buying products online, making travel reservations and even paying bills such as utilities and insurance policies online. So it makes sense that a great many people would also be comfortable and perhaps even prefer paying their rent online.
Online rent payment systems benefit both the landlord and the tenants. For tenants, they enjoy the ease and convenience of being able to pay their rent from any desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile device 24/7. What’s more, if they preschedule their rent payment to be deducted from the bank account every month, they may never have to think about their rent payment again. For the property manager or landlord, the benefit is more timely rent payments and immediate access to those funds. Additionally, since any online rent collection system must be administrated by a financial institution, property owners and managers enjoy additional accounting services from the selected bank by being able to check their balance at any time and find out who sent what funds.
If you choose to create an online rent payment services be aware that you should create a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate website where your tenants can make their online payments. If your tenants have difficulty figuring out how to use your website, your effort to collect rent online is destined to fail. Also, be sure to use a top-flight web developer to ensure that your site is secure from hackers.
Another important point is who will absorb the bank transaction fee. If the tenant is to pay it, renting from your may be off-putting. If the landlord foots the bill, the fees eat into his profits.
The issue of whether to accept credit cards for rent payments is yet another issue to consider. When you accept a credit card you can expect an immediate credit to your account, however not without a fee. The financial institution that administrates your online payment account will charge a percentage of ever payment as a fee for their services.
