8 Things Landlords Should Know About Online Rent Payments

Rent collection is a very important part of every landlord’s job, and property management software is increasingly becoming the standard platform to carry it out. If you are still relying on traditional methods for rent collection like cash or checks, you may be looking into making the switch to online rent payment platforms. If so, here are eight things that you should know about why property management software is the right way to go.

1. Accessible Platforms

Fortunately, property management software is designed around being easy to learn. The average person, much less a landlord with knowledge about the operation of rental businesses, should be able to navigate any software without any sort of learning curve. If you’re worried about confusing your tenants by making a big change, keep in mind that it is in the best interest of most software companies to make their products as intuitive and simple as possible.

2. Other Online Features

If you adopt property management software for online rent payments, chances are that you’ll discover the platform offers a lot of other features that will make many elements of your job a little bit easier. Beyond collecting rent, many platforms allow you to list properties, sign lease agreements, screen tenants, and more.

3. Automatic Payments

When you allow your tenants to pay rent online, they have the option to set up automatic payments that withdraw money directly from their bank accounts each month when rent comes due. Once this is set up, the experience of paying rent is completely hands-free for your tenants and keeps them from potentially forgetting to pay. Late or missing rent payments can be a headache for you and stressful for your tenants, and automatic payments are a straightforward solution.

4. Encrypted Information

Because online rent payments deal with a tenant’s bank account, there is bound to be sensitive information involved in the transaction. It’s important that steps are taken to ensure this information is safe from hackers or cyber-attacks. Fortunately, property management software uses encryption technology that protects this sensitive information and in many ways makes paying online safer than paying via cash or check.

5. Flexibility for Everyone

We have already looked at how automatic payments allow tenants to pay from anywhere, but property management software also gives you flexibility as a landlord to collect in a faster and more flexible way. You can also view a submitted rent payment from anywhere with an internet connection as soon as it goes through. There’s no need to pick up a check from your mailbox; collection is a few clicks away at any point.

6. Low or Free Cost

Property management software is considered accessible because it’s easy to navigate, but many platforms are also accessible because they are very cheap or even free. It is important to keep in mind that some software may have a free or cheap rent collection feature while other additional elements of their services come at an additional price, but if you are just looking for a way to collect rent online, it shouldn’t hurt your wallet. 

7. Generated Records

Keeping transaction records  is an important part of your business accounting which property management software makes effortless. Whenever a transaction goes through, most platforms will automatically generate records for you. This saves you a lot of time in manual bookkeeping while also preventing the risk of human error along the way.

8. Transparency for Tenants

Once these records have been generated when a payment goes through, the platform will also send a receipt to the tenant, who also gets an invoice before every payment. Your tenants will appreciate having records of their own available to them because they will be able to see that their money went to the right place, especially if they’re using hands-off automatic payments. Trust is important in making a tenant stay with you long-term. 

Conclusion

This article should make it clear that there are a huge number of benefits to having tenants who owe rent pay online. Rent is most likely the financial backbone of your rental business, so it’s important to go about collecting rent in the most effective way possible. Relying on online methods makes one of the most important parts of your job easier, quicker, and probably more accurate, so switching to online is definitely the best choice you can make.