One of the most fundamental aspects of being a landlord is collecting rent on time. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a well-run rent collection system, it can be a hectic and frustrating process. Most landlords believe that it is the responsibility of tenants to deliver rent whenever its due and the only option they have if it’s not paid is to evict the tenants. Although you may be depending on your tenant screening process when choosing tenants who can pay rent on time, there are other ways you can use to encourage your tenants to pay rent in a timely manner.
5 Methods For Collecting Rent
As a property owner, you are allowed by the law to decide the best property management options to use. One personal choice you also have is deciding how rent will be collected. This means you can choose one or multiple methods of rental payment.
Online
One way rent can be paid is online. There are several online property management and rent payment services available for landlords. You can conduct a search on some of the online rental collection services and choose one that suits your needs. The prices will differ depending on the plan you choose. Some of these property management sites have simple rent collection methods as the only service they offer while other sites have many bells and whistles including the ability to upload important documents for your tenants, online rent-roll and the ability to send messages to tenants. Online sites are a good way of rent payment since you will not be required to give your banking information to the tenants. If your primary method of rent payment is online, you should allow for another form of rent payment for tenants who may not have online access.
In Person
You can also choose to collect rent from your tenants in person. The main advantage of this form of rent collection is that you will have the money in your hands immediately. However, the negative side is that it is time-consuming because you may not be able to coordinate the rent pick-up time with all your tenants. Plus, do you really want to be driving around whenever the tenant decides it is convenient for them?
Mail
This rent collection method will save you the time and frustration of collecting rent yourself. However, there are some issues with this method of collection. For instance, the envelope may have the postmark of the rent deadline date, but you will receive the payment several days later. This means that the tenant was not late to send the rent, but you didn’t receive it on time. Additionally, if the tenant partially pays the rent by sending it via the mail, this will buy them a few more days before you find out.
If you allow this mode of payment will also allow the main excuse by many tenants that the check they sent might have got lost in the mail. To ensure that they don’t use this excuse on you, ensure that they get a certificate of posting from the post office. The certificate will cost them a little over a dollar, and it will serve as proof that the tenant sent the mail and the date it was sent. However, the certificate will not state the amount the tenant sent.
Drop-off Location
In case you have an office for your property business management, you can allow tenants to drop the rent at this location. This is most appropriate if you have a business location that is open set hours where the tenant can depend upon it. I would not advise that you have tenants just stopping by your house to drop of rent.
Property Management Company
One further option is that you can opt to outsource all your rent collection tasks to a third-party by hiring a property management company. The company will collect rent for you, deal with any complaints from your tenants, fill vacancies, screen tenants for you and handle all the maintenance issues. Rental Management Guys works is a Minneapolis property management company and would be happy to speak to you about how we can help improve your rent collection. Call us today.
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