Investor · Provo, UT · Member since 2016 · 15 posts · 7 votes
Good afternoon! How many of you collect rents online and do tenants like it or seem bothered by having to set it up etc? I feel weird with tenants knowing our home address to mail checks. We are buying two new investments but our only investment right now is a SFH that prefers to do direct deposit. I would like to use Cozy or some other online place to collect rent. Thoughts? Thanks
@Rachel Shepherd Yes! I use cozy.co very actively and I love this program.
I evaluated 3 other online rent payment software before selecting cozy.co. Out of all my rental properties 60% of my tenants use cozy to pay. 10% pay with paypal. And 20% write post-dated checks and the 10%, I drive to collect rents, :( (They don't have checking accounts).
I write cozy.co payments into the lease. You're the landlord, so your tenants can abide by your rules.
One of my connections, @Jeff Gates says he has come across 49 other rent payment systems, so you may have other better insight beyond cozy.co
I am planning on using Cozy for my rent payments, applications, and leases. I don't expect to get 100% buy-in, so I am making it more attractive by increasing the monthly rent $10 for check or cash payments. Also, I believe that Cozy allows tenants to pay rent with a credit card. If your renters are savvy, they would pay with a credit card to get rewards points, and then pay off the credit card. Unless cozy charges for credit card transactions.
Unfortunately, Cozy does charge the tenant for debit/credit transactions and they are more than the rewards that can be earned. If the fees were ever reduces to less than the rewards, I'd pay myself rent to get the miles. ;-)
A couple years ago a tenant requested to pay me using Chase QuickPay, and I've used it with all of my tenants since. No one has had any issues with it, and it costs nothing. If your tenant has a Chase account, the transfer is almost instant. If they don't, it takes a few business days.
Another vote for Cozy, it makes life a lot easier for collecting payments but I have not used it accept applications. I'm not sure what their business model is because its great for a free service, my fear is that they will get us all hooked and then start charging fees.
I also have my tenants deposit directly into my account at any branch of my credit union. They can do this in person or by mail with the pre-printed deposit slips I give them with their lease/welcome packet. Several of them don't have a checking account, they find this to be very helpful and convenient. I also offer to help them set up an account of their own at my credit union, even going so far as to pay the $25 "fee" for them to have this account. (Credit unions don't typically charge a "fee", you just have to deposit this amount into an account and leave it there.) This way they can pay online by electronic transfer into my rent deposit account and there is no transfer fee charged. It's a small expense for me and a good way to start off our tenant/landlord relationship.
I agree with the PO box idea! That seems like a good idea, even if the majority pay online. Perhaps I am odd, but I would not be comfortable with any tenant knowing my location.
Good afternoon! How many of you collect rents online and do tenants like it or seem bothered by having to set it up etc? I feel weird with tenants knowing our home address to mail checks. We are buying two new investments but our only investment right now is a SFH that prefers to do direct deposit. I would like to use Cozy or some other online place to collect rent. Thoughts? Thanks
I use propertyware and through their online portal tenants pay their rent. For some its super convenient and others(less tech savvy) I have the option where they can go to the bank and deposit the rent.
Setting the online payment on their end is actually really easy for those that go that route.
The thread is old, but I want to add my thoughts. My lease requires payment via online bank transfer or such other electronic/ACH/EFT payment method as I may approve in writing. I strongly prefer Chase QuickPay and/or clearXchange (or, what I call Chase QP for non-Chase customers) because (1) tenant initiates payment and (2) I accept it. My (meanest, but) best tenant is not particularly sophisticated, but has rent scheduled as a recurring auto-payment, God bless her. The notice arrives in my inbox; I login and accept, and all is right with the world. Beyond the fact that the money transfers soon after I hit "accept," this two-step process virtually eliminates attempts at "partial rent payment." At another property, I recently inherited a tenant who opted to use RentShare, but found a workaround that let him pay only 2/3 of the rent (via credit card). The money went straight into my account. This was a problem on several levels, not least because Landlord acceptance of less than the full amount of rent can complicate matters should eviction become necessary. Arranging for RentShare to reverse the transaction was a nuisance for RentShare and for me, but I wasn't about to cut Mr. Workaround Tenant a check for a "refund" on a credit card bill not yet paid (nice try). Weird as it sounds, the only way to prevent him from sliding another partial-payment into my account was to (1) delete his RentShare account AND (2) change the RentShare Landlord username; RentShare is not constructed to thwart nitwits trying to game the system. In yet another property, however, my two tenants happily use RentShare to pay rent early.
Needless to say, issues with the troublesome tenant run beyond rent payment and gears are turning on that process. The point of my reply is meant to address online rent payment methods.