First Time Landlord- rent collections: Check, money order, cash, or software?

[Chantel Bomar]

Hello, I just bought a duplex that I'll be living in one unit and I already have a tenant that rolled over from the previous seller who will continue to rent the other unit until the end of their lease. This is my first property and first time managing a tenant. I'm sending out a letter to introduce myself to the tenant but am trying to figure out the best options to give them for rent collection. 

I'd like to be professional and sophisticated with rent collection and was wanting to offer options for payments just in case they aren't tech savvy to pay via software. Does anyone accept check, money order or cash payments via apps like Zelle or CashApp? If yes, do you have your tenants make the payments out to your name? Or should I make a business entity to have them address payments to?

Also, how do you collect the check or money order payments? Should I knock for it or have them place it in my mailbox? The previous owner was a well-known property management company in the area and I want to be taken seriously as a private landlord.

I may be overthinking some of this but any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[Dominic Rosato]

I use a free rental property software called Innago and it's made my life much easier. Only good things to say so far- It allows electronic ACH payments at no fee to the landlord, the ability for the tenant to set automatic payments, and automatic payment reminders to the tenant.

There's a bunch of other features that I haven't used, like background checks and the ability to set up e-signatures for contracts. I'd definitely recommend you check it out.