Cash Tenant, No E-mail (Crazy...)! Rent payment options help!
Rental Property Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2017 · 60 posts · 29 votes
I just acquired a 4-plex today. I currently have 18 units, and will have another 4 here within the month. As crazy as it might seem to many, I self manage from out of state. I have a reliable maintenance team and listing agent, and historically handle leases and rental payments electronically. This post is not about that, so please no comments on my decision to self manage.
However, one of my tenants does not have an e-mail or a bank account. I inherited this tenant...not my first choice. The prior landlord allowed cash payments, and he never missed a single payment in over a year. I do not allow cash payments. Being out of state, it doesn't work with my business model.
The options I have considered:
Does anyone have any suggestions of what works for them? Thank you very much for your help!!!
Your account number really isn't that big of a security concern.... If you've ever written a check, your acct number was there for all to see.
But like said, chase and other banks are starting to cut back on letting anyone put cash into an account.
Depending how your set up, this could work? Doubt it'd work for 1 person though...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/108305-using-paynearme-for-rent
Thanks to all who have posted. After having some discussion with the tenant, he has not only created an e-mail account, but will be using Cozy. He even executed a rental application (as the prior landlord did a horrible job of retaining tenant information) via DocuSign! For someone who didn't have an e-mail a week ago, and is now filling out rental applications via DocuSign, I'm pretty impressed. People are afraid of technology, but it can truly simplify everyone's life if people are willing to try it. It's amazing what you can get done when you explain that you are not trying to inconvenience the tenant, but this is the way you have chosen to effectively manage your business. By offering to help him with any questions along the way, I think the tenant has surprised himself with how easy it really is to use these mobile applications.
@Alan Grobmeier - Thank you very much! In my professional life, I have always been the guy tasked with making processes more efficient, and was regularly moved into new jobs to help make that area of the business more optimized. As such, I try to focus of the processes and systems. I find that by being diligent with the processes, it is fairly simple.
My favorite tools are as follows:
I suppose my point is that the technology that is available is so easy to use, and can make running a business so efficient. If you are consistent in the way you use these tools, you can become hyper efficient. I have literally executed a new lease agreement, and set someone up for automatic payments on cozy while waiting for a waiter to bring my lunch.
@Manolo D. , I don't know where you bank at but I use Chase and it works for me so I don't know why your bank doesn't allow using that method for a deposit. It's money going in. Now if it's money going out, it's a totally different story :-)
So how do you use Venmo/Paypal WITHOUT bank account and utilizing only CASH? That is what the OP asked.
@Jesse Moran is correct, business account can accept cash deposits.
@Alex Huynh They don't anymore. At least BoA doesnt.
@Steve GravesWhen you don't give them the last 4, they won't accept it, plus, on the deposit slip, it will show the last 4, so no point.
Wells Fargo told us that our business account will not be able to accept cash deposits starting prior to June 1 (do not remember exact start date of new policy but it was before our next rents were due) from people who do not have a Wells Fargo account. Not sure if other banks will be setting the same policy.
@Dan H. I'd remove all my business from that bank if they pulled that on me. I never opened a chase account for the very same reason. I mean, come on, me adding a tenant just for them to deposit? That's a joke. Maybe in the near future, they will also stop accepting checks to personal accounts too. who knows..
@Manolo D. , I don't know where you bank at but I use Chase and it works for me so I don't know why your bank doesn't allow using that method for a deposit. It's money going in. Now if it's money going out, it's a totally different story :-)
I'm with BoA mostly, so let's say you have a 1234567890 bank account number, so you give 123456xxxx then they make a deposit, the deposit will say xxxxxx7890, so in essence, there's no point in not giving them all the account numbers. :)