As a landlord, rent collection is one of the most important parts of your job. Since rent payments are a significant source of your income, making sure that you are applying an effective rent collection method is very important.
You may find benefits in traditional methods of rent collection that involve cash or checks, but there are several reasons that online rent payment software is a better option that will put you and your rental business in a stronger position and make the process substantially easier. Landlords of all kinds are relying on property management software to collect rent, so let’s take a look at some of the ways that the switch has helped them out and how it could certainly help you, too.
Minimize Late Rent Payments
As a landlord, you don’t want to have to deal with late or missing payments from your tenants. Because you rely on rent payments to keep your business running, it’s best to know that your tenants will pay on time and in the correct amount. On the tenant’s end, they could be stuck dealing with late fees or payment disputes, so paying rent on time is in their best interest as well.
Property management software allows tenants to set up automatic payments, which withdraw money directly from their bank accounts every month for the exact amount of rent. This means that paying rent becomes a totally hands-off process for them, but it also means that if paying rent slips their mind when it’s due, property management software is staying on top of it and keeping them—and you—out of trouble.
Flexible Transactions
Even if a tenant does not set up automatic payments, the process of paying through their computer—or their smartphones if a mobile app version of the platform exists—is much more flexible than having to drop a check off at your office or send it through the mail. Tenants can pay for rent online from anywhere, and because the transaction goes through right away, it can be done at any time.
There is also flexibility on your end. If a check is delivered to you through the mail, you have to be at a specific place in order to pick it up. With property management software, once a payment has gone through, you are able to see those funds right away from wherever you are. Online methods are both faster and more flexible.
Automatic Records
Arguably the biggest benefit of using online software is the different ways in which it saves you time. Most significantly, whenever a tenant pays rent, accurate records of the transaction are automatically and instantaneously generated by the software. It is incredibly important to keep records of all payments, but online platforms save you the trouble of doing all of this manually with the risk of human error.
Furthermore, your tenants will receive an invoice for each bill and—once they pay—a receipt that shows that their money has been successfully transferred to you. If they’re using automatic payments, this is a quality-of-life feature that allows them to know the service is reliable and the payments are secure.
Accessible Software
All of these benefits are incorporated into software that is designed to be usable by the average person. There is no steep learning curve or industry-specific hoops to jump through. The business model of property management software is to be easily understood and navigable by landlords of all experience levels and their tenants.
These platforms are also accessible in that they are often cheap and sometimes free. With something as important as rent collection, using professional software that allows your tenants to pay rent online free means that you can reap all these benefits without sacrificing resources that are better used in other areas of your rental business.
Conclusion
All these reasons and more point to why making the switch away from traditional methods and toward online platforms is the best way to go. For such an important part of your job, keeping things efficient and accurate while also generally improving quality of life both for you and your tenants should be an easy choice. No matter what your rental business looks like, online rent collection is sure to help improve it.
