I have a few tennants that are a hassle to get money out of.
They pay every month no questions asked if I show up twice a month the day after payday.
Mailing a check doesn’t seem standard in my area, and I have one tennant (inherited with a recent house purchase) that only pays cash.
My goal is to get away from collecting rent personally. I was happy to do this when I first started. But collecting money is now one I my biggest hassles.
My question is this:
Does anyone out there have experience with alternative methods of payment: eg, credit card, bank auto-pay, paypal etc?
My goal is to get to a hands-off management style without using a property manager.
I use a Chase bank deposit card. It is like a debit card but does not have a Visa logo on it. The tenant cannot withdraw, check balances or transfer funds. All they can do is deposit. It works with cash, checks or money orders. I give each tenant one and make the pin number the address. For example if the rent house is at 123456 Main street. His pin will be 1234. That way they don’t have to remember it.
That way no mater where he is he can pay his rent. If he is on a trip to Disney and realizes it is the first of the month all he has to do is find a Chase ATM and bam, I got my money. If you have people that won’t find you to pay you this won’t work. They have to get up and go to pay you. If they won’t go to the mail box they probably won’t go to the Chase ATM either. You may have another problem with motivation there.
Both my yearly and month to month leases include a $100 fee for personal collection of the rent as well as a $100 fee for late payment. I make sure the tenants are WELL aware of the clauses. If they object, I don’t want them as tenants. I want tenants that pay on time without any need from me other than deposit the check. However, I am looking into getting the tenant to directly deposit or mail the deposit to the bank.