All Forum Posts by: Susan M.

Jim, thank you, I will try just using our names. And yes, you are correct about Square requiring a debit card. I assumed most people with checking accounts had them, but I can see where the Intuit method would allow the use of any account, so it's a great alternative. Between both services we should be able to accommodate all tenants.

This sounds a little shady to me.  The verification of the deposits is a security measure used by the banks to verify that the person giving the account information is actually the account holder.  Your tenant having to ask YOU for that information seems wrong.  By providing this verification information to their bank it implies that THEY are the account holder and that's not the case.

You don't need to have them set up direct deposit.  Just print out some deposit slips with your account number on them and provide them to your tenant(s) who can then go to any branch of your bank with cash in hand and deposit the funds using your deposit slip.  There is no risk of them being able to withdraw from the account that way, as long as your bank is doing their job

@Ralph Pena, no, as far as I know SmartMove does credit and criminal only. 

Yes, pass.  And Brad, best to learn the lesson now that "nice" doesn't negate negative paperwork.  "Nice" can enhance an already good application, but never make your decision to overlook bad paperwork because someone is "nice".  Trust me on this one.  You'll get burned.  Set criteria and stick to it as closely as possible and you'll be better off in the long run.

Jim, this is great information, thank you!  Unfortunately I just signed up and realized that you must be a BUSINESS to receive funds with Intuit.  We are mom & pop landlords so we can't use this service, or is there some way around that requirement?

We just started using Square Cash (Square, the company that does the little card reader attachment for smartphones).  It works in a similar way to what Jim is describing, but there is an app that users can download for their phones and it's pretty much just launch the app, enter the amount and hit send.  If they don't have a smartphone everything can be done via email. Setup for both parties involves creating a Square Cash account, entering bank account information and performing confirmation of identity steps.  Cash hits our account in 2 business days.  Currently there is NO FEE to send or receive money there, but it's a new product for them and I can't see this lasting forever.

Personally, when dealing with crazies, I prefer to clean the slate so I would mail her check back to her with a note saying "in refund for the application withdrawn by you via text message on <date> for property located at <address>" and leave it at that.  You could probably technically keep the money since they did apply, but to avoid giving crazies any reason to dislike me, I would give the money back.  No need for any adverse action since you haven't processed their application.

We are having trouble with this too. I ended up getting a 6.5% LOC on two of my properties from a local credit union and my husband just got an unsecured LOC at 4 something % from a very small local bank, but only after he turned down their outrageous offer and threatened to take his business elsewhere. Look small.

We use SmartMove but I don't understand what you mean by tenants they recommend?  We use it simply to check applicant credit and criminal history reports.  I know SmartMove then issues a "recommendation" but we pay no attention to that, we screen the reports ourselves and make our decisions based on that plus all the other research we've done. 

From what I've seen, they have recommended to "accept" only a few people that we have not accepted, and that decision was not based solely on the SmartMove information but on that information in conjunction with other research (like bankruptcy searches, eviction searches, etc).

Our realtor told us that this coverage is fairly new and was done because there were some dishonest title agencies taking money from buyers but not paying off the note (or seller) with the funds, therefore the buyer thought the property was theirs but it wasn't and they found out the hard way after they never got the deed and the title company was long gone and out of business.  

We were told that if you're working with a reputable title agency that this is wasted coverage and money.