As a landlord, collecting rent can be one of the most stressful and time-consuming elements of your job. But it doesn’t have to be, especially when you have professionals providing rent collection services.
If you’re working with an Upper Marlboro property management company, rent collection will be taken care of for you. At Maryland Property Management, for example, you can count on a reliable and consistent process that’s based on our rent collection policy that’s reflected in the lease agreement.
When you’re not working with a property manager but you still want to keep rent collection as simple as possible, make sure you know where to find the resources that are available to you. For example, you can hire a professional rent collection service. These third-party services will offer a convenient solution that can help make your job as a landlord easier and more efficient.
A rent collection service can save you time, cutting down on the hours and days you often have to spend managing monthly payments from tenants. You’ll also find there are additional benefits such as increased security for you and your tenants when payments are made and collected online. Everyone’s financial information will be managed securely, and you’ll enjoy the benefits of a streamlined rent collection process.
Getting your tenants to pay rent on time doesn’t have to be a struggle. Here are the key components to any well-managed rent collection process and a list of benefits that come with professional rent collection services.
Establishing a Rent Collection Process for your Upper Marlboro Investment Property
Whether you work with a property manager or a rent collection service or you do everything on your own, a consistent and well-enforced rent collection process is absolutely necessary. An effective rent collection process starts with a strong lease. Your lease agreement must spell out how much rent is due, when it is due, and how a tenant should pay.
Your lease exists in order to protect yourself and your property, as well as the tenant who lives in that property. You can’t collect rent until your lease is in place. Get the lease signed as soon as you’ve chosen a tenant, and make sure that tenant understands how seriously you take the timely payment of rent.
Discuss and reinforce the following parts of your rent collection process.
- Clear Payment Instructions
Share your expectations with tenants. They need to know how much rent is due, when the rent is due, and how that rent should be paid. These details must be included in your lease, and you can also discuss these details with your tenants before you hand over the keys to your property. This will eliminate any potential confusion. Are there grace periods? Make sure this is clearly explained as well. When is rent officially late?
- Late Fees and Other Consequences
Incentivize your tenants to pay rent on time. Late fees are necessary to encourage those on-time payments. It’s a good idea to always charge late fees when rent is paid late. Be consistent with the late fees as well. Don’t charge them one month but not the other. Any time the rent is paid late, be willing to assess the late fee that’s spelled out in your lease agreement. There might be other consequences, too, up to and including eviction.
- Offer Different Ways to Pay Rent
Flexibility is an important part of keeping the rent collection process simple. Most tenants today prefer paying for rent electronically. No one is writing out checks anymore and it will hold up the process if your tenants have to go in search of stamps and envelopes.
Offer an online or a digital payment option. If you don’t have the necessary software to collect online payments, work with a property manager or a rent collection service. Most management companies have the benefit of an online payment system. Tenants simply log onto an online account and pay the rent electronically with debit cards, credit cards, or bank account drafts.
As an independent landlord, you may not have access to property management software. But, you can still offer electronic payments. With payment platforms and apps, tenants can easily transfer funds from their own account to yours. This is often how a rent collection service will work.
While most people prefer online payments, not everyone will. So, it helps to be flexible. You should be willing to offer other forms of rent collection. Let tenants pay with a check or a money order if they’d prefer. As long as your tenants have options, they’re likely to meet their rent payment obligations.
Rent Collection Services for Upper Marlboro Rental Property Owners
Online rent collection is convenient and secure, and a great way to encourage tenants to pay on time and securely. But, what if you’re not set up to accept those online rental payments? Don’t miss the opportunity to provide great service to your tenants this way.
We can refer you to a number of online services that help you receive rent payments online, allowing you to have rent deposited into your account. Some of the most popular services for online rent collection include:
- TurboTenant
- PayYourRent.com
- Avail
- ClickPay
- RentPaidOnline
These are just a few. Your Upper Marlboro property manager will include these services in their management fee, so don’t go looking for separate rent collection services unless you don’t have a property manager already.
Bring on the Benefits: Why This Works
Why not simply continue collecting rent yourself?
Some landlords have no trouble with online rent collection. If you’ve created a process that works seamlessly, doesn’t take a lot of your time, and pleases your tenants, then keep doing what you’re doing. There’s no need to make a change unless you find yourself running into roadblocks.
Landlords who have such seamless experiences tend to be the exception rather than the norm. If you’re tired of chasing down late rent, if there always seems to be some kind of miscommunication with your tenants, or if you’re worried about hackers and spammers getting your payments and your information, rent collection services can save you time, money, and stress.
Here are some of the benefits we think landlords like you can most enjoy by working with a rent collection service or even a property management company in Upper Marlboro.
- Save Time with Professional Rent Collection
Managing a rental property can often feel like you’ve taken on another full-time job, especially when the rental due date comes around every single month. Finding the time to remind tenants rent is due, collect that rent, and follow up when it doesn’t come in is often a challenge. Rent collection agencies can get your rents in on time. You’ll also spend less time keeping records, tracking your income, and documenting payments. When you have more than one rental home, this type of service can really save you hours every week.
- Contributing to Tenant Retention
Better rent collection also leads to tenant retention. We mentioned the value in allowing several different ways for tenants to pay their rent. While we recognize that this is a benefit for both landlords and tenants, we also know that it requires a lot of extra management. With your rent collection service, however, you don’t have to manage anything. Most tenants will elect to pay online, but you may not be familiar with the payment tools and platforms. You do not have to invest the time and resources in learning how to navigate those payment platforms when you’re working with someone else. Rental collection providers will maintain a presence on multiple platforms to offer the easiest payment options to your tenants. This type of flexibility will increase tenant satisfaction and retention. It also increase on-time rental payments.
- Tenant Payments are More Secure
Can you be sure you’re providing a way to pay that’s completely secure? Are you able to protect the private banking information of your tenants? Technology has been great for providing more automation, flexibility, and transparency to things like rent collection and property management.
It’s also opened us up in ways that are more vulnerable, however. Scammers and hackers are getting smarter and bolder. Sometimes, it seems like we’re always at risk for having our identities or our money stolen. Rent collection services can put your mind at ease. They’ll have much better online security than you do, enabling tenants to make payments safely. Your own financial information and banking information will also be secure and protected. And, rent collection services carry insurance that will protect you and your money in case the unthinkable happens.
- Improving Tenant Relationships
We mentioned tenant retention; even beyond that, this type of attention to rent collection will also foster a better relationship with your tenants. Flexible rent payment options and consistency will improve your tenant relationships because those residents will appreciate the ease of paying rent. You’re also getting a valuable partner when you hire a third-party rent collection service. You don’t have to have any awkward conversations with your residents about late or missing rent. Your payment provider will take care of that for you.
Using a rent collection service will help you troubleshoot unexpected problems and provide more consistency and accuracy to a landlord task that comes up every month.
Whether you want to hire a professional to take care of rent collection specifically or you’re interested in full-service Upper Marlboro property management, contact us at Maryland Property Management. We’d be happy to provide additional tips.
