{"id":189491,"date":"2026-09-28T12:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=189491"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:50:36","slug":"i-timed-every-hour-i-spent-chasing-rent-heres-what-automating-it-actually-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/i-timed-every-hour-i-spent-chasing-rent-heres-what-automating-it-actually-saved","title":{"rendered":"I Timed Every Hour I Spent Chasing Rent\u2014Here&#8217;s What Automating It Actually Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">One of my tenants has never paid on the first. He pays on the fourth, every month, for two years, and he&#8217;s never actually missed. So for three days each month, I wonder if this is the one he skips.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I like the guy, and that&#8217;s the problem: liking somebody turns a late fee from a lease term into a moral decision I get to make twelve times a year. I didn&#8217;t charge him one for 18 months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Eventually I got curious about what that was costing me. I went back through three months of texts, bank alerts, and my spreadsheet and added it up: four hours and 40 minutes a month.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Where the time actually went<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I expected the number to be high. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What surprised me was how little <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">of it<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> came from the tenant I&#8217;d have blamed <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">if you&#8217;d asked me<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> on the spot: he accounted for less than a fifth of it.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> I&#8217;d spent two years quietly resenting a guy who was, statistically, an ally.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Checking for deposits (1st\u20136th):<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> ~40 min. Not one sitting: six or seven separate checks, like refreshing a group chat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The day-four tenant: <\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">~55 min. The text, the wait, &#8220;sending tonight,&#8221; the follow-up, and the 20 minutes I spend drafting a firmer message before deleting it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Late-fee math and the decision: <\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">~30 min. What I&#8217;m legally allowed to charge, why this month is different, and talking myself into it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Reconciling what came in against what should have:<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> ~50 min.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Month-end spreadsheet cleanup:<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> ~45 min.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Did you get it?&#8221; receipt requests:<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> ~35 min.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Random stuff: <\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">a check to deposit, some loose ends: ~25 min.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">That&#8217;s 280 minutes, 56 hours a year, for three units. Some of you have 30. Maybe don&#8217;t run this exercise on a day you already feel behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The cost that doesn&#8217;t show up<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">None of that captures the real expense: rent week took up headspace whether I was doing anything <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">or not<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. I&#8217;d be on a call about an RV park acquisition and think, did the Willow Creek payment hit? That&#8217;s not a task, so it never made the 280 minutes. It was still the most expensive line item.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The fix<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I moved all three units onto Avail and turned on four things. It took one evening.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Autopay. <\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Tenants set rent to withdraw automatically on the due date. This solved my day-four guy: money was never his <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">problem;<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> he just needed rent to happen without remembering it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Automated reminders.<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Avail emails renters before rent is due, so the nudge doesn&#8217;t come from me. When it comes from software, nobody&#8217;s feelings are involved.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Automated late fees.<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Avail assesses the fee based on the settings you configure. No more deciding whether to be the bad guy this month. One caveat: software applying a fee doesn&#8217;t make the fee legal. That&#8217;s still your lease and your state.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">FastPay.<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Standard deposits land in three business days; FastPay moves eligible ACH payments in as soon as one. It&#8217;s on the Unlimited Plus plan ($9\/unit\/month when I wrote this, versus the free Unlimited plan), so check current pricing before you build cash flow assumptions on it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What it actually saved<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I&#8217;m at about 20 minutes a month now:\u00a0 opening the dashboard once to confirm everything posted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Twenty minutes against 280 is roughly 52 hours a year back. More than a full workweek, previously spent on the administrative act of receiving money I was already owed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The money side is smaller than the time side, and I won&#8217;t pretend automation made me rich. Two things changed: late fees get charged when they&#8217;re incurred, because software doesn&#8217;t have a relationship with the tenant. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">And deposit timing <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">got<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> predictable, which matters when a mortgage payment and an insurance draft <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">are landing<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> on their own schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Avail&#8217;s own data says landlords accepting automatic online payments are five times more likely to be paid on time than those collecting cash or checks. That&#8217;s their number, not an independent study. Three doors can&#8217;t prove a multiplier, but the direction matched.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There&#8217;s a side benefit for tenants too: Avail&#8217;s CreditBoost lets renters report on-time payments to TransUnion ($3.95\/reported month) to help build their credit score, giving them a reason to care about the due date beyond avoiding a late fee.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Your action items this week<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Connect your bank account first: everything else depends on it. Build the payment schedule for each unit, including recurring charges beyond base rent; anything you skip stays manual forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Then set the grace period and late fee to match your lease and state law, before you invite anyone. Correcting a late fee setting after a tenant&#8217;s already been charged under it is a conversation with no good version.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Invite tenants last, and ask them to turn on Autopay in the same message. Don&#8217;t make it a separate follow-up they&#8217;ll ignore. If someone insists on paying by check, you can record it manually so your rent report stays complete at tax time.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Nobody&#8217;s getting rich automating rent collection. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">You <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">just<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> stop burning 56 hours a year to receive money you were already owed.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> And get to spend that time somewhere it compounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Ready to stop chasing rent? <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Avail&#8217;s Unlimited plan is free to start<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">with<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> online rent collection, automated reminders, and automatic late fees <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">built in<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Create your account at <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/info.avail.com\/biggerpockets-september26blog?channel=sponsorship&amp;utm_source=biggerpockets&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=rentcollection&amp;utm_content=september26bp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Avail.com<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my tenants has never paid on the first. He pays on the fourth, every month, for two years, and he&#8217;s never actually missed. So for three days each [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613755,"featured_media":184086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landlording"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/613755"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}