| • Collecting Rents |
| Hi All,
I'm new to this thing renting thing and was hoping someone could give me a heads up.
Does anyone out there have some sort of direct deposit set up where their tenants just pay their rents electronically into an account? If so, how'd you set it up?
Would anyone recommend just sticking to cash/check as the preferred form of payment?
Thank you. |
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Posted by David A., WA on Jun 24, 2009 4:11 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Hi David,
I'm new to this as well, I recently moved to CO. and my house just happens to be located in Vancouver, WA which has the highest number of foreclosures in WA state right now.
Anyway, I called my credit union and asked about that. They said the the tenant would have to set up EFT on their part, and have it deposited into my account from their bank. Most institutions have Bill Pay, and she suggested I have my future tenants sign up for it asap. I'm considering including it in my lease, where you can add additional info. |
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Posted by Michelle B., WA on Jun 25, 2009 1:13 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Thanks Michelle. I don't know why I didn't think about just running down to my bank for that info. Good idea. It would be nice to just have the tenants electronically pay. It seems like it would make the rent collection process a whole lot easier. |
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Posted by David A., WA on Jun 25, 2009 1:34 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| No problem, I guess the hard part is having your tenants agree to it. Collecting rent would be that much easier! |
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Posted by Michelle B., WA on Jun 25, 2009 1:52 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I have found that PayPal is also really helpful and easy to use. |
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Posted by jennifer b., CO on Jun 27, 2009 10:07 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Try google checkout, they like paying by credit card.
you can charge the tenant the 3% fee if they pay by card!
www.google.com/checkout |
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Posted by Kelly T., CA on Jun 29, 2009 12:12 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I know my renter si I gave them 12 deposit slips. The 1st they just drop the rent off at the bank. |
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Posted by Ronald P., AK on Jun 29, 2009 6:06 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Thank you all for the input. These are great suggestions, and hopefully this thread will be helpful to others as well.
Kelly T., have you been using the google checkout for a while now? How dependable has it been for you?
Ronald P., I love your idea, and I could probably set up a "dummy" account if I wanted to so that way there's no money in the account for them to withdraw from. |
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Posted by David A., WA on Jun 29, 2009 6:43 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Kelly T., how did you set up through google checkout? More specifically, I was seeing that it looks like it works if you have a website. If I don't have a website, do you know if I could still be set up for this method? |
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Posted by David A., WA on Jun 29, 2009 6:55 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Does Google checkout charge the 3% like Pay Pal? That's exactley why I don't want to use Pay Pal. |
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Posted by Michelle B., WA on Jun 30, 2009 12:23 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| We always have our tenants arrange with their bank to automatically pay into ours on the 1st of every month. This works well, as live overseas and could not phsically deposit a amailed check into our account. Easy for teanat and easy for landlord. |
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Posted by Joanne S., VA on Jun 30, 2009 3:39 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Landlords! Be careful with automatic deposits made by tenant. It can get VERY sticky when you want to evict or they start to make partial payments. |
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Posted by Helen, FL on Jun 30, 2009 7:33 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| PayPal only charges 3% if you get a premier account that accepts credit cards. If you get a personal account it does not cost anything to send, receive, or withdraw funds. The funds go right from bank to bank with no risk. I have two accounts, one that I use when I know I need to accept a credit card pymt (ebay seller), and the other one is just for regular deposits such as from tenant rent pymt.
The tenants that have used paypal also seem to really appreciate it, because they can avoid mailing, checks, or depositing into banks, etc. Its all e-pay. I imagine its very similar to Google check out, but have never tried that service. |
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Posted by jennifer b., CO on Jun 30, 2009 9:12 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I once again WARN that automated deposits or payments can be a problem. In many states, the collection of a partial payment may void any started court action. With a tenant depositing or paying via paypal - you have little control as to whether you can accept or not. You may return the partial payment later but it can be a touchy situation in a courtroom. Check with your attorney but there are some states/locations where a judge stopped an eviction over the collection of a partial payment that was automatically deposited. |
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Posted by Helen, FL on Jul 1, 2009 8:31 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| Thanks, Helen for the warning. For whatever its worth, I just got finished with an eviction in CO and was awarded judgement. The tenants had several partial pymts via PayPal and the issue never came up in court. The judge never even asked for documentation or receipts, but then again the tenants didn't show to court, so I guess she was going to rule in my favor regardless. |
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Posted by jennifer b., CO on Jul 1, 2009 9:07 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I use automatedlandlord.com It works great. |
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Posted by David K., NH on Sep 4, 2009 10:48 AM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I've seen ClearNow come up a lot on other landlord forums. From my research, they don't do partial payments - it's all or none for the amount collected, so that's good. |
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Posted by Ruthie K., PA on Sep 15, 2009 3:00 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| I have tenants deposit rent in person into my checking account, I can check it online and my Bank has many locations and night deposit is always possible. And the bank always give a receipt and strangly NEVER asks them for ID. So i give the tenants my deposit tickets maked with the tenants address so I'll know where that money came from. |
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Posted by mike t., AR on Sep 19, 2009 11:28 PM |
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| • RE: Collecting Rents |
| My Mother has rentals in Florida and lives in Texas. She set up a deposit only account with her bank and sent the deposit slips to her tenants. They have a carbonless copy so the tenant has a copy of each deposit as well. I have a house in a small town and told my Bank that the tenants would be making rent payments to my account, since it's a small town, all they have to do is walk in and tell them my name and the Bank puts it in my account. |
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Posted by L. Gaye B., TX on Nov 4, 2009 11:15 AM |