Author: ClearNow

4 Ways That Using ClearNow Can Help Landlords and Tenants www.ClearNow.com

Managing a rental property is harder than many people realize when they first started leasing their properties. Besides the challenges that come with maintaining the property, collecting rent can become a real time sink. Collecting rent from tenants and depositing it into bank accounts becomes more laborious the more properties or units you manage. ClearNow has tools that can make these processes more manageable. Here are four ways that ClearNow can help landlords and tenants. 

Setup a Payment Portal for Paying Rent Online

Getting a rent payment from an occupant can be surprisingly problematic. When people pay by mailing a check, some checks will get lost in the mail, which slows down payment. You have to wait for the renter to send a new payment or travel to pick up the check in person. ClearNow makes it easier for renters to make their payments by helping landlords set up online payment portals. With ClearNow, you get the service you need without having to run your own secure website for financial transactions. ClearNow has provided electronic rent payment since 2000 while maintaining a perfect BBB rating. Our system works for any property, whether you have one rental unit or a hundred thousand.

Provide Customer Service to Tenants Paying Rent

Using ClearNow for online rent payments also provides additional benefits for tenants. When you try to run your own online payment system from a website, there is no support for the tenant. Most online rent payment services do not have phone support. It’s essential to offer some technical support for web-based services since some of your tenants may not be extremely computer literate. With ClearNow, we have phone support Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. If your tenants are having trouble setting up their account or they encounter another issue, we’ll be there to help.

Ensure Landlords Get Paid on Time

For many property owners, it’s essential that they get their rent payments promptly. The money from the rent may be needed to pay expenses related to property management. Landlords can’t afford for money to be tied up in the banking ether. When you use ClearNow to collect rent payments, the money is always directly deposited three banking days after the debit day. How often you need to make deposits determines how which services from ClearNow you’ll need. Each ClearNow account debits on a specific day and credits to a specific bank account. Instead of setup fees, ClearNow fees are based on your debit day and are only charged when you attempt to debit a tenant. This way, property owners who only need a single monthly deposit pay less than larger management companies that need debits more often.

Improve the Credit Score of Your Tenants

Getting tenants to switch to online payments is easy with the intrinsic benefits of using ClearNow. When using ClearNow to pay rent, tenants improve their credit by paying their bills. Tenants can establish credit history by having ClearNow furnish data to Experian RentBureau.The rental data from Experian is updated every 24 hours, so every on-time payment helps your tenant. As Experian explains, “This quick turnaround and robust data impacts every point of decision making – from identifying higher-quality residents and improving bad-debt recovery to streamlining the collections process.” As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to using ClearNow to handle rent payments for your property. If you want to spend less time collecting and processing rent, while providing excellent features to your tenant, start using ClearNow today. Send us a message online if you have any question about using our services.

Introducing Tenant E-Signatures for Faster and Easier Tenant Enrollments

We’re happy to announce that we have incorporated e-signatures into our online enrollment process for tenants.

Tenants no longer need to print, sign, scan, and email the tenant form to us. Recently, many tenants have let us know that they did not have access to a printer and wanted to complete the enrollment process just with their smartphone. Their wish has been granted!

Tenants can now use their smartphone or computer to complete the tenant form entirely online. After they complete the form online, they just need to email a photo of their voided check, bank statement, or direct deposit form.

It is easy to get tenants to use our e-signature process. Landlords simply log into their ClearNow accounts and click on the ‘Add Tenants’ menu choice. Follow the instructions to “Email the form to your tenant”. The email that tenants receive gives them the link to use the new online signature process.

How Long Does It Take To Get Tenant Screening To Work?

You can have a complete tenant screening report delivered to you in seconds. This powerful and hassle-free tenant screening service enables landlords to set up an account, request authorization from the applicant, and almost instantly receive the applicant’s complete report. It will include the applicant’s credit score, criminal background check, eviction report, and an easy-to-understand recommendation!

Why is Tenant Screening So Useful for Landlords?

Tenant screening is useful for landlords because it provides insight into the type of tenant an individual might be before committing them to a lease. Tenant screening with TransUnion’s SmartMove, enables landlords to learn more about a tenant’s background through their credit score, criminal background check, eviction report, and an easy-to-understand recommendation. To learn more, visit ClearNow.MySmartMove.com.

Why would I use ClearNow’s income/expense tracking feature?

ClearNow‘s income and expense tracking feature is a FREE tool that makes it easier to track rental income and expenses. It provides instant “Profit and Loss” reports with clickable links for details as well as a “Schedule E Helper” report that saves hours during tax time. When you use ClearNow for electronic rent collection, the rent collected and associated fees are automatically recorded as income and expenses, saving you more time.

How does my tenant sign up for ClearNow?

Once you have set up your ClearNow account, you may email the tenant enrollment agreement to your tenant. The tenant may also access a blank copy of the form by going to www.clearnow.com, select the “Tenants” tab, choose the correct debit day, and print the form. The tenant must complete and submit the form along with bank documentation either by email to support@clearnow.com or fax to 919-680-4700.

How can a property management company use ClearNow to collect rent?

A property manager can enroll in ClearNow to receive electronic rent payments by completing and submitting the ClearNow Property Manager enrollment agreement with their bank documentation. Once their ClearNow account is set up, they may have the tenant and property owner submit their enrollment materials. The owner will receive owner proceeds from the tenant’s rent payments. The property manager would assign the amount he/she should receive and the amount the property owner should receive from each rent payment. Both of their deposits would occur three banking days after the tenant’s debit day.