Hi BP Community,
I am about to place my first tenant and I used the $1 trial with RentRedi, so I went through their application process, which was relatively easy, streamlined, and I did like it. However, now that I am placing my first tenant, and the tenant will be paying through the app, I am just a little weary on their payment processing system called Digitzs, seems like a small company and it will take 4-5 days for my payments to clear into my bank account.
I am trying to take the feedback from the podcast of setting up systems early so that as I grow I can continue to scale easily but I am tempted to just accept venmo/checks from my tenant.
Not sure if this will change anyone's opinions but the tenant is also section 8, so a good chunk of the rent will come from the government directly into my account.
Thanks for the help and feedback!
I use RentRedi on 60+ units. I signed up about 7 months ago on the premise of being able to accept online payments. I do appreciate that I have been able to have direct conversations with Ed Barone (one of the founder/owner types over there) to discuss my issues. He does not disagree with many of my complaints. I would say I'm hanging in there and "suffer" with it. Practically every component they offer requires a workaround, so I've made it work for me as a path of least resistance for the time being. I force it to work well enough for me.
• First, one positive thing. The accounts were set up and attached to my bank accounts very quickly for immediate use. That was good. I have three properties operating independently of each other. And hence three bank accounts attached to RentRedi.
The biggest of the issues are as follows:
• Up until about 2 months ago, the collections from tenant bank account was a complete joke, as the system wasn't logging into tenant accounts to verify bank balances. So really it was no different then receiving a check that could bounce or presented with completely bogus or typoed account numbers and such than getting the same typed into the app by a tenant. I had several instances where the cycle of receiving a payment only to find out later it was a Non Sufficient Funds payment was taking 10 days to cycle back. Meanwhile on their site, the Digitsz site and my bank accounts looked normal and play along with payment, until it caught up with itself and it bounces and the money gets pulled back. This has since been improved as they added the "Plaid" overlay to their system. But it was totally frustrating for the first 4 months on their system, and actually slower than a mailed in rent payment check. 10 days for a full circle situation. As I pointed out to RentRedi, 10 day is how long the Pony Express delivered mail. But that was in the 1800's. And by horseback.
• The ability to get paid quicker is dependent on a history of good collections and all of these situations related to lousy integration and tenant error, actually count AGAINST THE OWNER in some kind of reputation with the processor. So if you request faster transactions that they allow after some history, you might not have the reputation to support it based on poor integration. Totally ridiculous. As if I just popped out of the sky from nowhere ready to build "my first business reputation." Meanwhile I can get all kinds of business done with my 20 year business history anywhere else.
• Their third party provider of processing (Digitsz) is antiquated and super clunky. Furthermore the interface for this isn't integrated well into the RentRedi and is not front and center. Instead you have to dig into a setup menu, and then you get further ported to a third party (Digitsz) site, which I've decided was either designed to be read by residents of another planet or some adaptation for some undefined learning disability that is really unusual. It's horrible.
• RentRedi runs uses the "Intercom" interface support service that presents like a live chat for their support, but the live-ness of it debatable. They have a lot of hand waving emojis programmed in to emoji you to death. While you are instead trying to get serious solutions to serious problems instead of trying to smooth everything over with cute emojis. Please make it stop. There is rarely a customer service loop that feels like closure. The front line people can only handle softball issues, and the bigger issues that go into a black hole they refer to as the "Dev Team." Then with some kinds of programmed precision they circle back with an automated follow up nudge like clockwork. While meanwhile no progress has been made on the original issue and it circles into an infuriating feedback loop. It is very good way to train customers not to bother to use the chat system. Also there is no real continuity, because it you are presented with a specific human face and a clutter of emojis. But one person doesn't really seem to follow your case to the finish line. It just goes into a big bucket. Insert hand waving emoji here.
• The system is app based for tenants and there is an assumption that everyone, is a millennial and will handle this fine. Which is not true. I have a fairy low acceptance ratio for the app. Maybe 25 percent tops? Which is fine because even with the Plaid overly, receiving checks is still faster and more accurate than app payments. But also, I can't be criticized for not having some kind of online payment option. I'd say that 2/3 of the tenants that have stuck with the app, had a really hard time with it and got confused by it at the beginning and lose interest in it. Certain things are not obvious to them. For example, its very vague if the app will accept partial payments (you can set account to accept partials or not). Tenants are presented more months than needed. I can assure you that my tenants are ONLY interested in seeing the current month due. Instead they are presented with every current and future month, based on a lease you can set up, which is totally arbitrary anyway. So then they get confused and start paying the wrong months or accidentally pay two months, and all kinds of other havoc. It's happened a bunch of times. Then they abandon the app, which is fine because at the end of the day, checks are still faster and more accurate.
• Their on-boarding form letter email is written poorly and emphasizes the wrong things. The number one question my tenants have is "what is this going to cost me" and that is not covered in the email. The writing voice changes in the email. At points it sounds like it is "me" and at points it sounds like a third party referring to the landlord. I requested the form letter to be editable, as they already have it queued up in a formatting page, but there is no ability to actually re-write it. So.... I use instead another time consuming workaround.
• They use the logged in section of the owner web interface to continue to market to you and tell you how much you have saved using their service and how many landlords across the planet are looking at their site and signing up right now. BACK OFF. I'm already a customer. What I'd really like to do is put up a banner on how many hours I have wasted creating workarounds to the system.
• In general, the data and banners and limited forms have about as much insight to rental management that a 13 year old would get on "bring your nephew to work day." All of it is really off and only tolerable with workarounds.
• There is no real way to make super basic and functional reports, that are typical of multi-family. They are all goofy and lacking and need workarounds to have any use.
• They keep bolting things on to find other ways to monetize. And while I respect that need, I'd have a lot more confidence in bolted on services, if the stuff I signed up for worked better. Also I shouldn't have to click away or be bombarded with promotions for "Latchel," (a maintenance coordination service they are trying to monetize), EVERY TIME, I go to log or use the maintenance section of the web site that I already pay for.
There's more. But I've been brutal enough.
Mike
@Brendon Kerrigan if it's any help, you can request faster funding, especially once you have a few months of successful payments to show
I use RentRedi on 60+ units. I signed up about 7 months ago on the premise of being able to accept online payments. I do appreciate that I have been able to have direct conversations with Ed Barone (one of the founder/owner types over there) to discuss my issues. He does not disagree with many of my complaints. I would say I'm hanging in there and "suffer" with it. Practically every component they offer requires a workaround, so I've made it work for me as a path of least resistance for the time being. I force it to work well enough for me.
• First, one positive thing. The accounts were set up and attached to my bank accounts very quickly for immediate use. That was good. I have three properties operating independently of each other. And hence three bank accounts attached to RentRedi.
The biggest of the issues are as follows:
• Up until about 2 months ago, the collections from tenant bank account was a complete joke, as the system wasn't logging into tenant accounts to verify bank balances. So really it was no different then receiving a check that could bounce or presented with completely bogus or typoed account numbers and such than getting the same typed into the app by a tenant. I had several instances where the cycle of receiving a payment only to find out later it was a Non Sufficient Funds payment was taking 10 days to cycle back. Meanwhile on their site, the Digitsz site and my bank accounts looked normal and play along with payment, until it caught up with itself and it bounces and the money gets pulled back. This has since been improved as they added the "Plaid" overlay to their system. But it was totally frustrating for the first 4 months on their system, and actually slower than a mailed in rent payment check. 10 days for a full circle situation. As I pointed out to RentRedi, 10 day is how long the Pony Express delivered mail. But that was in the 1800's. And by horseback.
• The ability to get paid quicker is dependent on a history of good collections and all of these situations related to lousy integration and tenant error, actually count AGAINST THE OWNER in some kind of reputation with the processor. So if you request faster transactions that they allow after some history, you might not have the reputation to support it based on poor integration. Totally ridiculous. As if I just popped out of the sky from nowhere ready to build "my first business reputation." Meanwhile I can get all kinds of business done with my 20 year business history anywhere else.
• Their third party provider of processing (Digitsz) is antiquated and super clunky. Furthermore the interface for this isn't integrated well into the RentRedi and is not front and center. Instead you have to dig into a setup menu, and then you get further ported to a third party (Digitsz) site, which I've decided was either designed to be read by residents of another planet or some adaptation for some undefined learning disability that is really unusual. It's horrible.
• RentRedi runs uses the "Intercom" interface support service that presents like a live chat for their support, but the live-ness of it debatable. They have a lot of hand waving emojis programmed in to emoji you to death. While you are instead trying to get serious solutions to serious problems instead of trying to smooth everything over with cute emojis. Please make it stop. There is rarely a customer service loop that feels like closure. The front line people can only handle softball issues, and the bigger issues that go into a black hole they refer to as the "Dev Team." Then with some kinds of programmed precision they circle back with an automated follow up nudge like clockwork. While meanwhile no progress has been made on the original issue and it circles into an infuriating feedback loop. It is very good way to train customers not to bother to use the chat system. Also there is no real continuity, because it you are presented with a specific human face and a clutter of emojis. But one person doesn't really seem to follow your case to the finish line. It just goes into a big bucket. Insert hand waving emoji here.
• The system is app based for tenants and there is an assumption that everyone, is a millennial and will handle this fine. Which is not true. I have a fairy low acceptance ratio for the app. Maybe 25 percent tops? Which is fine because even with the Plaid overly, receiving checks is still faster and more accurate than app payments. But also, I can't be criticized for not having some kind of online payment option. I'd say that 2/3 of the tenants that have stuck with the app, had a really hard time with it and got confused by it at the beginning and lose interest in it. Certain things are not obvious to them. For example, its very vague if the app will accept partial payments (you can set account to accept partials or not). Tenants are presented more months than needed. I can assure you that my tenants are ONLY interested in seeing the current month due. Instead they are presented with every current and future month, based on a lease you can set up, which is totally arbitrary anyway. So then they get confused and start paying the wrong months or accidentally pay two months, and all kinds of other havoc. It's happened a bunch of times. Then they abandon the app, which is fine because at the end of the day, checks are still faster and more accurate.
• Their on-boarding form letter email is written poorly and emphasizes the wrong things. The number one question my tenants have is "what is this going to cost me" and that is not covered in the email. The writing voice changes in the email. At points it sounds like it is "me" and at points it sounds like a third party referring to the landlord. I requested the form letter to be editable, as they already have it queued up in a formatting page, but there is no ability to actually re-write it. So.... I use instead another time consuming workaround.
• They use the logged in section of the owner web interface to continue to market to you and tell you how much you have saved using their service and how many landlords across the planet are looking at their site and signing up right now. BACK OFF. I'm already a customer. What I'd really like to do is put up a banner on how many hours I have wasted creating workarounds to the system.
• In general, the data and banners and limited forms have about as much insight to rental management that a 13 year old would get on "bring your nephew to work day." All of it is really off and only tolerable with workarounds.
• There is no real way to make super basic and functional reports, that are typical of multi-family. They are all goofy and lacking and need workarounds to have any use.
• They keep bolting things on to find other ways to monetize. And while I respect that need, I'd have a lot more confidence in bolted on services, if the stuff I signed up for worked better. Also I shouldn't have to click away or be bombarded with promotions for "Latchel," (a maintenance coordination service they are trying to monetize), EVERY TIME, I go to log or use the maintenance section of the web site that I already pay for.
There's more. But I've been brutal enough.
Mike
Hi Mike!
Thanks for sharing your feedback; we do appreciate it! I tried to address each point below...
We absolutely understand your frustration and, as you noted, we recently added Plaid to help improve the processing & insufficient funds. Since rolling out, we’ve noticed a definite improvement! Plaid will help us keep up better with the Pony Express! ;)
Again, we really understand your frustration here. Ultimately, we want to make the platform safe for everyone, which means we have to ensure that customers are who they say they are! Verification can involve a few different items, but we’re always willing to work with our customers to authenticate their business and get their payments faster.
Initially, our landlords would log directly into the Digitzs/Global Payments dashboard from a browser. Our intent in adding a login from the settings menu was to save you from having to remember your login and password. Unfortunately, we don’t have control of the look and feel of that dashboard but we are working with Global Payments on a webhook to pull all transaction data into RentRedi to improve that reporting and provide it within the RentRedi app, instead of having to go out to another dashboard
RentRedi does offer a chat support inbox to ensure that we can quickly learn & resolve any issues our customers are experiencing. The chat is admittedly a level one support and can be a challenge to resolve all issues. We have several team members who cover chat so that we can offer a wider range of availability for customers, so it’s true you may interact with more than one chat team member. We don’t want to leave our customers hanging - so we do like to follow up to ensure that issues are resolved! We also have scheduled 1-on-1 tech support that is available to landlords, team members and tenants for when chat is not able to resolvethe situation
Additionally, our Dev team is small but mighty! It might take a little longer, but they are working hard to keep the platform safe, optimized, and bug-free!
Also, we understand emojis aren’t for everyone. But we do like to use them. *hand wave*
You’re right - not everyone is tech-saavy! We do try to keep the tenant app as simple as possible to ensure that it’s accessible for everyone.
Thank you for this feedback! I have passed it along to our Marketing team to review!
We get it - we’re constantly working to improve the platform & having this perspective can help us see what’s valuable/not valuable to our customers.
We do typically have single-family in mind, but we want to ensure the platform is usable for all our customers. If you’d like to send me a DM, what reports are not specifically supported for multi-family?
We only partner with service providers who we believe could offer true value to our customers. Monetization is not our end goal — we want to ensure our product offering can cover whatever the needs are of our customers.
@Michael Klinger Hey thanks for the detailed write-up! This is immensely helpful and potentially saving me from a bunch of headaches. Did you find a different platform you like instead?
Thanks!
Having terrible experience with RentRedi. Until now I was giving them a benefit of doubt and continuing with them, but should've seen the signs.
I noticed this month (on Dec. 18th) that one of the payments made by my tenant on Dec. 6th was never deposited to my bank account. I raised the issue with their chat support. It's now Dec. 28th and it's still not resolved.
Another tenant who used to pay me thru Zelle (to avoid RentRedi's $1 fee on ACH transaction) decided to pay using credit card this month as he did not have money in his bank account. For some reason RentRedi rejected their credit card transaction. Due to this, he finally ended up paying thru zelle a few days late. The problem is RentRedi is charging me for the rejection of his credit card. I have no idea why the card was rejected, but it's ridiculous to charge the landlord for this fee. The credit card processing is between the tenant and RentRedi and nothing to do with the landlord. RentRedi is now asking me to now collect this fee from the tenant, who says the card was perfectly valid and should not have been rejected by RendRedi
RentRedi has now disabled my landlord account and my tenants can't pay their next month's rent. They get an error saying the Payment Account is not setup.
I'm now scrambling to move to another system so I can process tenant's rent before start of the new month. I've had it with RentRedi.
RentRedi has been a big problem for me. There customer service is awful
they keep charging me even though I told them 24 hours after I partially signed up that I did not want their service.
I was just trying it out because the video on you tube was not clear.
I keep getting charges, and prior I got a credit. Its a mess on my credit card and its clear that I should not have ever tried out RentRedi
I would not recommend it!!! Now I have to spend more time trying to straighten this out again. I have made many calls to them, and Its a waste of time.
I thought RentRedi was free for BP members, but every time I go to register, they ask me if I want to subscribe. How do you get RentRedi free for BP pro members? Thanks!
Tried for about 1.5 years. My 1099K's from RentRedi are full of errors which they sent to the IRS. There is 30% over income on my 1099. They also fraudulently claimed credit card charges to my renter as income on my statement. I didn't receive the credit card fee and it's not my income. It's going to be a nightmare fixing this. I'm done with RentRedi and I gave them 9 weeks to fix this. They had recommendations from review sites which I don't see the hype. Navigation on the software isn't that intuitive either.
I thought RentRedi was free for BP members, but every time I go to register, they ask me if I want to subscribe. How do you get RentRedi free for BP pro members? Thanks!
You sign up from the Property Management link in the tools section from BP. If you already have an account there is a code you put in to activate it. https://www.biggerpockets.com/...
Tried for about 1.5 years. My 1099K's from RentRedi are full of errors which they sent to the IRS. There is 30% over income on my 1099. They also fraudulently claimed credit card charges to my renter as income on my statement. I didn't receive the credit card fee and it's not my income. It's going to be a nightmare fixing this. I'm done with RentRedi and I gave them 9 weeks to fix this. They had recommendations from review sites which I don't see the hype. Navigation on the software isn't that intuitive either.
What is RentRedi providing to the IRS? I though the only accounting was the third party paid service option?
Tried for about 1.5 years. My 1099K's from RentRedi are full of errors which they sent to the IRS. There is 30% over income on my 1099. They also fraudulently claimed credit card charges to my renter as income on my statement. I didn't receive the credit card fee and it's not my income. It's going to be a nightmare fixing this. I'm done with RentRedi and I gave them 9 weeks to fix this. They had recommendations from review sites which I don't see the hype. Navigation on the software isn't that intuitive either.
Id like to hear more about your issues with your reporting experience. I might be able to help, if you’re interested in connecting!
Haven't had much experience with RentRedi but I heard that it was free through Bigger pockets. I've used Innago which is free and have had nothing but a great experience. Sometimes I've had issues but as every software there are hiccups.
I thought RentRedi was free for BP members, but every time I go to register, they ask me if I want to subscribe. How do you get RentRedi free for BP pro members? Thanks!
Justin,
Here are two help articles related to 1099-Ks and how they are determined and reported.
1099-K IRS Form and ProPay Inc
1099-K FAQs
Hi Daniel,
I sincerely apologize for the confusion on your 1099-K form. To clarify, the total amount that you will see on the 1099-K form is the gross amount of payments processed by Propay. This will include the actual rent payment, convenience fees, and any deposits.
It is required by law for Propay to report the total gross amount of payments processed. Your business can deduct the full cost of merchant fees (convenience fees) on a Schedule C. These tax deductions do not directly affect your company’s total tax bill. Instead, this tax deduction is subtracted from your gross earnings, which allows you to pay taxes on less than the gross processed amount. This is referenced in this help center article.
When preparing for tax filings, Propay states:
Merchants should use your own records to file your taxes and not be reliant on their 1099-K form. As the 1099-K form reports GROSS sales, you should be using your business records to account for fees paid for processing, refunds processed, etc. You do not NEED the 1099-K form to file your taxes. We provide it simply because we are required to report those sales to the IRS.
I apologize for the issues you experiences with the support team and I am happy to speak with you directly to improve our processes.
Ed Barone
Co-founder
Having terrible experience with RentRedi. Until now I was giving them a benefit of doubt and continuing with them, but should've seen the signs.
I noticed this month (on Dec. 18th) that one of the payments made by my tenant on Dec. 6th was never deposited to my bank account. I raised the issue with their chat support. It's now Dec. 28th and it's still not resolved.
Another tenant who used to pay me thru Zelle (to avoid RentRedi's $1 fee on ACH transaction) decided to pay using credit card this month as he did not have money in his bank account. For some reason RentRedi rejected their credit card transaction. Due to this, he finally ended up paying thru zelle a few days late. The problem is RentRedi is charging me for the rejection of his credit card. I have no idea why the card was rejected, but it's ridiculous to charge the landlord for this fee. The credit card processing is between the tenant and RentRedi and nothing to do with the landlord. RentRedi is now asking me to now collect this fee from the tenant, who says the card was perfectly valid and should not have been rejected by RendRedi
RentRedi has now disabled my landlord account and my tenants can't pay their next month's rent. They get an error saying the Payment Account is not setup.
I'm now scrambling to move to another system so I can process tenant's rent before start of the new month. I've had it with RentRedi.
I've had this same issue, with no notification nonetheless. Their reports are downright confusing. How are they to tell me that this means that the funds were taken from my account? 20 days after the fact and we have been disputing this since 08/10, with no update, no INVGESTIGATION, no PROOF. Its gotten me no where, might as well call our lawyer now.
