Accepting rent payments

 As a landlord, I have the desire to make sure my tenants pay me on time every month.  If I can do anything to make it easier for my tenants to pay me, I'm all for it.  So one way that I do this is by ensuring that I can accept rent payments in several ways:

1. Money order

This is the preferred method for most of my tenants, because they don't have bank accounts.  I'm not sure why they prefer not having a bank account, but taking a money order means that I don't have to worry about a check bouncing.

2. Cashier's check

I have only ever had one tenant pay in cashier's checks, only because she got them free from her bank (a credit union).  This too, was good for me as it allowed me to not worry about bounced checks.

3. Cash

I don't typically like taking cash, but I do have one tenant who works until about midnight and so it's hard for her to get to the place she uses to buy money orders, so sometimes she pays in cash.  This is good in the sense that there is no check to bounce, however I don't like carrying around cash, so it goes in the bank immediately.

4. Personal Checks

I do take person checks, but have it written in my lease that any bounced checks will incur an NSF fee and after the second bounced check, checks will no longer be accepted.  I've only had to deal with bounced checks twice, and that was from the same tenant (who is no longer a tenant).

5. Bill Pay

This one I like.  I only have one tenant paying this way right now, but have another tenant interested in this method.  With this, the tenant signs up with their bank and sets the landlord up as a payee.  Then, the payments can be scheduled for a certain day.  A check arrives in my mailbox on the designated day and the tenant doesn't have to remember to send in a payment -- it's automated.

6.  Email

This one is a little out there, but I've been doing it for over a year with one couple, and so far it's worked out.  The tenant writes out a check, scans it on their scanner (in color or black and white) and emails me either the image or a PDF of the image.  I then upload it to my bank using an electronic deposit.  It works well for me because I don't have to go to the bank, and it works well for them because they don't have to go to the bank, or use postage.  They keep their own check and they have the email read receipt to prove they sent it.

The above are the six methods I use to accept rent from tenants.  The only method I have heard of that I do not support is letting a tenant deposit money directly in your bank account.  The reason I don't do this is because if a tenant is getting evicted, accepting partial payments can start the process over.  If a tenant deposits even $1 in your bank account, that will be considered a "partial payment" and can cause you headache.