Do you send invoices or monthly SMS/ Email Reminders to tenants? See my free and automated method for small-time landlords

[Jeff Bridges]

Do you send invoices or monthly SMS/ Email Reminders to tenants? If so, what service do you use or do you do it manually? What free options exist? 

I think I found a good one using IFFT website. I created a automatic recipe that sends reminders to my tenants on the 28th of each month that rent is due soon. This is completely automatic and it can be used with tenants that only have a cell phone and no email since you can lookup the cell phone email that gets sent to tenant as a text message using gmail.

I'm going to start using this for my tenants that are unable to use williampaid or other online rent payment service.

Take a look below:

https://ifttt.com/recipes/250964-landlord-rent-reminder-for-tenants-send-sms-email-reminder-on-28th-of-each-month

this is how you lookup the tenant SMS email equivalent for their carrier:

http://www.freecarrierlookup.com/

Would you rather get late fees or on time payments?

What do you think of the IFFT recipe? Can it be improved?

[Marcia Maynard]

Our tenants learn when rent is due when they sign the rental agreement. They learn to pay their rent on time because we send them a Rent Past Due letter if they don't and it includes enforcement of our $50 late fee. Rent is due on the first, late on the second, and if they don't pay by the fifth, we charge the $50 late fee on the sixth. This builds in a short grace period for the late fee to take into account holidays and weekends. If I don't see the rent come in from a tenant who usually pays on or before the first, I might call them on the fifth to check in on them.  I don't need to hold our tenants hands. They appreciate that I treat them as responsible adults who are capable of paying their rent and utility bills without needing to be reminded.