Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
A tenant has suggested we use the services ZELLE or Venmo to collect rents. Currently we use snail mail to our P.O. box to collect rent checks. Is anyone familiar with these services, and can you tell me how they work? If these two services are not recommended what do you prefer? I don't want to pay a fee, and I don't want my tenant to know my account numbers. Thank you for all help offered.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
I would never use PayPal. Too many horror stories (including 2 or three of mine personally)
Venmo seems to be popular here. Both you and your tenant need to sign up for Venmo and link your checking/savings account. They (or anyone) can pay you and you can request money. It’s pretty much instant. Jonathan Orana has an interesting point - I’ve never read or checked.
I use Cozy. Easy and free. And focused towards tenant/landlord. The only downside is a 5-6 day delay from tenant deposit to deposit into your account.
Rental Property Investor · Lubbock, TX · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 2 votes
8y
@Jonathan Dickerson
Thanks for the clarification on Venmo business use! ...That's a relief!. We have been using Venmo on 13 SFR doors for the last 5 months and love it! We have a mix of college and family tenants and have noticed payments are more timely (not to mention eliminating driving around to rentals hoping to catch late payers home!) and no one has pushed back on our request to use Venmo for all payment transactions. It's fast and leaves a good trail if you need to go back and check history.
Rental Property Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 507 posts · 171 votes
8y
Has anyone used RentRedi's pay platform? I have a 1 of my two tenants moving out and I'd like to start transitioning to an actual portal or something similar instead of them transfer via ETF.
Investor · miami, FL · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 7 votes
8y
@Jeff Gates: Thank you for sharing this article with us. I didn't know that, "Zelle only considers transactions fraudulent if the customer did not authorize them. When a customer knowingly sends money to someone, the bank offers no protection against rip-offs." This is great information to keep in mind when utilizating these convient technology platform.
Investor · Rehoboth, MA · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 6 votes
8y
I'm in New England and my son, a twenty something, pays for his college room rent to a landlord on Venmo, this is what made me search for this article. interesting reading for sure. He says there is a 3 day delay on the funds.
I'm looking for options for my MF deal I'm working. I read about cozy too.
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
@Peter J Turner I have made Zelle available to some tenants. One uses it every month, and it works great. Another tenant said she could not get it to work. She had people from Zelle and her bank trying to coach her, but she did not get it.
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
@Peter J Turner The remaining tenants just send their checks to my PO box. I will soon send a letter to all tenants to give them the option of using Zelle.
Real Estate Investor · Fenton, MI · Member since 2008 · 946 posts · 153 votes
8y
After a discussion with other landlords I have discovered a potential problem with Zelle. What happens when you are actively trying to evict an uncooperative tenant? Let’s say the tenant is intentionally or carelessly damaging your property, or he has acquired a pet in violation of your lease, etc. If you go to court after filing your state’s required eviction paperwork, and the first of the month comes up there is no way to refuse your tenant’s payment. So the tenant can keep paying you, and the judge will say that since you have “accepted” the rent payment your case of eviction is dismissed. Sure you don’t want to take the payment, but Zelle is going to put it there anyway.
When I contacted Zelle about this they said I would have to “contact the sender.” Well the sender is my uncooperative tenant, so that won’t help me. The Zelle employee then suggested I contact my bank to see if they could somehow refuse to accept my payment from the uncooperative tenant. I will call my bank Monday to see if they can do this.
For me this is strictly a hypothetical problem now, but I could see this becoming an issue based upon my years of experience as a landlord. Once you enroll in Zelle it will be up to your bank to help you out from what I have learned.
Rental Property Investor · Dallas TX & Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2015 · 2 posts · 0 votes
8y
Mark Forest, that is a really good point.
I wonder if since Venmo is an intermediary, then it wouldn’t qualify as long as you don’t transfer out of Venmo to your bank. Technically at that point you haven’t “accepted” the payment I guess? You could send the payment back to the tenant and then block him from sending further transactions to you.
But that’s definitely a good point. Especially if someone submits a partial payment to you and we all know the risks with that. Very interesting point...
Brooklyn NY · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 3 votes
8y
As a small business owner I have taken certain transactions from clients on Venmo for years. It works seamlessly and you can either deposit that money directly into your account or leave it in Venmo as kind of an online bank to pay for other things. I know in particular they have partnered with Seamless food delivery and maybe even airbnb. You do NOT "share" account numbers with people on Venmo as I saw mentioned. However you can request money from anyone by their name or phone number (an amazing feature to remind someone to pay you). I would love it if I could pay my rent with venmo but my retail landlord is literally the only bill I have to go to the post office for. Sigh.
Skip paypal for anything and everything. I had major fraud on my paypal account and it took months for them to handle it and return thousands of dollars to me. No thanks.
What is this free PayPal account you speak of? My business PayPal account charges me 2.9% plus .30 per transaction. Or I should say "charged" me 2.9% plus .30 per transaction. I no longer use it for that reason!
Investor · Waco TX / Conroe, TX · Member since 2017 · 376 posts · 228 votes
8y
I feel Venmo is more of a informal way for people to move money around and Zelle is more appropriate for business uses. There are also a couple differences in how they operate. For Venmo you can only send money to other people who have the app, and some banks don't let you open an account with them. However Zelle gives you more freedom with being able to send money to anyone that you have a phone number or email for.
Dwolla is a good option too! They charge $5, but it's worth it. They have much better reporting for bookkeeping purposes than the aforementioned options.
Thanks for another recommendation aside from Venmo and Zelle. I'll have to check it out!
Investor · Shawnee Mission, KS · Member since 2015 · 423 posts · 114 votes
8y
Sure, Zelle is used by all major banks and transactions are FINAL!!! this is the key! Almost all other payment systems could cancel the transaction, but Zelle is final, at least my banker promised this :))) and your bank account is not exposed to the tenant. We used to collect checks in PO Box as well, but at some point turned all the transactions to effortless. Some people use our deposit coupons and deposit the rent in the bank, some use their own online payment tools, some use Zelle, Cozy, ClearNow. We do not care as long as payment gets to our bank account :)))
Real Estate Investor · Takoma Park, MD · Member since 2011 · 74 posts · 38 votes
7y
my tenants pushed and pushed until finally I got Venmo. I’ve never looked back and I use it across all my local properties now. I have a property manager for my properties in Atlanta, and I just et the direct deposit. I will ask him if they are thinking of switching to something like Venmo or Zelle....
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2013 · 12 posts · 2 votes
7y
I wanted to echo @Mark Forest's comments as a word of caution on using venmo and similar payment systems to collect rent.
I haven't personally experienced this scenario but it does seem that they put too much control in the tenant's hands and could be problematic in an eviction situation where partial rent is unintentionally accepted.
Real Estate Agent · Carlsbad, CA · Member since 2017 · 53 posts · 68 votes
7y
We switched to Zelle in August 2018. Renters like it! The only downside I have noticed is there is a max amount for the renter to send in a single transaction. I don't know the exact amount that Zelle max's out for a single transaction but we have had to split the amount for 2 transactions every month. The rent due is $1900, the tenants usually pay the first transaction for $1250 and the second payment is the difference (no time delay) for $650. Both payments are made right after the other in the same day. Ideally we would like all of this to be in one single transaction. If anyone has any insight to this, your input is appreciated.
We switched to Zelle in August 2018. Renters like it! The only downside I have noticed is there is a max amount for the renter to send in a single transaction. I don't know the exact amount that Zelle max's out for a single transaction but we have had to split the amount for 2 transactions every month. The rent due is $1900, the tenants usually pay the first transaction for $1250 and the second payment is the difference (no time delay) for $650. Both payments are made right after the other in the same day. Ideally we would like all of this to be in one single transaction. If anyone has any insight to this, your input is appreciated.
I believe the limit is coming from the bank in which is utilizing Zelle, not Zelle itself.
That would make sense, they posted most recent payment and it was split $1400 as the first transaction. Not sure if contacting either bank could help adjust this limit then. Or maybe having the renters ask their bank to adjust their limit.
After a discussion with other landlords I have discovered a potential problem with Zelle. What happens when you are actively trying to evict an uncooperative tenant? Let’s say the tenant is intentionally or carelessly damaging your property, or he has acquired a pet in violation of your lease, etc. If you go to court after filing your state’s required eviction paperwork, and the first of the month comes up there is no way to refuse your tenant’s payment. So the tenant can keep paying you, and the judge will say that since you have “accepted” the rent payment your case of eviction is dismissed. Sure you don’t want to take the payment, but Zelle is going to put it there anyway.
When I contacted Zelle about this they said I would have to “contact the sender.” Well the sender is my uncooperative tenant, so that won’t help me. The Zelle employee then suggested I contact my bank to see if they could somehow refuse to accept my payment from the uncooperative tenant. I will call my bank Monday to see if they can do this.
For me this is strictly a hypothetical problem now, but I could see this becoming an issue based upon my years of experience as a landlord. Once you enroll in Zelle it will be up to your bank to help you out from what I have learned.
Do you know if Cozy, Venmo or Zillow will allow you too 1 accept only the full rent amount that is due and 2 not accept rent if there are such issues as listed above?
What is this free PayPal account you speak of? My business PayPal account charges me 2.9% plus .30 per transaction. Or I should say "charged" me 2.9% plus .30 per transaction. I no longer use it for that reason!
After a discussion with other landlords I have discovered a potential problem with Zelle. What happens when you are actively trying to evict an uncooperative tenant? Let’s say the tenant is intentionally or carelessly damaging your property, or he has acquired a pet in violation of your lease, etc. If you go to court after filing your state’s required eviction paperwork, and the first of the month comes up there is no way to refuse your tenant’s payment. So the tenant can keep paying you, and the judge will say that since you have “accepted” the rent payment your case of eviction is dismissed. Sure you don’t want to take the payment, but Zelle is going to put it there anyway.
When I contacted Zelle about this they said I would have to “contact the sender.” Well the sender is my uncooperative tenant, so that won’t help me. The Zelle employee then suggested I contact my bank to see if they could somehow refuse to accept my payment from the uncooperative tenant. I will call my bank Monday to see if they can do this.
For me this is strictly a hypothetical problem now, but I could see this becoming an issue based upon my years of experience as a landlord. Once you enroll in Zelle it will be up to your bank to help you out from what I have learned.
This is something I've never considered. I have only ever taken checks from my tenants but this is a really good point that I'm going to need to consider a bit more before I go this route. Thank you. I have searched for potential problems with accepting rent via these services and haven't yet found one compelling enough to "scare" me until this post. Food-for-thought, for sure.