Rent collection software?

Question

What programs or websites are good for collecting rent online from tenants? I'm looking for something cost effective that tenants can log into and pay through an online portal.

Nathan Miller · Answer

@Zachary Buschmann you'll get a wide variety of opinions up here because there are a lot of excellent programs available for online rent collection.

Here's some software options that you commonly see recommended on BiggerPockets.

The more mature platforms that are designed for landlords include Rentec Direct, Buildium, Appfolio, Propertyware, and Rent Manager. These platforms typically have billing policies where you pay a per unit fee per month to the software and you get regular updates and support each month.

There are a number of low-cost platforms available that are able to offer you a lower price by passing along some of the costs to your tenants (payment processing fees, applications, tenant screening, etc). These platforms include RentRedi, Stessa, Avail, Innago, Apartments.com (formerly Cozy), and TenantCloud.

I would recommend to never using p2p apps like Venmo. Incoming ACH payments is free via some of the solutions I mentioned, so there's no need to risk using a p2p payment app. If you are busted using those personal payment services for a business payment they will take 3% of your rent in processing fees. They can go back and do it retroactively as well and that's a huge expense. Also, by giving your tenant an open door to pay you any amount they wish by venmo etc it makes it possible that a tenant can pay you $1 which can stall an eviction and cost you months extra lost rents. Using true ACH platform through real property management software is going to give you the option to restrict payments to only the full rent amount or full balance. Plus added options like letting your tenants pay with cash at 711 or Walmarts..

Ron Brady · Answer

We use Rentler for our 7 properties and love it.

Roseann Koefoed · Answer

I'm an experienced Commercial RE property and Fund accountant. I chose Yardi Breeze for my personal portfolio of 80+ apartment units. Reason is that Yardi Voyager (Yardi's main product) is the industry standard when it comes to commercial RE accounting. They have thousands of programmers in India and have a solution built out for every problem.

Yardi Breeze is their dumbed down product for small-time landlords. Works perfectly for me, and I know the product will only get better because it's backed by Yardi's extensive market share and workforce.

If I decide to really grow my portfolio in the future and want to be able to write custom reports and automate CAM recs and those types of things, I can simply upgrade to Yardi Voyager and all my accounting history will stay.

I've also used and liked Appfolio in my professional career. But when I went to get a quote from them, they required a minimum of 50 units which I didn't have yet.

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Zachary Buschmann How many units do you have? If you don’t have that many you’re probably overthinking it. Venmo, Zelle,Facebook, or CashApp work very well in my opinion. I have 25 units and about 10 of them use electronic payment and the rest prefer checks. Try as I might I can’t get tenants over the age of 40 to pay online. It might be different if you live in the city. I have a P.O. Box and check it daily from the 28th through the 8th or until every rent is in.

I definitely wouldn’t be able to get my tenants to use a special website/portal to go to. I tried with my most tech savvy 22 year old tenants and they wouldn’t switch. So I know my older tenants wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

Rachid Abadli · Answer

For rent collection specifically: ACH is king — lowest fees, fastest deposits, most reliable. Most platforms offer it free or near-free. The things that actually matter for rent collection: (1) auto-pay enrollment — the higher your auto-pay rate, the fewer late payments, (2) automatic late fee assessment so you're not chasing manually, (3) payment confirmation/receipts for your records and theirs, (4) multiple payment methods — some tenants won't do ACH, so having card/Apple Pay as backup reduces friction. The platform matters less than getting 90%+ of tenants on auto-pay.

Katie Miller · Answer

+1 to everything @Nathan Miller said!! When you sign up for BiggerPockets Pro you can use Stessa and RentRedi to manage all your properties / collect payments etc. And it's free with Pro. Highly recommend!

Rent collection software?

Rent collection software?

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