Got a House for Lease? Learn to Collect Your Rent Quick and Easy

If you have a house for lease, it's important that you learn the quickest and most effective way of collecting rent payments from your tenants. Find out how exactly you can ensure a steady income from your rental property right now.

When deciding which payment type to use for your rent collection, it's recommended that you choose a method is both easy and convenient for your tenants. Making your tenant's life easy is crucial if you want them to pay up on time, every time.

How do You Collect Rent from Your Tenants Online?

If you live far away from your house for lease, it will save you a lot of time and gas if you can arrange for your tenants to pay you online. Online payments are usually instant and your tenants can pay you easily without even stepping out of their home.

Paypal is the online payment method favored by many landlords because it is so easy and quick to set up. All you need to do it to provide Paypal with an email address and link your bank account or credit card to it. Your tenant also needs to have a Paypal account in order to send you payment.

Unless you own multiple rental properties or is a full time property manager, setting up merchant accounts to accept credit card payments is generally not recommended. This is because merchant accounts tend to high start-up costs and can be a real headache to set up.

While accepting your rent online can be a breeze for both you and your tenants, you will have to give up a small percent of your rent payments as Paypal or credit card charges.

What are Popular and Effective Ways of Collecting Your Rent Offline?

The first method for collecting your rent payment is one that landlords have been using for centuries without fail: Knocking on your tenant's door to collect cold, hard Cash from them every time the rent is due.

Although this method has been employed for ages, it still remains as one of the most effective and secure ways to obtain rent from your house for lease. The sight of a landlord standing at the doorway to his house is often compelling enough for most tenants to dig into their wallets and part with their hard earned cash.

It's always a good idea to phone your tenants a few days before you arrive to avoid making a wasted trip. Make use of this call to gently remind your tenant that his rent is due so that he can prepare the money in advance.

Of course it can be quite a hassle to make a trip to your house for lease every month but it is worth the trouble if your tenant is unreliable in paying his rent or you are lucky enough to live near your house for lease.

If you prefer something easier, you can always request your tenant to pay his rent by mailing you a Bearer's Check every month.

If you are accepting rent by checks, make sure that your tenant sends you a crossed check with your name on it. He should never send you cash or a cash check in case it gets lost in the mail.

To make sure that you receive your checks regularly, always make it easier for your tenants to pay up. One handy tip is to give your tenants a stack of stamped envelopes with your own address on it. That way they can't claim that they forgotten your address or miswrote it when mailing the check to you.

Generally accepting your rent payment by check is recommended if you have trustworthy tenants who pay up on time. If you have a week to week lease, accepting checks is a smart way of saving the trouble of making a trip to your house for lease to collect rent every week.

Teo Zhenjie has been showing landlords how to manage to their tenants and rental properties effectively on his website Propertydo.
Free Real Estate Guide

By Teo Zhenjie
Published: 11/19/2008
 
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