How Online Rent Payment Can Benefit Landlords and Tenants WWW.CLEARNOW.COM

Did you realize that over 100 million people in the United States rent their living space? With all of the renters in this country, there is no mystery as to why so many investors are buying up residential real estate. If you are relatively new to the world of being a landlord, finding a way to make this new investment easy to handle should be one of your main goals.

If you are looking for a way to make paying rent easier for your tenants, then using an online payment processing hub is a good idea. Often times, the providers of these services make signing up easy for tenants.

Read below to find out more about how online rent payment can benefit you as a landlord and your tenants. 

The Power to Schedule Recurring Payments

Going through the hassle of writing a check and mailing it is something most tenants want to avoid. In most cases, an online payment option will entice a tenant to set up recurring payments. Doing this allows the tenant to keep their rent payments on time without having to worry about making them manually.

Recurring payments are also beneficial for a landlord. With recurring payments, a landlord will be able to avoid reminding tenants to pay what they are owed. Studies found that nearly half of the consumers in the United States prefer to pay their bills online. This is why offering in an online rent pay option is so beneficial.

Electronic Payment Reminders

Most rental property owners and landlords have an extremely full schedule. Often times, this schedule will prohibit them from being intimately involved in the day to day operations of their properties. If you are a property owner looking for a way to make on-time rent payments a near certainty, online payment options are a must.

If you get all of your tenants to sign-up for online pay, you will be able to send out reminders that rent is due days in advance. This not only saves you from having to physically remind each tenant, it will also help you avoid late payments.

Making Your Tenants Happier

Being able to make a rent payment from a mobile phone or computer is convenient. Your main goal as a landlord should be finding ways to increase the level of contentment your tenants have.

With the addition of this technologically advance payment option, you can make life easier for your tenants. Making an effort to increase convenience can help you keep tenants loyal, which can reduce your turnover rate substantially.

A Safer Way to Pay Rent

Most people are a bit hesitant to put a check for a large amount in the mailbox. There have been numerous cases where criminals have stolen checks out of mailboxes and cashed them. Rather than making tenants deal with the risk of mailing a rent check, you can offer them a secure online portal to make their payments on.

A 21st Century Payment Solution

If you are looking for a way to attract younger tenants, then online rent payment options are a must. While it will take a while to get acclimated to this change, it is well worth the effort you invest.

How ClearNow Simplifies Property Management and Rent Collection

Being a landlord or property manager is more complicated than people think. Many responsibilities need to be handled, and the more units there are to manage, the harder it becomes. Property managers and landlords can make things easier for themselves by using technology. ClearNow has several tools that simplify property management and rent collection for landlords.

ClearNow is an online payment system for property managers and landlords that allows for automatic payments and direct deposits to the owner. Using ClearNow is beneficial for everyone involved. For landlords and property managers, automated rent payment eliminates a trip to collect the rent, the time spent processing all of the checks, and waiting at the bank for the teller to review all of the payments. ClearNow can save landlords and property managers hours of time each month. With these benefits, the ClearNow system pays for itself in time savings.

Tenants love online payment systems because they can quickly pay their rent without mailing a check or getting a money order. It may only save the tenant a little bit of time, but if you didn’t have online payments before, they would certainly appreciate the upgrade. Similarly, property owners don’t get any more money by switching to automated payments, but it removes the wait time and uncertainty. When you use ClearNow, you and the property owner know precisely when the money will hit the account. In the competitive marketplace for property management, using ClearNow can be what sets your company apart from other management firms.

Once you start using ClearNow, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. As Lisa G., one of our customers, wrote, “I can’t believe how easy rent collection with ClearNow is and how I never have to hunt down a tenant for money – it’s automatically in my account on the expected date!”

ClearNow is a system you can trust. We have provided automated rent payment services for nearly 20 years. And with 19 years of history, we have still maintained a perfect rating with the Better Business Bureau.

One of the things our clients like about our system is the simple and affordable pricing. There are no setup fees, and you only pay based on how many deposits you plan to make. Fees are only charged when you attempt to debit a tenant. If you do it once a month, it’s just $14.95 per month. It’s an extra $2 per month for each additional tenant and $2 per tenant to directly deposit the owner’s bank account. To make bimonthly payments, you add an extra $4 per debit. With our low pricing, it’s easy for anyone to add this service without coming out of pocket. The money you pay for ClearNow will quickly be recouped in time saved on other duties.

ClearNow is a rent collection and property management system for everyone. Even if you only have one property with a single unit, you can sign up for automated payments that will make your monthly responsibilities that much easier. We’ve even made the enrollment process simple. All you need to do is Submit a one-page authorization form with your voided check. Once your account is set up, you start enrolling tenants today. If you’re interested in using ClearNow, you can read more information on our F.A.Q. page or go ahead and enroll today so you can simplify your rent collection.

Introducing Landlord ESignatures for Easier and Faster Enrollments

We have made enrolling for online rent payment a whole lot easier for landlords and property managers!  We had such success with tenants enrolling with our esignature process that we have now applied it to the landlord enrollment.  Landlords now simply esign the online form and email bank documentation to us.  They no longer need to print, sign, scan, and email the enrollment form.  Everything can be done on their phones!

To enroll, landlords simply go to www.ClearNow.com to start the online enrollment process.  They will receive emails on how to send us bank documentation and on when they are enrolled.

How Does My Tenant Sign Up For ClearNow?

To enroll in ClearNow, your tenant needs to submit the Tenant Enrollment Agreement and his/her bank documentation to us. 

You can email the Agreement to your tenant from within your ClearNow account.  Your tenant will complete the form online, esign it, and then email bank documentation to us.  We will email you when your tenant’s enrollment materials are complete.  At that point, you will log into your ClearNow account, set the debit amount and lease end date, and click “Save”.  That’s it!  It is really that easy!

4 Ways That Using ClearNow Can Help Landlords and Tenants

Managing rental property is harder than many people realize when they first start 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 Collecting Rent Online

Getting rent payment from a tenant can be surprisingly problematic. When people pay by check, some checks will get lost in the mail, which slows down payment receipt. You have to wait for the tenant to send a new payment or travel to pick up the rent in person. ClearNow makes it easier for tenants to pay rent online. With ClearNow, you get the service you need without having to run your own secure website for financial transactions. ClearNow has provided online 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

Using ClearNow for collecting rent also provides additional benefits. For example, landlords have access to tenant screening that will help them find good tenants and fill vacancies. Additionally, many online rent payment services do not have phone support. It’s good practice to offer some technical support for tenants who may not be comfortable with computers or the internet. With ClearNow, tenants can call with questions Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm ET. If your tenants are having trouble setting up their account or have other issues, we’re here to help.

Ensure Landlords Get Paid on Time

For many property owners, it’s essential they get their rent payments promptly. Landlords may rely on rent to pay expenses related to property management. When you use ClearNow, rent is always directly deposited three banking days after the debit day. Each ClearNow account debits on a specific day and credits to a specific bank account. 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 can build their credit history 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 for online rent payment. If you want to spend less time collecting and processing rent, while providing excellent features to your tenant, start using ClearNow today.

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.