Feedback on RentRedi

[Brendon Kerrigan]

Hi BP Community,

I am about to place my first tenant and I used the $1 trial with RentRedi, so I went through their application process, which was relatively easy, streamlined, and I did like it.  However, now that I am placing my first tenant, and the tenant will be paying through the app, I am just a little weary on their payment processing system called Digitzs, seems like a small company and it will take 4-5 days for my payments to clear into my bank account.

I am trying to take the feedback from the podcast of setting up systems early so that as I grow I can continue to scale easily but I am tempted to just accept venmo/checks from my tenant.

Not sure if this will change anyone's opinions but the tenant is also section 8, so a good chunk of the rent will come from the government directly into my account.

Thanks for the help and feedback!

[Michael Klinger]

I use RentRedi on 60+ units. I signed up about 7 months ago on the premise of being able to accept online payments. I do appreciate that I have been able to have direct conversations with Ed Barone (one of the founder/owner types over there) to discuss my issues. He does not disagree with many of my complaints. I would say I'm hanging in there and "suffer" with it. Practically every component they offer requires a workaround, so I've made it work for me as a path of least resistance for the time being. I force it to work well enough for me.

• First, one positive thing. The accounts were set up and attached to my bank accounts very quickly for immediate use. That was good. I have three properties operating independently of each other. And hence three bank accounts attached to RentRedi.

The biggest of the issues are as follows:

• Up until about 2 months ago, the collections from tenant bank account was a complete joke, as the system wasn't logging into tenant accounts to verify bank balances. So really it was no different then receiving a check that could bounce or presented with completely bogus or typoed account numbers and such than getting the same typed into the app by a tenant. I had several instances where the cycle of receiving a payment only to find out later it was a Non Sufficient Funds payment was taking 10 days to cycle back. Meanwhile on their site, the Digitsz site and my bank accounts looked normal and play along with payment, until it caught up with itself and it bounces and the money gets pulled back. This has since been improved as they added the "Plaid" overlay to their system. But it was totally frustrating for the first 4 months on their system, and actually slower than a mailed in rent payment check. 10 days for a full circle situation. As I pointed out to RentRedi, 10 day is how long the Pony Express delivered mail. But that was in the 1800's. And by horseback.

• The ability to get paid quicker is dependent on a history of good collections and all of these situations related to lousy integration and tenant error, actually count AGAINST THE OWNER in some kind of reputation with the processor. So if you request faster transactions that they allow after some history, you might not have the reputation to support it based on poor integration. Totally ridiculous. As if I just popped out of the sky from nowhere ready to build "my first business reputation." Meanwhile I can get all kinds of business done with my 20 year business history anywhere else.

• Their third party provider of processing (Digitsz) is antiquated and super clunky. Furthermore the interface for this isn't integrated well into the RentRedi and is not front and center. Instead you have to dig into a setup menu, and then you get further ported to a third party (Digitsz) site, which I've decided was either designed to be read by residents of another planet or some adaptation for some undefined learning disability that is really unusual. It's horrible.

• RentRedi runs uses the "Intercom" interface support service that presents like a live chat for their support, but the live-ness of it debatable. They have a lot of hand waving emojis programmed in to emoji you to death. While you are instead trying to get serious solutions to serious problems instead of trying to smooth everything over with cute emojis. Please make it stop. There is rarely a customer service loop that feels like closure. The front line people can only handle softball issues, and the bigger issues that go into a black hole they refer to as the "Dev Team." Then with some kinds of programmed precision they circle back with an automated follow up nudge like clockwork. While meanwhile no progress has been made on the original issue and it circles into an infuriating feedback loop. It is very good way to train customers not to bother to use the chat system. Also there is no real continuity, because it you are presented with a specific human face and a clutter of emojis. But one person doesn't really seem to follow your case to the finish line. It just goes into a big bucket. Insert hand waving emoji here.

• The system is app based for tenants and there is an assumption that everyone, is a millennial and will handle this fine. Which is not true. I have a fairy low acceptance ratio for the app. Maybe 25 percent tops? Which is fine because even with the Plaid overly, receiving checks is still faster and more accurate than app payments. But also, I can't be criticized for not having some kind of online payment option. I'd say that 2/3 of the tenants that have stuck with the app, had a really hard time with it and got confused by it at the beginning and lose interest in it. Certain things are not obvious to them. For example, its very vague if the app will accept partial payments (you can set account to accept partials or not). Tenants are presented more months than needed. I can assure you that my tenants are ONLY interested in seeing the current month due. Instead they are presented with every current and future month, based on a lease you can set up, which is totally arbitrary anyway. So then they get confused and start paying the wrong months or accidentally pay two months, and all kinds of other havoc. It's happened a bunch of times. Then they abandon the app, which is fine because at the end of the day, checks are still faster and more accurate.

• Their on-boarding form letter email is written poorly and emphasizes the wrong things. The number one question my tenants have is "what is this going to cost me" and that is not covered in the email. The writing voice changes in the email. At points it sounds like it is "me" and at points it sounds like a third party referring to the landlord. I requested the form letter to be editable, as they already have it queued up in a formatting page, but there is no ability to actually re-write it. So.... I use instead another time consuming workaround.

• They use the logged in section of the owner web interface to continue to market to you and tell you how much you have saved using their service and how many landlords across the planet are looking at their site and signing up right now. BACK OFF. I'm already a customer. What I'd really like to do is put up a banner on how many hours I have wasted creating workarounds to the system.

• In general, the data and banners and limited forms have about as much insight to rental management that a 13 year old would get on "bring your nephew to work day." All of it is really off and only tolerable with workarounds.

• There is no real way to make super basic and functional reports, that are typical of multi-family. They are all goofy and lacking and need workarounds to have any use.

• They keep bolting things on to find other ways to monetize. And while I respect that need, I'd have a lot more confidence in bolted on services, if the stuff I signed up for worked better. Also I shouldn't have to click away or be bombarded with promotions for "Latchel," (a maintenance coordination service they are trying to monetize), EVERY TIME, I go to log or use the maintenance section of the web site that I already pay for.

There's more. But I've been brutal enough.

Mike