4 Features Your Rent Collection Software Should Offer
Have you been wondering how to collect rent online? Maybe you’re a new landlord looking for increased organization, or an experienced landlord who has been getting requests from tenants to take rent collection online. Either way, figuring out which rent collection software to go with can be tricky. How complex do you need your software to be? How many features are too many? And what if you choose a company that doesn’t offer enough for your growing business needs?
Below are the four top features your rent collection software should offer, no matter the size of your real estate business.
#1: Automated Payments
It can be difficult to keep track of all your responsibilities sometimes. Your tenants may be busy students, have children, or juggle multiple jobs. When you’re being pulled a million different directions, paying rent can completely slip your mind. Most tenants fully intend to pay their rent on time, but life has different plans; however, with automated payments, your tenants will be more likely to pay when they’re supposed to, and you can get your money in the timeframe you intend.
Automated payments usually only require a couple minutes on your tenant’s part to set up how much they want the rent collection software to take out for rent payment and when they want that transaction to take place. They will also have to choose the bank account or card they would like that rent payment to be charged to. After your tenant completes those steps, they’re set.
A note of caution: Be sure to remind your tenants to regularly check their bank statements if they choose to set up automated payments. They should double-check that the proper amount is coming from the right accounts each time.
#2: Notifications and Reminders
Notifications and reminders are another huge plus for those who are always on the go. Once you allow notifications from your property management app, anything you urgently need to know regarding your rental will be posted to your smartphone. With everyone being increasingly glued to their phones these days, it will be difficult to miss any important information when it’s right in the palm of your hand.
Examples of things you can expect to see can include messages from tenants, incoming maintenance requests, and confirmation that a rent transaction has been completed.
#3: Detailed Bookkeeping
Gone are the days of meticulously recording each transaction that takes place via Excel or pen and paper. Manually recording each tenant’s rent payment each month is not only inefficient, but it’s also tedious and has a high margin of error. When you choose quality rent collection software, each transaction is put into a ledger that you can easily access and understand. These ledgers should include who paid, how they paid, when they paid, and what exactly that payment covered.
These records will come in handy if a dispute arises regarding rent payment. With this information readily available, you have evidence pertaining to every transaction you have ever received from each tenant.
#4: Flexible Payment Methods
Your tenants are more likely to pay on time if you offer multiple methods of payment. Allowing your renters to pay with a credit card is a huge advantage since they can often earn points/cash back from their credit card company and can opt to have their rent payments affect their credit score. This is another possible consideration when picking property management software: does the platform you chose allow your tenants to have their rent payments build their credit? And if so, how do they do so? What credit bureau(s) does that platform report to?
If you offer the choice to pay with a debit or credit card in addition to the option of an ACH rent payment,tenants will be more likely to pay rent in the correct amount and in the timeframe you prefer.
Conclusion
Online rent collection software doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should, at the very least, offer these benefits. It’s also possible to collect rent online freewith certain software partners, like Innago. Don’t reject online rent collection because it seems too advanced or daunting: as long as you have the opportunity to explore the features listed above, you are set.