Best rent collection application?

Question

Hey guys,

I am just about to close on my first rental property and I am trying to find the best app to collect rents and help manage my property. Can I get a few suggestions please?

John Underwood · Answer

I have found the best way is for people to go to my bank and deposit the rent directly into my business account. No app required and its free.

Kenny Dahill · Answer

@Robert Wentland, there are several choices but all practically the same.  There are settle differences between a few.

Typically these questions can help you start to short-list.

• Type of Payments:  Depending on your class of tenants, you might need a solution for cash payers.  Do you expect your tenants to be tech friendly and want to ePay?
• Reports:  Are there any kind of reports that you need or want?  The professional grade of software have a slew of reports because their typical user is a property manager, they provide reports to their clients.  A lot of landlords utilize their own accounting software and do not need that functionality.
• Team:  Will you be the only person managing or does another person need access? Professional grade software is built for this since there are numerous users at each management firm.  If you're an individual, perhaps you only need 1-2 other users. Or none.

Barb Asay · Answer

I was doing this as well.  But it makes me nervous that the teller might print the account balance on their receipt, despite being told specifically not to. (Local bank,  not chain)

We have switched  most our tenants to Cozy.  They seem to like it and I like being able to offer a free online option.  I don’t like that they don’t have an app

Joe Splitrock · Answer

@Robert Wentland we have used Cozy.co for several years. They are now owned by CoStar who owns Loopnet and other real estate businesses. I have been happy in general, but there are lots of options that were not available when I was looking. I would actually consider Zillow as a good option. They do applications, screening and rent collection now. The advantage of using them is they are are going to be your main source of rental leads, so you can keep it all in one place. There are other companies like eRentpayments that have been around for years.

@Maya Roberts I had never heard of Burbz, so I am curious why you selected that company? Doing a quick check, it appears they are newer to the business. It is also worth mentioning that @Kenny Dahill is the founder. Forum rules don't allow him to promote his own company, so Maya if you could elaborate on your decision to use them, that would be great. I am always interested in new options.

Dylan Phillips · Answer

Cozy.co or Zumper.com

I have not heard anything bad about either of them in my experience. Not sure what their fees are, however. I hope this helps. If you need a contact at Zumper, I have one :)

Maya Roberts · Answer

I started using Burbz for our management software.  My husband and I own a few rentals, they offered everything we needed.  We primarily use Burbz for rent collection tenant screening reports.

Our tenants wanted to use Venmo for payments but we required them to use ACH.  We felt more comfortable with that choice and able to connect to our 'real estate bank account'.

Robert Wentland · Answer

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I have ended up going with cozy. So far I really like it.

Matt R. · Answer

I use Cozy.co.  I wrote a big post about it here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Maya Roberts · Answer

Gladly @Joe Splitrock.

What makes BiggerPockets great is interacting with people on the forums!  We were researching potential software options already.  I saw some of Kenny's posts on landlord forums about handling tenants and reached out to him directly.  He was very transparent and honest in our conversation, which we appreciated.

You're absolutely correct, they're newer.  Being from Silicon Valley I am accustomed to being an early adopter.  They are still building out features but I appreciated their vision for the company.  Their goal is larger than management software!  I will respect their privacy and not share the details but it impressed us enough to support their vision.

We did our research and felt comfortable going with Burbz.  There were a couple features we wanted but had to wait for.  Although true to his word, they did deliver that feature in the relative timeframe (manually add income/expense items). We only have a few rentals so the ramification to transition to another software isn't too much work if we decide to switch.  Ultimately we decided on Burbz because of our interaction with Kenny, their vision and their honesty.  Now we try to support them the best we can because startups need all the help they can get.

Mike S. · Answer

Cash App is my current favorite.  It clears to my account in a day even though they say 2 days.

Best rent collection application?

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