Contacting tenants before late charges kick in?

Question

Our rent is due on the 1st and we offer a 3 day grace period. After 3 days a $25 late fee is applied and $10/day after that.

We recently switched off our property manager and we are managing all 32 properties in house. Since then, I have been emailing any tenants that have not paid by the 3rd just giving them a friendly reminder that rent is due or a late fee will be applied.

My question - Is this too proactive? Its only 2-4 tenants a month I need to drop a message to. I know my old PM would never do this probably because the property manager got to keep the late fees so they didnt mind them paying late. I like to keep good communication with my tenants but is this necessary?

Should I be more robotic and let the management software do its work?

Karl B. · Answer

Hi. I'll inquire if a tenant who usually pays on time is late. At that time I'll nicely tell them all tenants get one free late payment pass and this was theirs. They're usually gracious I'm not going to make them pay the late rent fee and you can believe the next months payment is sent early.

Chronically late tenants... you'll get tired of reminding them - but once the rent is late with those tenants I'll text them asking when the $ (rent amount with the late fee added in) will be sent to me.

Adam Craig · Answer

Thanks Karl - this is pretty much the route I take. My previous PM would let 10 days go by without contacting them. The opposite of proactive but it took me 5 years to learn NO property manager is going to give my tenants the same attention that I do - naturally so I guess...