Are you a Salt Lake City landlord looking for a way to make rent collection easier for you and your tenants? We can help.
How you collect rent from your tenants plays a huge role in ensuring that you get your payments on time. You always want to make things as easy as possible for tenants to pay you, but there are policies and procedures that you should put in place to prevent any mishaps.
In this post, we're going to tell you how to collect rent so that it's always stress-free for everyone involved. Keep reading and you'll never have to worry about rent collection for your property investment.
Be Flexible, But Not Too Flexible
One of the things you can do to build a rapport with your tenants is to give them a grace period with rent. People can fall on hard times, and the stress of paying bills can trickle down to you. If your tenants know you're lenient, they'll probably go the extra mile to ensure you get your money.
Be clear that this is a grace period only, however. Whether it's three days or a week, make sure that your tenants know that this isn't a rent exemption and there will be consequences for exceeding the grace period.
Tenant Selection Matters
Whom you choose to live in your investment properties plays a big role in getting your rent on time. During the tenant screening process, it helps to look into the credit history and banking information, but it's also important to talk to their previous landlord.
If a tenant has a history of late rent payments, it's probably best to keep looking.
Be Clear In Your Rental Agreements
When you're drafting your rental agreement, make it clear how and when rent is to be paid every month. Outline the physical and/or online rent collection methods that you accept, as well as the aforementioned grace period.
The clearer you are in your rental agreement, the easier it'll be to enforce these rental rules. In the event of an eviction, providing a clear and concise rental agreement will play a major role.
Use Multiple Forms of Collection
One way to make it easy for your tenants to pay you is to offer multiple forms of rent collection. Not everyone is comfortable with rent collection online, so be ready to pick up checks or cash as well. This mostly applies to older tenants who don't do online banking.
For your other tenants, choose one of the many online money transfer apps that are available. There are landlord-specific ones that make it easy to get your money.
Hire Property Management for Rent Collection
No landlord should have to chase down their tenants for rent. If you're finding that you don't have the time or energy to deal with rent collection every month, it might be time to hire a property manager for your Salt Lake City investment property.
Home River Group is one of the biggest property managers in the country, helping thousands of landlords with tenant selection, property maintenance, and rent collection. To learn more about our services and how we can help to maximize your investment, contact us today.
