My husband and I are relatively new to being landlords. I am trying to find the most efficient way to send out a notice for Rent and collect it as well. Currently, I send out a formal text message 2 days prior to the rent being due and then my husband will pick it up personally. I am starting to think sending out a text message may not be the best, so I wanted to see how ya'll are going about this. Should we send out an invoice to the tenants with a due date and have an option for them to mail it, just want to get different takes on this.
All tenants know when rent is due, they do not need to be reminded and should not be reminded. You are not their parents. Additionally it is a tenants responsibility for tenants to insure their landlord receives their rent on time. It is not a landlords responsibility to "pick up" a tenants rent. You should never do that and you need to instruct your husband to stop the practice immediately.
Stop babying your tenants and start to develop professional business practices.
You can have them pay on line, send money orders or provide you with post dated checks. Never ever chase tenants for rent and be prepared to issue pay or quit notices the day after rent is due when not paid in full by midnight on the1st.
Rental Property Investor · Clarksville, TN · Member since 2017 · 73 posts · 99 votes
7y
We use Buildium up collect payment. Before using this software, we made tenants do direct deposit at our bank. Our bank has local branches that are open 7 days a week, so no excuses.
Attorney · Miami, FL · Member since 2017 · 108 posts · 113 votes
7y
No more chasing for me. No more reminders before the due date. Just a Late Notice with $30 late fee on the morning of the 6th. It really should be $40-$50.
As far as payment, I have 3 doing electronic bank to bank transfers. 2 send money orders. 3 go to the bank, 1 mails a check and 1 does Paypal. The ones that do money orders are going to soon transition. I am making them go to Bank Of America and deposit into the account. Both of my properties have a BOA within a 3 minute drive. Some were going to Amscot and buying money orders, so if they can wait in line at Amscot, they can wait in line at Bank of America.
@Kalyn Williams. I collect my rent in small coins (preferably pennies) and if they don’t have the rent I also accept livestock. Do you know how much a goat is worth these days??
Caleb, A goat is worth 87$ . Unless it has soft coat and a pretty mouth then it’s priceless . Atleast that’s what guys say who are from Cary , North Carolina
That means it’s gonna take like 10 goats just to pay the rent.
Ok! Now I'm upset! Only $87??? I was in NC a couple years ago and I stopped at a vape store (this really happened) and the Yemeni man at the cash register offered my husband 3 goats and several cows to marry me. I'm really offended now. lolololol
PS we use Buildium for online rent pay. It's great.
My wife really gets upset when tenants offer me "favours" in exchange for rent. I found it exhausting collecting rent that way and now send my manager to collect for me.
Rental Property Investor · Levittown, PA · Member since 2016 · 109 posts · 97 votes
7y
@Jeremy Torres you can send them a vemno payment request. Instead of selecting "pay" you do "request". You can also send reminders for payment requests that have not been paid
@Joe Sadusky doesn't they "payee" have the ability to cancel the payment? Have you had problems with rent being paid and then the tenant canceling the payment?
I would prefer a solid money transfer such as ACH that i don't believe can be cancelled until it clears the new bank?
Rental Property Investor · Levittown, PA · Member since 2016 · 109 posts · 97 votes
7y
@Patrick M. I haven't run into that problem and never heard of that happening.
If that were to happen, I have specific language in my lease agreement for payments not going thru. They would be charged a fee for the payment not clearing and then required to pay future payments by certified checks or automatic payments connected to their account.
Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2017 · 65 posts · 32 votes
7y
@Patrick M. - It's my understanding that even ACH can be reversed if the account holder reports the transaction as fraudulent so it's a similar risk.
I personally use a PO Box for mailed checks/Money orders (I have a couple tenants that don't trust online payments), and Cozy for ACH. I've found cozy support to be pretty responsive & they've built in the invoice generation & reminder emails which is nice. While I don't want to baby my tenants, but the reminders have helped so far with increasing the on time payment percentage each month.