collecting rent

Easiest way is to set up an account at a local bank, hopefully within a few miles from the property. Then give the tenants deposit slips. With on-line banking, you'll be able to see as soon as the deposits come in. You should have a separate account anyway, so you can pay all the expenses out of that same account.

Of course, make sure you're the only one authorized to make withdrawals on the account.

Been doing it this way for 10 years, never had a problem.

- Tom

Thanks for the post Tom,

So you are saying that my residents would go to a near by bank and deposit they're rent into my account and from there I can see when it was deposited by looking at my account online? I have deposited money into someones else's account before and the teller gave me a receipt that had the balance that was in that account, I would not want my residents seeing that... please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, once you set up your account on-line, you can see right as the deposits come in. Banks shouldn't display the balance on the receipt unless the person shows ID showing they are the owner of the account. But you can specify that as you set up the account just in case.

- Tom

you can use paypal (there is a fee) or credit cards (fee too). you can also set up ACH transactions between the 2 banks (fee). when you set up new leases, you can add those fees into the renter's payment. when trying to "sell" this idea to your current renters, be sure to talk about how it benefits them. they don't care how it benefits you, but if you can tell them how it benefits them, they might be very interested. some of the benefits might be: less time for them to mess with it; ease; timely so they don't have to worry about whether they paid it or not; etc. just some ideas. each renter might need different benefits. check out Jeffrey Taylor's book and his website at www.mrlandlord.com for more ideas. he's one of the best out there!!

Thank you Tom and Linda, you're knowledge is very helpful.

I am concerned that these solutions may be overwhelming to use or may get disorganized due to the fact that I manage about 1,000 units. I have been researching online rent payment systems, does anyone know anything about those? Or more importantly, has had experience with one?

Comments are greatly appreciated!

is through direct deposit (set up a separate account for each property) or there is this NEW thing called QuickPay. It is offered through Chase. Your tenant doesn't need a Chase account to use Chase Quickpay (or if you don't have Chase and they do it will also work and you don't need a Chase account), but all they need to pay you is your email address. That's it. They (and you) set up their info on Chase Quickpay, and then can send you money and the only information you need to give them is the email address you put on your bank account.(You may even be able to do it with noone being a Chase customer, I don't know about that though as I have a Chase account) LOVE IT!!!!! And its my new favorite way to collect rent!

But, it is limited to only $2000 per transaction; so on those rents that are higher, you will either need to accept 2 installments (or more depending upon your rent amount)on consecutive days, or go the other route and give them the account number. Then they can set up direct deposit (they'll need the routing # as well) or simply go into the bank and deposit directly into your account.

Oh, and all these methods are FREE!!!!

Both of these last 2 comments are wonderful! Thank you!

Jeremiah- do you mind sharing more details with me? Seeing that you situation seems very similar and I am interested in online payments. I've had many residents actually ask for this feature but I want to be sure it will be sufficient for managing my property. I currently have a software that I use to input and balance my funds. I dont want this online system to interfere with that.

Zion Properties- Your system sounds to be working great for you! I am concerned that it will be stressful to manage the amount of units I have, with many different bank accounts. I want to be able to easily see who has paid they're rent, who owes a late fee, who still has a balance with me and what not.

Love the advice! Thanks everyone

I clicked on this forum because it has discussions on how to increase cash flow, I also use www.PayRentChex.com to manage my properties. I am collecting more late fees than ever have. The system cuts out the personal relationship with the resident when it comes to trying to collect a late fee from them. It also sends out automatic emails before rent is due, when it is due and if it is late.

The Avenue- thank you for your response.

Do you think this system works well when dealing with a large amount of properties with different bank accounts?

I plan to give them a call next week.

You can also do it using only one account, especially the Chase quick pay. Multiple accounts is not required for them to deposit either, but its just a safety precaution. I too have a lot of rent coming in each month, and use only one account, but only because I was too lazy to open up multiple accounts.