Secure document upload services?

Question

Hi folks, what services have you used in the past to securely accept documents from tenants? Coming from the tech world, I'm familiar with tools like SFTP, SSH and know there have been a few on the Google Docs and Dropbox side that have offered the ability setup a secure drop box in the past, but all appear short lived and I'd rather not send millennial rental applicants back through faxing paystubs and/or other sensitive information to me over insecure email or text messages.

This is also not a request for known services like DocuSign or others for secure signatures, I'm already using that. Neither Cozy or other online application portals that perform the easy work of running back credit/background checks, but leave landlords to actually verifying income through paystubs or bank statements.

Rather, I'm seeking secure upload or transfers of ancillary documents related to their rental applications or a service like the (now apparently defunct) Tenantify.

Any suggestions?

Cliff H. · Answer

@Daniel Hyman, have you used ShareFile yourself? I'm not too familiar with it, but did not see an option to create secure drop box capability that I can send to applicants (may have missed it though).

In a perfect world, I'd see new/existing solutions build integration with a service like FileThis.com, which targets financial services and acts as a time-limited middleman service between consumers and those needing temporary access to sensitive financial documents.

@Rob B. just a way for a potential tenant to access a secure drop box to share data they would not want to email. Most do this with credit reports now, but leave open a large gap with additional information landlords and PMs may need to verify income, like paystubs, bank statements, etc.

From sitting on the other side of the table, I've seen realtors and leasing agents do terrible things with rental application data, including selling me a laptop loaded with bank statements for student co-signers after claiming they had securely wiped the drive of all such data.

I understand most PM solutions want nothing to do with sensitive data like financial docs, but perhaps an option that encrypts the data on upload, then auto-deletes off the host system (similar to the way many handle credit reports) would be sufficient.

Cliff H. · Answer

Answering my own question, it does appear UploadFiles.io offers a secure, expirable, document upload and share option for this purpose and even the free tier is mostly enabled. Until I find another option will probably stick to this and fax.

Let me know if you all know of any others.

Daniel Hyman · Answer

It might be a bit pricey for what you are looking for, but you could check out ShareFile.

Rob B. · Answer

@Cliff H. I want to make sure I fully understand your question; is it just with regard to how the documents are uploaded, or simply that they can be uploaded as part of the application process?

I want to make sure I'm proposing a recommendation that appropriately addresses the question/need.