Online Rent Collection (RentRedi vs TenantCloud)

[Benjamin C.]

Hello! I've read through a bunch of existing discussions, but figured I'd post and see if anyone had some insight before I made a final decision.

I am a small, single property landlord (triplex, one unit is owner occupied).  I wanted to offer both online payments (ACH) and a way of filing maintenance tickets online.  Realistically, I think I'll only get one of my tenants to use it, but it is possible both do.

My Requirements are:

• Can offer ACH with no tenant-facing fee (It needs to be as low-friction as possible, or they will just keep sending checks and it is all pointless. State requires you accept paper checks)
• Simple to use Maintenance requests so they stop sending post-it notes with the rent.
• The ability shut off payments, or even better block partial payments, in the case of rent arrears

Nice to haves are:

• The ability to securely share documents
• Blocking Partial Payments
• Non-ACH online payments, ideally without having any additional setup on my side.
  

I already do all my accounting in a properly double-booked accounting system, so that isn't a priority.  Advertising/Tenant Screening/Applications are nice, but not a priority. 

I considered RentRedi, TenantCloud, Apartments.com, and Avail. I discarded Avail because of their requirement for a non-VOIP phone (I mean really), and Apartments.com because I don't really like their business model.

My Comparison is
RentRedi

Pros:

• Very nice application
• Application first means tenants likely have it on phone and get push notifications
• Blocking Partial Payments
• Maintenance system seems ideal: Description, Title, and short video.
• Looks like Cash/Credit Card payments can be set up with no additional work on landlord side?

Cons:

• App-Only. If tenant hesitates to install app I don't get much value out of it.
• Not clear if you can digitally sign external documents (Ie, CAR lease)

TenantCloud

Pros

• Extendable Website
• Flat Fee based (no per ACH Fee)
• Usable maintenance system, e-signing of external leases

Cons

• No Mobile App (But website is mobile friendly?)
• Maintenance system has a bunch of categorization stuff that just confuses things.  Not being an app makes it less likely tenants will attach picture/video
• No partial payment block
• Credit Card system seems to require extra setup on landlord side (Boo!)

I'm currently leaning toward RentRedi. I'm primarily posting here to see if others who are currently using one of the above systems would recommend them for my use-case or not.

Thanks in advance to everyone who read this!