Web-based rent collection gains in popularity
For more landlords these days, the check is in the e-mail.
Property managers are increasingly collecting rents from tenants in electronic form, using Internet-based payment mechanisms or setting up online systems.
For example, Buildium LLC of Boston creates Web-based systems for property management with software options for landlords and private portals for tenants. Tenants can set up automatic monthly deductions from their bank accounts, and both parties have an electronic record of when the rent was paid.
"It's real important when you have hundreds of small tenants," said John Kiger , leasing director for GTI Properties in Boston, which rents studio space to many artists in the South End. GTI has up to 35 artists renting space in a 10,000- square-foot building that might normally house a single commercial tenant. And when rent date rolls around, some of those artists are on vacation or out of town for other reasons. So paying online eliminates a host of potential hassles.
Indeed, some of GTI's tenants said it makes paying rent as painless as possible.
Kevin Kelly , a violin maker, said he has automatic payments set up wherever he can because he "detests" paperwork. "Overall I don't think much about it, which is fine with me."
Timothy Craig , who describes himself as a "Boston cityscape artist," said the system allows him to "dwell on what is deeply profound and timeless, not banal and monthly."
Craig said the electronic transfer rent payment takes care of the monthly chore and frees him from the routine of calculating how late he can be with a payment "without reprimand."
At the Quarry Hills Luxury Apartments in Quincy, about half of the tenants in the 316 units have signed up for the online payment system the property owner set up just months ago. Community manager Stacey Holstrom said the online system is one of those simple timesavers for tenants.
"Even for a one-time payment they don't have to come down to the office."
Electronic transfer payments are not new to the property-management business, said Michael Monteiro , 34 , the president of Buildium.
What services like Buildium bring to the table are Internet-based systems with software options that remove the tenant's bank from the middleman role.
The company sets up Web accounts without high transaction fees. The system also provides statements, rent requests, and notices. If a tenant wants to cancel a payment or withdraw from the system altogether -- because of moving, for instance -- the tenant can do it and not have to rely on the bank to cancel the transaction. "The tenants are empowered," said Monteiro.
Buildium developed from its founders' experience as property owners. While working as a technical consultant, Monteiro owned rental units in Providence . "We started having trouble collecting rents," he said. "It's especially a problem in college towns like Boston and Providence."
Renting to college students living with roommates means "you have to accept separate checks" -- increasing the number of potential payment tracking problems. Some tenants claimed their roommates were just not getting the rent checks in time.
"We started to look for a perpetual management software," Monteiro said. "Nothing was available on the Web. We decided to create one for ourselves."
The service is almost always cost free for renters. Property managers want to encourage tenants to adopt the option because of the benefit to them, so they pay the fee themselves. Buildium charges 50 cents a payment, Monteiro said, but property mangers find the system pays for itself through savings on collection costs.
Nat Philbin , 23 , who works in the rental industry, said electronic payments can ease tensions among roommates, especially for the tenant whose name is on the lease who sometimes might have to repeatedly ask for housemates' monthly share. "It's a burden for people whose name is on the lease," said Philbin. A Roslindale resident, Philbin wishes his landlord would offer electronic rent payment.
Corcoran Property , a property manager with 8,000 apartments, many of them large buildings in the suburbs, such as Weymouth Commons and Faxon Commons in Quincy, doesn't currently have an electronic payment system, but is looking into it.
"It looks like the latest thing," said Rich High , a spokesman for parent company John M. Corcoran & Co. of Braintree.
"Major property managers all have websites. People look for apartments online, they apply for them online," High said. "The next logical step is to pay online."
