Online Rent payments?

[fumbrunner]

Do any landlords or property managers here use online sites for rent payments? Current processes seem to be a bit dated (ie..picking up payment, having tenants visit an office, etc).

I have been snooping around but don`t really see any good CANADIAN tools.

 

[Cargren]

QUOTE (fumbrunner @ Mar 12 2010, 01:59 PM) Do any landlords or property managers here use online sites for rent payments? Current processes seem to be a bit dated (ie..picking up payment, having tenants visit an office, etc).

I have been snooping around but don`t really see any good CANADIAN tools.

We set up automatic withdrawal for each tenant. Most banks have their own form and some will even let you make your own, as long as it has certain info that they require. Talk to your bank about this. The rent gets drawn from the tenants account directly into ours. It`s great. We use TD Canada Trust by the way.

You set the day and the transfer is immediate. If there are insufficient funds it will bounce back in a day or two at no charge to you, but its much quicker finding out than depositing checks.

 

[fumbrunner]

QUOTE (Cargren @ Mar 12 2010, 02:56 PM) We set up automatic withdrawal for each tenant. Most banks have their own form and some will even let you make your own, as long as it has certain info that they require. Talk to your bank about this. The rent gets drawn from the tenants account directly into ours. It`s great. We use TD Canada Trust by the way.

You set the day and the transfer is immediate. If there are insufficient funds it will bounce back in a day or two at no charge to you, but its much quicker finding out than depositing checks.

Have you had any issues with tenants not wanting to do automatic withdrawls? If so, how do you address that?

 

[CarrieKoch]

We just give the tenants the account info. They go to any bank branch and deposit directly to our account. What is the difference really between them doing that or giving me cash? Except it puts the onus on them to get it there in time. If they deal with the same bank they can just set us up for online transfer. We also accept email transfers.

 

[JoeRagona]

Personally, I have never had to pick up a cheque. I like to be in control of the payments and since I`m online all day I can check the payments when they are supposed to be in.

I have tenants who deposit directly into the property account and have now set up automatic withdrawls with new tenants. People have moved to a cash-less society with everything being on debit cards anyway. Having access to a NSF payment in a day or two rather than 5-7 days later via mail is a lot better. Try to move them towards online payments.

BTW, you should also re-negotiate with your PM to give you a break on fees as this responsibility is taken away from them.

 

[Cargren]

QUOTE (fumbrunner @ Mar 12 2010, 02:39 PM) Have you had any issues with tenants not wanting to do automatic withdrawls? If so, how do you address that?

None have had an issue with it. In fact most of them prefer it as it saves them hassle of writing checks. We did have to modify the schedule several times for some tenants, going from monthly to bi-weekly etc, and did have payments bounce (get reversed after a few days) a few times, but that was with a tenant that we had to eventually evict.

 

[lanedry77]

Hi Gerry,



I use Beanstream.



see my past post here;

http://myreinspace.com/rein_members_only/Members-Only_Discussion/81-4618-Direct_deposits_for_rent.html





Thanks,



David.