All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

Irrelevant for the rent collection discussion but Venmo's friend to friend transfer is free. I use it all the time and have never been charged on either side of the transaction. I don't leave money in Venmo so it is just a bank to bank transfer. That might be the difference.

It is against the law in Massachusetts to collect an application fee.

On one of our units, we require they fill out a Cozy application before showing them the apartment, in hopes that we can separate the seriously interested from those who aren't serious. It is a gorgeous unit designed by my husband, in consultation with a local architect and lightening designer, so a lot of people just want to see it. The application process has reduced the number of times we have to show the apartment before renting it. 

@Sara Taslitt The landlord does see when the tenant makes a payment. If a tenant chooses to make their initial payment via ACH, I can see that the payment has been initiated and Cozy.co is verifying the tenant's bank account. That can take awhile but once the bank account has been verified, I see how much time Cozy takes to process the payment and when it is due to hit our account. Credit card payments are quicker for the landlord but expensive for the tenant.

I just tell the tenant that the rent is due on the first of the month. Some of my tenants interpret that to mean they should schedule the payments in Cozy in advance so that it hits our account on the first. Some interpret it to mean they should start the payment on the first of the month. To be honest, it does not matter to us which the tenant does, since they are scheduled payments and we know exactly when to expect the money in our account. 

I do warn my tenants not to schedule the payments more than 10 days before the due date because, otherwise, Cozy will not recognize it as paid - one of the interface design flaws. 

I use Cozy.co for my tenants with US bank accounts and Transferwise for my international tenants who do not have US bank accounts. Neither of these platforms charge a service fee as long as the tenant chooses to pay via ACH. Cozy.co allows tenants to pay using a credit card and they are then charged a credit card fee which, of course, is steep.

My only complaint with Cozy.co is that their user interface for tenants is designed such that my highly intelligent visiting scholar tenants make tons of mistakes when attempting to set up their first payments. I'm renting on the extended stay market which means I can have 3 or more turnovers in a single year for a single unit and I have 3 units. So set up SNAFUs are a huge headache for me. 

But Cozy.co is free to both landlord and tenant paying via ACH and it is reliable once the SNAFUs are sorted out. Since the majority of my tenants are renting from afar, the only other option I would have to electronic payments are checks via snail mail. Cozy is faster even with the SNAFUs. 

By the way, it is my understanding that Cozy won't accept partial payments. There are dollar amount limits on Venmo. PayPal charges a very large service fee. Both Venmo and PayPal will accept partial payments.

@Maya V. The first mistake you made was not maintaining the rent relative to other rents in your area on an annual basis. If the rent you charge a tenant is way out of whack with comparable units, you can get into some messy situations with your tenants. 

You should always be up front with your tenants. Any avoidance of a straight conversation will come back to bite you. A good lawyer will advise you on how to create and maintain a courteous and professional relationship with your tenants while also staying within the rental laws of your area. 

We have 3 units in a very big college town, right between Harvard and MIT. We rent to both students and visiting scholars but mostly visiting scholars which means less wear and tear on our units. Our units are fully furnished, provide free WIFI and are available for extended stay instead of annual leases. This allows us to charge higher rents than we otherwise could. Two of the units are very high end which is why they primarily go to visiting scholars instead of students. There is no getting around the fact that students are harder on a property than even tenants who are slightly older. So if you are planning on renting to students, factor into the rental fee the extra wear and tear on your property. 

My rentals are extended stay and vacation rentals which means the turn over is very frequent and my supply list is quite extensive. I keep my lists as favorites in an app, Grocery IQ. I actually keep surplus supplies locked in the basement for each rental. When I replenish the supplies in the unit from the basement extras, I add the items to the grocery list in Grocery IQ which gives me a few months to replenish the basement supplies. 

I definitely find keeping a list of items each unit might need, including the various kinds of light bulbs required by the different fixtures to be a huge help. I prefer Grocery IQ over Amazon because I can add descriptions to each item such as "Unit A Bathroom Ceiling CFL 18w Sylvania 20683 CF DELUX D/E." It allows me to have multiple purchase lists clearly distinguished by unit so that I remember the bathroom cleaner is needed in Unit A not Unit B.

@Hjiorst Fjioords I recommend having a tax accountant do your tax returns. 

I don't use Turbotax but I do use Quicken. I suspect Quicken is a lot more flexible than Turbotax. I'm able to put all of my rental income and expenses into Schedule E such that it matches all the various 1099 forms I receive. I turn everything over to my accountant and I am confident my returns are accurate.

@Jack J. Nowotarski Our situation is a bit different, given our tenants sign short term leases lasting no more than 9 months so it is easier to tolerate challenging personalities. 

But I wanted to share one of most challenging personality stories because it ended well. The tenant was very high maintenance, in that she had extreme demands and little tolerance for any inconvenience. But we took very deep breaths with the mantra "The customer is always right" and met her needs in a professional manner without cow-towing. We even decided one of her demands wasn't all that unreasonable and made changes to our business practices going forward. 

This very challenging tenant left us an outstanding review on the advertising platform and I know that review has helped make our listings stand out from all the other listings. 

@J. Erickson "I just don't know how to express my irritation without making things worse.."

Exactly. So best not to engage her. Make sure your renters know you are available for any reason during their stay. We, too, rent part of the year on the short term market. Our guests know we will respond almost instantly if something comes up during their stay. If it something we can fix, we fix it immediately. If it is something outside our control we will offer a partial reimbursement for the inconvenience our guests have endured. 

We stay focused on our guests and not on the externals we can't control. Your neighbor is outside your control.