Online Rent Collection: Frequently Asked Questions
When it comes to collecting rent, it’s important to have an understanding of what works best for you and your tenants. While there are several aspects that go into the rent payments, one of the key portions of the process is knowing how to efficiently collect them from your tenants.
Fortunately, technology has proven to be extremely beneficial in managing how you collect rent and now offers great opportunities to collect rent with online methods. Property management software and apps provide a great service that you can use to collect rent payments. These platforms also offer additional features such as maintenance, listing tools, accounting, and e-lease signing.
However, you may have questions about how the online rent collection process works. In this article, we’re going to answer a few frequently asked questions to help you understand how to easily collect rent online!
How does online rent collection work?
Collecting rent online is as easy as downloading an app! With RentRedi, for example, tenants get a free tenant app from which they can pay rent. When they download the app, they can submit their rent payment and it appears in the account you created for RentRedi.
What payment methods are available to my tenants?
Just because you’re using a property management app for your tenants to pay rent, doesn’t mean you’re limited to the methodologies in which your tenants can submit a payment!
In RentRedi, tenants are able to use ACH, card, and cash rent payments and can submit these types of payments through the app. ACH and cash payments are only a $1 processing fee. If you’d like, you can even assume the fee if you’re interested in your tenants paying fee-less.
Additionally, RentRedi’s partnership with Chime means that tenants can pay with cash. All they have to do is open a Chime account, deposit cash rent payment to one of 90,0000 locations, open the RentRedi tenant app, select “Rent”, and continue to your new Chime account to pay rent!
For card and ACH, all tenants have to do is enter their credit card information or bank account information and they can pay rent right from the app as well! Easy as pie!
How do I manage the rent from my dashboard?
When you sign up to use a platform for online rent collection, usually this comes with some type of app or dashboard from which you can use to manage your collected rent payments. In RentRedi’s case, you receive both web and mobile apps so you can monitor your payments from both your desktop or your mobile device.
With this type of technology, you no longer have to worry about tracking where your rent is, as RentRedi offers live deposit tracking. This means you can see when the payment is initiated and when it will be processed.
Additionally, you can see all your rent charges from one place, so you know which of your tenants have paid and which haven’t.
This method of payment tracking and management can be superior to other methods, as it lets you stay organized and centralized in one location. This way, all your information is at your fingertips!
How do I know where my funds are coming from?
With property management software and apps that offer online rent collection, you can typically see into the rent charges to see which tenants are submitting the payment. This means that you don’t have to worry about keeping track of which tenant paid what, from which rental, and which method they used.
Can I set up late fees with online rent collection?
Yes, you can use online rent collection systems like RentRedi to enable automatic late payment rules that are customized to your leases. All you have to do is:
- Set the grace period
- Set the first fee and indicate whether it is a dollar amount “$” or percentage “%”
- Set recurring late fee
- Set recurring late fee frequency
- Set max fee (some leases, states, or municipalities have a maximum late fee that is allowed. Use this box to set a maximum, if applicable. It can be in dollars ($) or by percentage (%))
This means that if your lease has late fee penalties, you can easily implement them into the property management software you use to collect rent online, hassle-free!
What if my tenant doesn’t want to use an app for rent?
While there are many great benefits of using a property management app to pay and collect rent, it could be an issue to get your tenants on board. Fortunately, property management software like RentRedi offers an array of features that your tenants can use to manage their renting experience easier than ever.
For example, in RentRedi, in addition to paying their rent, tenants can report their on-time rent payments to TransUnion in order to improve their credit score. This is an awesome feature that many landlords or service providers may not be able to offer their tenants outside of a property management software.
Separately, RentRedi’s property management app for tenants can be used to submit maintenance requests, sign up for renters insurance, and even sign and store their lease documents! This makes keeping track of everything for tenants easier as well!
So, if your tenant is hesitant to use an app so you can collect rent online, make sure you educate them on the amazing benefits of using their app!
My tenant wants to pay rent outside of the app—can I still add it to RentRedi?
If your tenant wants to submit a manual payment outside of the property management system you use to collect rent online, you can still add that payment to your dashboard!
With RentRedi, it’s as simple as locating the charge and clicking “Add Payment Received”.
Collecting Rent Online
There you have it! Frequently asked questions about online rent collection that hopefully shed some new light on how you can use property management software like RentRedi to enhance your rental management experience. Additionally, there are great features that also make paying for rent from the tenant’s end better as well.
If you’d like to learn more about online rent collection, visit RentRedi.com to learn more.
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