We are quickly moving towards an overhaul of how we pay for essential services. Once, cash was king and checks convenient. However, now more than ever it’s important to find solutions to provide alternative methods to collect rent that serves both the tenant and the landlord’s business needs. Yes, your property management office can go cashless with a little help from good property management software and their cash payment partner.
Article Highlights:
- The Pitfalls of Accepting Cash in the Office
- Benefits of Cash Payment Electronic Rent Collection
- Tenants Benefit From Cash Payment Alternatives
- Rentec Direct and PayNearMe Partnership
- Bonus Tenant Handouts: Cash Payment (PayNearMe) Marketing Kit
The Pitfalls of Accepting Cash in the Office
There are liabilities with accepting cash payments in the office. Embezzlement and fraud are real-world problems in property management.
Even the most upright front staff can accidentally mishandle cash by either miscounting or performing data-entry errors in the property management software. There is always the risk of losing or misplacing a deposit on the way to the bank as well. Remember George in It’s a Wonderful Life when he accidentally misplaced the bank deposit?
In addition to liabilities related to loss or embezzlement, handling cash comes with a potential health risk as well. According to this Time article titled, Dirty Money, ‘paper money can reportedly transport a live flu virus for up to 17 days’. Bacteria and viruses alike found on cash could potentially infect anyone handling the money.
In 2002 a study in the Southern Medical Journal found 94% of dollar bills tested found pathogens including staphylococcus.
The Downside of Rent Paid by Check
You’ve heard the saying, ‘the check’s in the mail’ and when you hear it from a tenant, it oftentimes accompanies, ‘if you haven’t received it yet, the post office must have lost it’.
Waiting for a check to arrive and checking up on tenants for payment cuts into not only your time but also your property management cash flow and slows down your ability to pay your owners, pay expenses, and as importantly, pay yourself.
Once a check, whether in the form of a personal check, cashier’s check, or money order does arrive, you still have the time expenditure of data entry and the drive to the bank to deposit; not to mention the wait for the check to clear or the hassle of a bounced check.
Benefits of Cash Payment Electronic Rent Collection
Some tenants appreciate the option to pay their rent in cash, especially if they either don’t have access to traditional banking or get paid in cash. Instead of accepting cash (checks, money orders, etc.) at your office, you can offer your tenants the ability to pay in cash at convenient locations.
This switch to having a third party handle cash on your behalf comes with many benefits to landlords and property managers such as:
Reduce Late Payments and Non-Payments
Automate Accounting and Reporting
Reduce Rent Collection and Deposit Tasks
Reduces Risks of Handling Cash in the Office
Tenants Benefit From Cash Payment Alternatives
Even if your office has a policy of not accepting cash, it’s likely you still collect personal checks, money orders, and cashier’s checks. Whether cash or check, the benefits to the tenant in offering them a cash payment alternative include:
Saving Time: Tenants can save a trip to the bank and save a stamp. No need for them to go to the bank to purchase a money order or cashier’s check. No need to take the extra step to mail in or drop-off their payment.
Saving Money: Some tenants who don’t have traditional banking accounts rely on purchasing money orders and cashier’s checks to pay rent and those are expensive. Transaction fees for paying by cash at a Cash Payment location is less expensive than the fee for purchasing a money order or cashier’s check. In those cases, offering those tenants a cash payment alternative saves them money.
Peace of Mind: Tenants don’t have to worry about when a personal check will arrive and be processed at the rental office. By using a cash payment alternative, the payment is automatically posted in the property management software and the tenant portal within 15 minutes. What a relief for a tenant who forgot to mail or drop-off their rent payment! They can run to a convenient location to quickly pay their rent before a late fee is posted.
Security: Tenants no longer have to worry about a lost or stolen check in the mail or cash not being recorded accurately.
Another day, another empty mailbox. Accepting checks by mail can cut into not only your time but also your property management cash flow which slows down your ability to pay your owners, pay expenses, and as importantly, pay yourself
Rentec Direct and PayNearMe Partnership
PayNearMe – a cash payment solution – in partnership with Rentec Direct makes collecting rent by cash efficient, affordable, and easy for everyone. The cash payment network allows your tenants to pay cash at tens of thousands of nationwide locations.
If you are a Rentec Direct client with 10 or more tenants paying with cash or money order, your management software gives you the best option to eliminate processing checks, money orders, cash, and cashier’s checks in-house.
It is easy to sign up for electronic rent collection for cash paying tenants with our partnership with PayNearMe. You can go cashless (and checkless) in as little as one to two weeks with an easy application.
Bonus Tenant Handouts
To make it even easier for our clients, we’ve created handouts to offer your tenants to encourage them to use the payment system after you’ve enrolled. The Cash Payments PayNearMe Marketing Material gives you everything you need to get your renters on board with paying rent in cash to make your job in property management easier.
The marketing material kit .pdf can be printed or downloaded and is available for you here: Cash Payments PayNearMe Marketing Material Kit
PayNearMe also offers a one-sheet printable .pdf handout located here: PayNearMe Cash Rent Payments
In addition to creating these and other downloads and printables, Rentec Direct is committed to bringing the best resources and tools together for our clients to make their jobs easier. We provide a robust Knowledge Base, YouTube Channel, and Webinar Series to help landlords save time and money.
RELATED READING FOR YOU:
- New Feature: Unleashing the Power of Cash Payments
- 7 Online Tools to Managing Your Rental Properties Remotely
- Webinar Recap: PayNearMe – Electronic Rent Collection for Cash Paying Tenants