Collecting Rent in person - Landlord Forum thread 358769

Collecting Rent in person by Jim on November 28, 2018 @10:34

Over the years I have collected the rent in person because that is the way I was taught when I was younger.
Many of my tenants do not have phones or maybe they have cell phones and do not give me the number...

It is increasingly obvious lately that they won't answer the door when I come to call for the rent payment.
We have it in the lease that I will come for the rent at a specific time on a specific day.
It is become a huge waste of time. I have 4 properties.

Anyone else having problems like this? Any suggestions?

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Re: Collecting Rent in person by Thomas on November 28, 2018 @11:04	[ Reply ]

Hello Jim, I supply my tenants with deposit slips and they deposit on the 1st of the month. Others will use bill payer or similar electronic transfers. Quite a few tenants do cash and use the deposit slip at my bank. This makes my life easier and since I have a day job and many tenants no need to try to collect in person. If they let you in I can see the benefit of checking out the property for cleanliness. Thanks, -Tom

Re: Collecting Rent in person by AnonymousFL on November 28, 2018 @12:16	[ Reply ]

I assume you charge a late fee if they do not pay on time...so charge it if they do not pay the rent as their lease states. However, the idea of collecting in person at the tenant's door is kind of an old fashioned idea these days. I would suggest you update your lease with a second option: give them the option of mailing the rent in the form of a check, bank check, or money order and use the post mark as the pay date (you could use the receipt date as the pay date, but then you are making it tougher on yourself).

Re: Collecting Rent in person by LAMAC66 on November 29, 2018 @17:33	[ Reply ]

Yes, this is super old school and unprofessional. If they don't give you their number how do they let you know if there is any maintenance issues to resolve? Odd. As someone suggested give them some sort of slips to mail rent or drop off, other than your resident. But that is old school too. I suggest research online payment options. Many to chose from that are very simple to set up. No more waste of your time. Good luck.

Re: Collecting Rent in person by jhcumm@aol.com on December 2, 2018 @11:55	[ Reply ]

I have been collecting rent for thirty five years from some of the worst and also best parts of town. I used to cringe when the kids would announce my arrival as the rent man in an area known for gangs. Inmho the most important landlord job is to get the rent so you must do whatever it takes. cash, paypal, checks, sec. 8, partial rent, just get it. My book "Landlord" at Amazon has a free preview http://a.co/8t5ozXc I cover all this and much more including how I have acquired twenty five property's with next to nothing but perseverance. I live off my rentals and so can you.

Re: Collecting Rent in person

Re: Collecting Rent in person by Kenny on December 7, 2018 @09:12	[ Reply ]

In the past, I've allowed a renter to make direct deposits into a bank account. It worked well for years, until it was time to evict her. Once the eviction process is started, the landlord cannot accept rent. The bank would not allow me to freeze/ place a hold on the account. I ended up opening a new account. Moving forward, I will request for rent to be mailed, so I can have control over certain processes.

Re: Collecting Rent in person by Cerise on December 29, 2018 @18:21	[ Reply ]

I have my routing number and account number on Page 1 of the lease. I offer a $50 discount for paying on or before the 1st. They are instructed on Page 1 to mail or otherwise their payment to my bank. Some do, some go in person to the bank. I rarely have a problem. I allow one tenant to mail their check to me because their bank doesn't have Zelle. I deposit that check via smartphone. Keeping everything smooth and automatic works very well for me.

Re: Collecting Rent in person by Mildred on May 24, 2019 @07:49	[ Reply ]

This happened with me also. Therefore, after that I started taking my payments by checks by mail. And some other electronic transfers. This was very easy and effective.