As a landlord, there are things as stressful as a late rent check. Sometimes, the cause is tenants being forgetful. Other times, the delay can be with the postal system. Rather than just waiting, a successful landlord gets rid of late rent check payment altogether.
Tenants Are Forgetful
Tenants are human. And, unfortunately, humans are forgetful. Even the best intentioned tenant can forget what day it is. If you are depending on the tenant to write and mail a check, or even initiate a payment through Venmo, you are at the mercy of their memory.
Mail is Slow. And Getting Slower.
Unfortunately, the US postal service is getting slower. The headline screams: “Mail delivery slowdown: USPS to slow delivery“. First class mail will now take up to five days to arrive, rather than three days previously. As landlords know, late rent check payment is a big problem if they need those funds to pay a mortgage or other property expenses.
Eliminate Late Rent Check Payment
The best solution to late rent check payment is to not receive checks in the mail, or any type of payment that requires the tenant to remember to pay rent. Collect rent electronically and on auto-pilot. Fortunately, there are many services that are easy to setup. One of the the most experienced (in business since 2000) and most trusted (BBB A+ rating) service is ClearNow (sign up at www.ClearNow.com). With ClearNow, rent payments are automatically withdrawn through the bank system from a tenant’s bank account and are always deposited to you three business days later by direct deposit. The price of ClearNow is reasonable ($14.95/mo for the first tenant; just $2/mo for each additional tenant) compared to the price of missing rent payment.