Acceptable Forms of Rent

[Brian Pleshek]

I've been a landlord for most of 20 years. But I've been a small fry. The most my wife and I have owned was 5 SFHs at once. In the past, payments were accepted by personal check or cash. These properties were in B- neighborhoods or better so safety was never an issue. The rare personal check that bounced was made good shortly. Most of those properties have been divested and I currently have one rented and another ready to market. I have allowed my current tenant to deposit money into a bank account set up just for the property. I get a text from the bank when the deposit is made and it's been hands off for about 3 years. I do understand that I may be playing with fire here with the tenant claiming I "accepted" funds just because they put it in there. Maybe this is a bad idea and I've just been lucky. Thoughts?

I want to start running this more as a business and less as a hobby now so I want to do it right. So I'd like everyone's opinions on how to accept funds.

Cash - I've heard the stories about safety, but if this is a good neighborhood, is there a problem accepting cash?

Personal Check - This seems to be becoming more and more of a risk as time goes by. But it used to be the standard. Thoughts?

Money Order - This seems to be secure money. But it also seems to me to be inconvenient for my customers. I only have required these in the past for tenants that have personal check issues.

Cashier's check - This seems to be secure money. But it also seems to me to be inconvenient for my customers. I only have required these in the past for tenants that have personal check issues.

Credit Card/Bank Card - I worry about the possibility of a tenant marking this as a fraudulent charge at some point. I might have to worry about PCI compliance issues(IE responsibility for stolen CC numbers, etc).

Online Payment Service - These seem convenient, but I worry about the same issue I would have if I were to accept a credit card. Obviously, they'd have to be PCI compliant.

PayPal - Paypal seems to be buyer centric and seems like it might be a bad deal for me. Thoughts?

Phone - Some payments can be made via your cell phone now a days. This seems weird to me, but maybe. Might be integrated with an online payment service.

Did I miss any ?

Thanks,

Brian