How do you accept your rental payments?

Question

How do you accept rent payments from your tenants? And how do you accept payments when they're not computer savvy or don't have a checking account?

Anna W. · Answer

I have one inherited tenant who does not have a checking account. He's been an excellent tenant in the 9 months since I bought the property - always pays on time (in cash or money order) and is the first person to call me to report anything about the property (like suspicious activity, or the one time a huge tree branch came down). He has been sober for 4 years and I believe the lack of a checking account is due to behavior from back when he was not sober. It is interesting - I would never have rented to him if he had applied (I'm sure his credit is shot too) but he has turned out to be one of my best tenants.

I'm going to be out of state about half of the year and looking for an easy way for him to pay me when I'm not local (my other clients use PayPal or Venmo) - he has offered to mail me money orders but that doesn't seem like a great option. Will check out the paynearme option, but also interested in hearing any other recommendations.

Brandon Ingegneri · Answer

Bigger question.  If they don't even have a checking account, do you really want to even get involved with them?  They need to rise to meet YOUR standard.  Under no circumstances should your standards be lowered to cater in that manner.  Sink or swim.  Tell them what they need to grab the life raft, but don't just hand them the life raft.

Jeff G. · Answer

@John Trujillo Woops! It's PayNearMe. My mistake.

Delmas Edwards · Answer

@Jeff G. Yes how does that Pay here @7/11 works? How do you set it up?

John Trujillo · Answer

@Jeff G. how does the 7/11 thing work? i couldn't find anything on their website about it.

Bryan O. · Answer

@Delmas Edwards my tenants use Cozy.co to pay rent. I allow them to pay with check as well, but I charge an additional $10 fee for the extra time gathering it and taking a trip to the bank.

Jeff G. · Answer

That depends.

The ideal solution is require the tenet to setup automatic bill pay. If you're dealing with the lower end of the economic spectrum, you may want to set up Pay Anywhere to let your tenants pay you electronically with a cash deposit at any nearby 7/11.