How to Collect Rent Online

Online rent collection is the easiest and most reliable way to get paid each month. In fact, landlords who accept automatic online rent payments are five times more likely to get their rent on time compared to those who accept checks or cash.

It’s no wonder many landlords have moved to a system of online rent collection that simplifies the process for themselves and their tenants. However, then you may be wondering how to collect rent online and what rent collection app to use for your rental if you’re a first-time landlord.

Here’s how to start collecting rent online, and receive your rent payments on time each month with answers to common questions regarding online rent collection.

What’s the Best Way to Collect Rent Online?

There are plenty of ways to collect rent online, but it’s important to understand how different rent collection apps differ from each other. Payment platforms like PayPal will charge a business fee, while Zelle doesn’t offer protections that are often needed when money is exchanged between two unrelated parties (i.e., a renter and a landlord). 

That’s why most landlords prefer using a payment platform that’s designed for rent payments and provides essential documentation like receipts, rent reminders, and payment tracking. 

How Does Online Rent Collection Work?

Whether you’re still accepting cash or checks or you’re looking for a better rent collection method designed for landlords, it’s easy to start collecting online with Avail.

Simply create an account, enter your rent amount and lease dates, and give us your tenant’s name and email address. Our system sends them an invitation email to help them set up their account and make their first online rent payment. The money will then be deposited directly into your account.

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What If Some Tenants Want to Pay Rent Online but Others Don’t?

If some of your tenants want to pay online but others don’t, that’s fine. Online payments aren’t going to work for every tenant, so you have the option to collect rent offline and, if they choose, manually add those payments to their Avail account.

This way, landlords have a clear record of what payments they received during the year, and all rent payments will show up on your automatically-generated rent report, which is especially helpful at tax time.

Some states do allow landlords to dictate how tenants pay rent online, so refer to local landlord-tenant laws to confirm.

How Do I Get Rent Payments Deposited the Next Day?

Standard rent payments through Avail usually take about three days to transfer and deposit into a bank account, compared to seven to 10 days on some other rental management platforms. But if you need to access your rent payments even faster, you can explore options like FastPay that deposit the funds as fast as the next business day.

Note that some other rental platforms charge extra for three-day payments and do not offer next-day payments, so it’s important to see what your payment and collection options are before committing to any platform.

How Do I Collect Rent on Time Every Month?

Dealing with late payments can be stressful, especially if those payments are used to cover expenses like a mortgage or property taxes. To help encourage on-time rent payments each month, you can explore platforms that make paying rent easier for tenants or enforce late fees (if allowed in your state).When collecting rent with Avail, tenants can easily schedule upcoming rent payments with Autopay to automatically withdraw the funds each month.

Avail also offers benefits that can encourage tenants to pay their rent by the due date like CreditBoost*, which allows them to report on-time rent payments to TransUnion to build their FICO 9, FICO XD, and VantageScore for $3.95/per reported month. 

Both the landlord and the tenant can see when a payment has been made and when it’s deposited, so there’s more visibility on the rent collection process. If you’ve scheduled upcoming payments, our system will automatically email tenants rent reminders and charge late fees once a payment is officially considered late — removing the need for you to do it yourself each month.  

What Are the Different Ways My Tenants Can Pay Rent?

It’s important to give tenants flexibility in how they’re able to pay rent, so tenants can pay with a bank account, debit card, or credit card with Avail. They can connect multiple payment methods to their account, so they can switch between payment methods depending on the month or their budget. With each payment, they will receive payment confirmations and receipts, which removes the need to provide them with receipts yourself. 

Avail also allows roommates to easily split up the rent and pay what they owe. Both landlords and tenants can see who owes what, the date each roommate’s rent money was withdrawn, and the date that rent money will be deposited into the landlord’s account.

How Can I Stop a Rent Payment During an Eviction?

One of the most important aspects of a rent collection platform is the ability to stop a payment. If you’re in the process of evicting a tenant, accepting a payment as small as $1 can stop the eviction process altogether. 

If you’re in a situation where you need to stop rent collection to ensure you don’t accidentally receive money from a tenant, Avail allows you to prevent a tenant from scheduling any new payments. You can also accept or deny a payment to avoid the funds unknowingly being deposited to your account. 

How Do I Keep Track of Rent Receipts and Payment Documentation?

When collecting rent from tenants, it’s important to track all of your rental income for when you’re preparing your rental property taxes or analyzing the profitability of your property. You can do this manually with a spreadsheet or leverage rental property accounting software in Avail to streamline the process for you.

Payments collected through Avail (security deposits, move-in fees, pet fees, and more) automatically populate to your accounting dashboard to see how much rental income one property has generated. You can export the dashboard as a spreadsheet to share with tax professionals or further customize to your liking — for free. 

Collect Rent Online With Landlord Software

If you’re done with paper checks or cash and you’re ready to collect and track rent more efficiently, use a platform that’s made specifically for rent payments like Avail. In addition to saving you time when collecting rent payments, Avail offers benefits to tenants that can encourage on-time rent payments and make it easy for them to submit payments on any device, in minutes. 

Create an account or log in to invite your tenants to Avail and begin collecting rent online like a pro.