Property Management Accounting Software – Improve Your Rent Collection with These Easy Tips

As a property manager, one of your most critical roles is ensuring that revenues keep flowing in.  Rent collection must be among your highest priorities.  Of course, there’s a true art to collecting rent in a way which doesn’t anger tenants or cause complaints.  A wise property manager can easily boost their on-time payment rates, without resorting to threats or other antagonistic behavior.

Here are a few tips.

Four Great Ways to Improve Your Rent Collection 

1. Be a good property manager. 

The more that tenants perceive themselves as receiving value from their rented property, the more likely they are to pay up promptly every month.  Keep lines of communication to your office open and be vigilant about responding to maintenance requests and similar matters.

If you’re prompt in responding to their needs, they’re much more likely to be prompt in responding to yours.

2. Have clearly-posted payment policies and penalties.

There should never be any question about your property’s policies regarding payments, or what penalties may be assessed for non-compliance.  Beyond keeping tenants informed, this also protects you from rules lawyers who might try to find loopholes in your policies.  (Or at least discourage them from wasting your time arguing about the rules.)

3. Keep a constant stream of notifications coming.

Don’t only send one monthly bill or other notice.  Have a steady stream of reminders both before rent is due, and -if necessary- after a tenant has gone past due.  Relying on your tenants to always remember the date and amount will usually result in disappointment.  Some gentle reminders can substantially increase on-time payments.  A good property management accounting software package can automate these notices.

4. Offer more payment options.

This is probably the #1 way of increasing the rate at which tenants pay on time.  Don’t restrict them to just a couple payment methods or force them to pay in-person.  There are numerous options for electronic payments as well, ranging from direct bank debits to modern Internet-based systems like PayPal.    More options will inspire more on-time payments.

Improve Your Revenues with Asyst6 Property Management Accounting Software

Why do everything yourself?  The Asyst6 property management accounting software suite gives you the capability to automate and easily oversee everything mentioned in this article.  With a fully integrated online payment portal and robust auto-messaging features, Asyst6 quickly pays for itself.  Contact us to learn more.