Rent Collection Option for Smaller Operations

[Corey Mohar]

Up until this year I've used Venmo to collect rent from my tenants, and it has been very convenient for both me and them. However, due to the recent changes as of this year, I stopped accepting Venmo as payment. I'm more than happy to receive a check form my tenants, but they find it much easier to handle rent with online services. And it's hard to argue with them as I prefer electronic transfers as well. 

I currently only own one unit as a sole proprietor, but am looking to expand this year. However, I plan on buying my next property under an LLC. I've looked into products, RentecDirect as an example, and I just worry that they may be overkill at this stage. I'm also worried if mixing properties from a sole proprietorship and an LLC poses any challenges when considering these kinds of options.

Does anybody have any positive experiences with any software or companies that aren't going to gouge your cash flow? Or any feedback on my concerns with juggling a sole proprietorship with an LLC or even multiple LLCs when using these services?

[Justin Hoggatt]

Hey Corey!  I hope you're well! 

Although I have a larger operation and use Appfolio myself, I started smaller and utilized a couple software solutions. One was Rentec when there were getting started. I then moved to TenantCloud and have a couple others that used that and we have all enjoyed that platform a lot. I think that would work well for what you're referencing here. It provides great options to pay including maintenance requests, applications, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about sole vs LLC when trying to figure out a software - they don't care if you're the user.