Comments on: Technology and the Landlord

By: snoe

snoe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:14:26 +0000

We used erentpayment.com with ours, but it almost always meant a bit of hand holding and educating of the tenant. The next best option that we thought of was to provide deposit slips to the bank account while letting it be known that it was their responsibility to ensure that the payment was made on time. Neither of these is still ever fail proof, but beats having to explain and explain that no, they couldn’t come drop off a payment at my home and no, my mortgage won’t wait for their check to clear 10 days later.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:33:42 +0000

I have been as surprised as you by the lack of technology usage. But since I’ve started using only online listings, most of my tenants are very email friendly. 90% of my tenant communication is by email.

However, as for paying rent, out of the 9 units I get only one by email transfer (e-check), one gives 6 months of checks in advance, two pay by check exclusively and the rest are cash-only.

By: Tony Sena

Tony Sena — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:42:03 +0000

My business model is built completely around technology as well. So far I have been pretty lucky and all our tenants have been able to use the tools and resources we have given them to pay their rent and inform us of maintenance issues.

I am sure sooner or later I will have a tenant that won’t be able to or will just flat out refuse to use technology.

By: Jens

Jens — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:19:55 +0000

I’m close to purchasing my first rental property and have been hoping that using technology could somehow become a competitive advantage. Most of my research, though, has driven me to the same conclusions that you highlight in this post. Quite unfortunate. I’m still hoping to be able to purchase property with a target market that will use technology (college students?), but we’ll see what happens. I’ve even considered equipping my property with “free” wifi, wrapping the cost up with the monthly rent. I have not had a good response from the local ISP about that idea, though…

By: Clifford

Clifford — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:03:20 +0000

My biggest hangup with technology is actually the banking aspect. I use Wells Fargo but othe tenants use BofA. They can’t transfer money directly into my checking account. So I have to wait for checks. Fortunately they all use the BillPay feature with their banks. The bank won’t send a check unless the funds are present and when the check is sent, the funds are automatically deducted. So the tenant can’t overdraw on their account, forcing my check to bounce.

It’s not nearly as automated as I like. But the guarantee of having a check that will cash is more important.

When I did ask my bank about doing electronic tranfers, I was told it would be $75 per transaction. In the age of “point-click” that didn’t make me feel very good.