Best of ways to automate rent payment

Member since 2025 · 6 posts · 4 votes

Hi everyone, about to start leasing my first rental property. Any advice on the best way to automate for the tenant to pay rent? I keep seeing this Baselane site pop up. But is Bill Pay via their bank or Zelle sufficient enough? Thanks!

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Saad D.

Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 60 posts · 53 votes

Hi @Brandon Garcia, I think most first time landlords make this mistake. They do not set up the right systems and then pay for it later. I can guarantee you this will happened because I made the same mistake with my first rental. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend avoiding Zelle. I understand you want to get your cash instantly but you're leaving yourself open to many risks with using a Zelle, Venmo, cash app, etc.

Use a system that allows you to do the following 3 things: automatically charge a late fee, track all paid and unpaid invoices in a clear ledger, prevent tenants from paying partial payments.

At this moment, you're also just asking about how to collect rent. Let me ask you a question - How are you planning to mange all of your rental property finances (vendor payments, taxes, insurance, mortgage, reconciling rent payments, understand how much money you're actually making, have clean financials for tax time, etc.)?

The reason I ask is because the second biggest mistake I see new landlords making is not organizing their rental finances. This may seem trivial now, and not something you need because you only have one property. However, let me reframe it for you. If you want to scale, and be a pro investors, It's about building the right habits, and establishing the right systems and processes, now, not later. That's actually why I joined Baselane 3.5 years ago to build a platform I know I needed to run my rental business and to help 15M landlords in the U.S. do the same. Hope that helps.

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Clayton Silva
Lender · CA · Member since 2018 · 638 posts · 393 votes
1y
I use Baselane for landlord banking and 10/10 recommend. However, I use Turbotenant for lease creation and property management as well as rent collection. Also 10/10 recommend. Super easy to use for both the tenants and the landlord, good platform, lot's of optionality. It's a free service and you just pay for extra services like lease creation and what not.
2 Reply
Jose Remor
Rental Property Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2024 · 15 posts · 8 votes
1y

@Brandon Garcia.
I recently left a property management to manage myself and I started the management website myself. If you are willing to be a beta tester please send me a connection and we can work this out!
0 Reply
James Mc Ree
Rental Property Investor · Malvern, PA · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 936 votes
1y
My tenants mostly use Zelle and CashApp. Both zap the money right into your account. It's no work for Zelle and a few clicks for CashApp. Zelle is great in that tenants cannot claw back a payment.
I recommend minimizing your overhead and complexity since this is your first property. You shouldn't need fancy anything yet.
0 Reply
William WhitleyBusiness Member
Accountant · TN · Member since 2025 · 145 posts · 92 votes
1y
Quote from @Brandon Garcia:

Hi everyone, about to start leasing my first rental property. Any advice on the best way to automate for the tenant to pay rent? I keep seeing this Baselane site pop up. But is Bill Pay via their bank or Zelle sufficient enough? Thanks!
There are various services out there. If you use QuickBooks Online, there’s a way to set up recurring transactions that automatically charge your tenant every month. Of course there is a fee for that service, but it also ensures the transaction gets into your books automatically.
Accountable Balance Bookkeeping, LLC
Website View Page
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Saad D.
Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 60 posts · 53 votes
1y
Hi @Brandon Garcia, I think most first time landlords make this mistake. They do not set up the right systems and then pay for it later. I can guarantee you this will happened because I made the same mistake with my first rental. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend avoiding Zelle. I understand you want to get your cash instantly but you're leaving yourself open to many risks with using a Zelle, Venmo, cash app, etc.
Use a system that allows you to do the following 3 things: automatically charge a late fee, track all paid and unpaid invoices in a clear ledger, prevent tenants from paying partial payments.
At this moment, you're also just asking about how to collect rent. Let me ask you a question - How are you planning to mange all of your rental property finances (vendor payments, taxes, insurance, mortgage, reconciling rent payments, understand how much money you're actually making, have clean financials for tax time, etc.)?
The reason I ask is because the second biggest mistake I see new landlords making is not organizing their rental finances. This may seem trivial now, and not something you need because you only have one property. However, let me reframe it for you. If you want to scale, and be a pro investors, It's about building the right habits, and establishing the right systems and processes, now, not later. That's actually why I joined Baselane 3.5 years ago to build a platform I know I needed to run my rental business and to help 15M landlords in the U.S. do the same. Hope that helps.
2 Reply
- Jose Remor
  Rental Property Investor · Greenville, SC · Member since 2024 · 15 posts · 8 votes
  1y
  Quote from @Saad D.:
  
  Hi @Brandon Garcia, I think most first time landlords make this mistake. They do not set up the right systems and then pay for it later. I can guarantee you this will happened because I made the same mistake with my first rental. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend avoiding Zelle. I understand you want to get your cash instantly but you're leaving yourself open to many risks with using a Zelle, Venmo, cash app, etc.
  Use a system that allows you to do the following 3 things: automatically charge a late fee, track all paid and unpaid invoices in a clear ledger, prevent tenants from paying partial payments.
  At this moment, you're also just asking about how to collect rent. Let me ask you a question - How are you planning to mange all of your rental property finances (vendor payments, taxes, insurance, mortgage, reconciling rent payments, understand how much money you're actually making, have clean financials for tax time, etc.)?
  The reason I ask is because the second biggest mistake I see new landlords making is not organizing their rental finances. This may seem trivial now, and not something you need because you only have one property. However, let me reframe it for you. If you want to scale, and be a pro investors, It's about building the right habits, and establishing the right systems and processes, now, not later. That's actually why I joined Baselane 3.5 years ago to build a platform I know I needed to run my rental business and to help 15M landlords in the U.S. do the same. Hope that helps.
  
  Totally agree with you, Saad, reason why I decided to work this automation myself.
  I made a link with my property management site and stripe via APIs and I can set ACH payments with automatic charging if the tenant decides to use auto pay. If not they will get an invoice. My PM site will manage the invoices and adjust for late fees. I went with Stripe because they have the lowest fees in the market together with a good and solid system. It adds the ACH fee of $5 to the Stripe invoice automatically.
  If you like, you can use Stripe (stripe.com) directly. The test system is very easy to use and you can create your invoices manually.
  I also offer Zelle but with no automation to know when I receive the payment, I have to do it all manually.
  I have the code ready to do credit cards but holding that for now. The fees are high even though I know some people might opt to use it.
  0 Reply
- Brandon Garcia
  OP
  Member since 2025 · 6 posts · 4 votes
  1y
  Quote from @Saad D.:
  
  Hi @Brandon Garcia, I think most first time landlords make this mistake. They do not set up the right systems and then pay for it later. I can guarantee you this will happened because I made the same mistake with my first rental. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend avoiding Zelle. I understand you want to get your cash instantly but you're leaving yourself open to many risks with using a Zelle, Venmo, cash app, etc.
  Use a system that allows you to do the following 3 things: automatically charge a late fee, track all paid and unpaid invoices in a clear ledger, prevent tenants from paying partial payments.
  At this moment, you're also just asking about how to collect rent. Let me ask you a question - How are you planning to mange all of your rental property finances (vendor payments, taxes, insurance, mortgage, reconciling rent payments, understand how much money you're actually making, have clean financials for tax time, etc.)?
  The reason I ask is because the second biggest mistake I see new landlords making is not organizing their rental finances. This may seem trivial now, and not something you need because you only have one property. However, let me reframe it for you. If you want to scale, and be a pro investors, It's about building the right habits, and establishing the right systems and processes, now, not later. That's actually why I joined Baselane 3.5 years ago to build a platform I know I needed to run my rental business and to help 15M landlords in the U.S. do the same. Hope that helps.
  
  Very helpful! Thank you!
  1 Reply
Daniel TanasaBusiness Member
Realtor · Houston, TX · Member since 2019 · 351 posts · 174 votes
1y
Hey Brandon,
I used TenantCloud to manage my properties. They use to have a free option but now they are charging $17/month and I decided is worth it for me. Other free options that some of my investors are using are Apartments.com and TurboTenant.
Good luck!
1 Reply
Drew SygitBusiness Member
Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
1y
It's not worth the efforrt until you get a tleast 5 doors.
Have the tenant pay via Zelle, venmo, deposit to your bank or mail a check.l
[email protected]248-209-6824
Logical Property Management4.9460 Reviews
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Mary M.
Rental Property Investor · Portland OR · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
1y
just use zelle for now. no need to make it complex yet.
0 Reply
Saad D.
Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 60 posts · 53 votes
1y
When you say "worth it", what do you mean exactly? How do you track late fees? What if the tenants get behind on rent, how do you track all of that? What if it's now two tenants, and three and four?

With respect, I totally disagree with this advice. We all need to learn to be investors, not landlords. And software like Baselane is not "fancy", it's actually built to drive time savings and insights so the landlord can become an investor, and not get stuck doing landlord tasks.

My hypothesis is the following: one of the main reasons why most small investors stay small is because they aren't using the proper tools and systems and are just stuck doing the grunt work. If you want to scale, then don't follow this type of advice.

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Ify (Bobby) Anizoba
Specialist · Atlanta Metro Area, GA · Member since 2020 · 38 posts · 23 votes
1y
Hey, I’m Ify (or you can call me Bobby). I’ve been looking into rent automation too.

Zelle and bank bill pay can work, but they require tenants to send payments manually and don’t handle late fees. Baselane, on the other hand, automates rent collection, applies late fees automatically, tracks payments, and even offers landlord banking perks.

It’s a solid hands-off solution if you want everything in one place. Have you looked into it yet?

0 Reply
Gustavo Delgado
Houston, TX · Member since 2015 · 261 posts · 170 votes
1y
Look at go4rent.com They charge $1.95 transaction fee which is billed to the tenant (convenience fee) Only drawback is that it takes about 4-5 business days for your rent payment to hit your account. They are also based in the woodlands, so its local to you in Houston
1 Reply
Jeff Bateman
Property Manager · The Woodlands, TX · Member since 2016 · 37 posts · 20 votes
1y
I use apartments.com and they don't charge anything for basic plan, which is plenty ok for the 10 properties we have. The also have a 4-5 day delay on sending funds after tenant has paid.
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