Just curious, what type of ways to you collect your rent?

Currently I own two homes (Primary Residence, One Rental). I have my renters deposit the monthly rent into my bank, they just tell the teller my name and they do this every month. I have it setup this way because I am in the Military and its easier for both us as I am in another state. I would love to do automatic draft from the tenant into a business account, but have not crossed that bridge yet.

With technology the way it is now with online banking etc. just curious as to how you have it setup or how you plan on changing to make it easier.

Thoughts?

same way as you do. We give tenants deposit slips.

also have some tenants that snail mail rent. 

My husband is also active dity military we have 5 rentals. All except 1 are on direct deposit from bank account to bank account. The other is allotman. You might want to think about direct deposit when you increase you housing numbers. There have been two times where my tenant has gone in to deposit a fee and both times it was deposited into the wrong account.

@James Wise  

Does your deposit slips have your account and routing number on them? That scares me after dealing with some pro (negative) tenants in the past.

Just curious I would love for mine to drop it in my account but it's too many online ways to pay or charge things just using your account information.

Originally posted by @Timothy Riley:

@James Wise 

Does your deposit slips have your account and routing number on them? That scares me after dealing with some pro (negative) tenants in the past.

Just curious I would love for mine to drop it in my account but it's too many online ways to pay or charge things just using your account information.

 Yes it has routing & account # on it. (As does every check you have ever written.)

Another protection feature is we use many accounts. A different account per couple houses. 

Deposits come into that account and shortly thereafter they are transferred over to the operating account.

LOL thanks @James Wise  with that said I avoid writing checks as much as possible and when I do it's usually to my utility company and attorney. I deal with lower income tenants and the best I can do @Chance Cooper   outside of collecting it in person is pay-near-me. I have one tenant who allows me to swipe their debit card on my phone using SQUARE. I'm looking into Chase now because ive heard they have other options that can be used to collect rent.

See everyone has different ways of doing this, thats why I threw it out there. I am glad I did now, at first I kinda thought it was a dumb question. I like the direct deposit draft every month. As I start buying more properties this will def be something that I will want to incorporate some sort of a system with...

From what I understand, if you have an eviction on process on someone for not paying rent, and then they make a partial or full payment, you have to start the eviction process over. For that reason, I only accept rent payments in a way where I can verify I have all monies due before the deposit is made. I have people snail mail payments in, give me post-dated checks written in advance (very popular), and I have offered to do one of the rent payment websites that allows you to reject or accept the payment; no one has opted for that yet.

I get my rent 2 ways- snail mail sent to a PO box and through Intuit Payment Network.  I prefer the latter since it means I don't have to go to the post office, and though I can deposit checks from my phone there is a daily limit and I have to take money orders to the bank anyways.  Not a big deal, but it is nice to have the money just appear in my account, and these payments never bounce.  The tenants that use that service like it.  There are two drawbacks though- $.50 charge to me per transaction and it takes a couple days to be deposited from when they send the money.

I started using erentpayments.com for one tenant.  There are a variety of options regarding auto pay and tenant initiated payment via ACH.  Each transaction costs $3.  You can opt to cover the payment or have the tenant pay the transaction fee.  Late fees can be applied in a flexible manner as well.

Some tenants mail a check, some like to drop it off in person [at our store] and one uses his bank's online banking system to pay all his bills, but his bank and our bank don't play well together, so his bank issues a check and mails it for him.

Hi Chance. I just posted this tip today.

Hi all,

I wanted to share a process that I just started using to automate my rent receivables. Chase bank offers a service called QuickPay, free to its customers. QuickPay is a process that you and your tenant can use to send and receive rent (as well as other) payments. It's easy to set up as long as you both have a checking account. A complete explanation of the service is described here:

https://www.chase.com/online-banking/quickpay

In a nutshell, both the tenant and property owner set up a Quickpay account. When the rent is due, the tenant requests payment to be sent to the property owner. The property owner receives an email or text notifying that payment was sent. Then they simply accept payment into their account. If both sender and receiver have Chase checking accounts, funds are available to the receiver that day.

Happy investing!

Mike

I provide  Business checking deposit slip..yes, it has the acct and routing number, but so far no problem...the property address is also there(handwritten)...I can pull up the acct from anywhere and review rent deposits..Most vary like 750, 650, 680...so I can trace quickly...No cost and most deposit cash!

funny story...when I first started in 2005, a tenant had me running all over town to collect rent..crazy idea, newbie highlighted across my forehead!

@Chance Cooper  , started out having them mail a check for first 10, then decided to set up new ones to go to bank and deposit directly into one of our bank acts. I like it better now that we have them just make a deposit on or before the first. No more excuses, the check is in the mail. it's either deposited on the first or it's not. Rents get collected faster that way.

Happy investing!

William paid. com

It's been a while since I've been through Raeford. Is the rental there or somewhere else? Since no one else from NC chimed in, I'd say one option not yet discussed is to use a Deposit Only Card that your tenant can use. If your rental is close to a Chase or Wells Fargo (and I'm sure there are other banks) then use their Deposit card. Intrabank (depending on location of rental) payments are a good option as well.

Regarding "Yes it has routing & account # on it. (As does every check you have ever written.)" The question is: how often do you write checks to your tenant? Other than their trust account... never. Why anyone would want to purposefully give their tenant access to their operating account information is beyond me. Likewise, why a tenant would give a landlord their primary checking account number is beyond me. This is 2014. There is no reason to have multiple accounts, created with the sole purpose to act as a "firewall" for your operating account.... unless... you don't mind paying for and administering it and that's what you want to do.

BTW, it's "direct debit" not "direct deposit". If you go to the bank trying to get direct deposit for your tenant, they will ask questions like 'how long have you employed your tenant?' and 'how much should we pay your tenant each week?'

Also, partial payment issues in the context of summary ejectment (eviction) are no longer an issue in NC. The new standard lease forms have recent state law changes incorporated into the new lease text.