Preferred method to collect rent?

Question

What is the preferred method to collect rent?  What program do you use? Is there an all in one app/program that tracks payments, expenses, and maintenance that makes it easier that is cheap or free?  Thanks.

Cameron Tope · Answer

Hey Brandon,

We use Buildium, but that's pretty expensive for just a property or two.

I would look at Cozy or RentRedi.

Ray Hurteau · Answer

We use RentRedi for self-managed properties.  Haven't tried Cozy but see many here recommending it.  For properties where we have a PM in place, they all use Buildium and we really like it.

Account Closed · Answer

We use an app called Okupied.  It's easy to use and perfect for a few properties.  We tried several others but they were too complex for what we needed.

Brandon Tedford · Answer

Thanks everyone.  I looked at many of the ones you all listed.  Zillow doesn't have a means to manage easily.  Cozy was bought out by Apartments.com.  They have a good program and it's free except for charging applicants for background check, application, credit check.  I think it was $24.99.  I decided to use Apartments even though I don't like the name.  Thanks!

Adam Martin · Answer

I use Zillow for advertising, applications, and collecting rent.  It is free to use and is free to the tenant if they use ach, 10 to use a debit card, and there is a % they can use a credit card if they need to and I ensure my late fee cost more than the cc fee to help encourage them to use it.  The major drawback though is it takes about 5 business days to receive the rent but on my loans I have a 15 day grace period so it always gets in before any late fees.  There are no other property management software offered through them for expenses though so that would be something you would have to find elsewhere but should be fairly easy to do on excel if you are small time and you can upgrade as you grow.

Jon L. · Answer

At Mynd Management, we use our own proprietary data to provide owners with the best market statistics for real estate investors in all of our 19 markets and offer all of our owners their own online rental collection platform.

Online rent collection not only makes receiving rent faster but it also prevents fraud.

If you're interested in learning more, I'm happy to help.

Thanks,

Ujwal Velagapudi · Answer

I simply had my business account with Chase, and let tenants make payments either in person at a location or digitally. They would write their name and address with unit number on the deposit slip or transfer memos so I could record it. This was free and did the job. I've heard Cozy as being a popular one but have never used it for collection. As for the other items, I think you'll need more of an all in one property management platform.

I think the basic rent, expenses could be done using a spreadsheet, maybe Quickbooks Online to import from the bank account.

Preferred method to collect rent?

Most Popular Reply