Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I used to use WilliamPaid to collect rent from my tenants online. They are shutting down soon, so I'm looking for recommendations for other online or mobile rent collection services. I only have 4 units, so the main consideration is low cost. I would appreciate any help.

I use Freshbooks (https://charlesrneff.freshbooks.com/refer/www). I love it. It's is not "landlord" specif service, but it is a gernal invoices service. Within the system you can configure online payments via several different methods. Their mobile app is great for both the landlord and the tenant. You can manage up to 3 clients for free (i only have 1 property so I use the free version), but they are geared toward small business owners so their priceing is reasonable.

Posted by Charles R. N, TX on Wednesday, February 25, 2015

My brother has been using paypal to collect rent on an out of state rental property for years. He loves it. We are going to try it on this lease. Goodluck!

Posted by Theresa M, NC on Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Charles - Thanks for the recommendation. for FreshBooks It looks like I need to create and send invoices in order to receive the rent payments. That would be too much work, as I have a full-time job and am a landlord on the side. I need a system that tenants can log in and pay themselves without any work on my end. Do you know if it will do this? Thanks.

Posted by Maria A, IL on Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Theresa - Thanks for recommending PayPal. I used this in the past and it works great and is free. There are two drawbacks to Paypal. After tenants send me their payments, I need to accept them, then I need to transfer them to my bank account. Second, Paypal can only be linked to one bank account. I have 4 separate bank accounts for my 4 properties. So after I receive the rent in my primary bank account, I need to transfer each one into the bank account associated with that property. Both of these actions require too much work and keeping everything straight. I need a system that requires as little work from me as possible and that is easy as I am not a professional landlord and don't have a ton of extra time. I'll look into this more, however.

Posted by Maria A, IL on Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Might be easiest to just open a separate bank account nearby the property. Give the tenants the account # and let them make the deposit themselves. have them send you a text when they do so.

Posted by Seth S, OH on Thursday, February 26, 2015

Mary - Freshbook has a "reoccuring" invoicing feature. So you can do a one time set up of an invoice and set a schedule for it to auto invoice the tenants. I also THINK they have an auto pay feature, where your tenats can set up their invoices to be auto paid. What I do, is for each tenant I set up a a reoccuring invoice for them. Each month on the 15th the system sends them an invoice which is due on the 1st of the following month. I like it because of the tracking system for both my view (what is outstanding what has been paid, etc.) and from the tenants view (outstanding invoices and paid invoices). It also has an expense feature if you want to use things like that. It can be a full accoutning software or only use it for the needed purposes.

Posted by Charles R. N, TX on Thursday, February 26, 2015

Charles - Excellent; this sounds exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to investigate this fully over the weekend. Thanks so much.

Posted by Maria A, IL on Thursday, February 26, 2015

Online rent collection is going to be very popular in USA. All Property Management company provide these facility to the landlords.

Posted by Alexis C, UT on Friday, February 27, 2015

After reading the posts, I researched the freshbooks option and wanted to share it is no longer free but has a $9.95 monthly fee. Again, it is reasonable but not free. Thanks for the resource....it is what I am looking for the better my management of the property.

Posted by Denise W, VA on Friday, March 6, 2015

I've recently started using the payment tool by Rentberry (here's the link: <a href="https://rentberry.com/collect-rent">). It's definitely better than the ACH. Generally, you have to use the crypto wallet and have some of their BERRY tokens to pay as a tenant, but this process is merely automated, so there should be no trouble with that. It's also much faster than the wire transfer (I receive the rent in several minutes). The only disadvantage is that you have to be the user of Rentberry, but it's a very good platform for the property manager.

Posted by Shirley L, on Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Hello All, this is a great thread with some super information for landlords. We wanted to post that we ezLandlordForms, are currently in testing phases of our own Online Rent Payment / Rent Collect. We will have it ready 1st/2nd quarter 2019 and will keep you updated along the way. If you have any questions feel free to contact us directly at support@ezlandlordforms.com. We cannot wait to debut this new integrated tool to you. We wish you all the best in Landlording :)

Posted by Website Moderator , AL on Thursday, January 10, 2019