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Advantages to this method are that you don't have to make a trip to
bank and if you have online banking, you know within a day or so if deposits are there. Again, you don't know whether or not they paid in pennies or stolen checks from their neighbor, but you at least see deposit made.
I don't recommend this method as a standard way of collecting, but perhaps consider it for good payer who's just had a bad month.
Print Checks for Them (Thanks to Earl B. for following tip)
I forget when it was, but probably sometime around eighteen months ago, one of my friendly competitors suggested I try this service. One of his friends was using it with success so I signed up for it. It's inexpensive and allowed me to just sit down and print all monthly payments at one time. I signed all new residents up on it and bribed some of my existing residents to join.
The service is presented to residents as an auto draft service and they sign off on a one-page form that authorizes you to debit their account. The program itself is a Windows-based software application that allows you to print these "Demand Drafts".
The advantage is that payments can be set up as a recurring monthly payment and you can print them whenever you want. So, rather than waiting for mail to arrive, you just sit down at your PC and hit print. The checks roll off your standardized printer. In other words, you don't need any special equipment. On first of each month (or whenever) you just head on over to bank.
Again, you don't know if resident has good funds or not, but at least you're not waiting to make your deposit. One of disadvantages is that you will have to purchase check stock, but I believe I received 300 checks with my initial purchase.
Another advantage to using this software is that you could set up your own bills on this so that each month you just print out your recurring bills or a set of blank checks with your pre-printed information.
You can find out more about this software by clicking on url below. Please ignore cheesy web site and examine features and benefits for yourself.
http://www.TexasRealEstateClub.com/checkman.html
I no longer use this method, but can recommend it as It worked well for me.
Direct Deposit For last year I've been using a new service I found. I searched high and low for a reliable, quality direct deposit service that wasn't designed for huge apartment complexes. Everything I stumbled upon had a fee structure that priced it way out of my league.
Again, as before with CheckMan application, I signed all my new residents up on it (company policy, don't you know?) and bribed some of my existing residents to join as well. I think it's fantastic.
Residents receive an email notifying them of coming draft and it all runs through banks Automated Clearing House systems (ACH), so there's absolutely nothing that I have to do.
The resident's account gets debited automatically on designated day and I receive an email next day that shows me which accounts were drafted successfully, and which failed, if any. Three days after that, funds are automatically deposited into my account.
The residents know it's coming and since it's automatic like other bank drafts, it requires no effort on their part. It also requires no effort on my part. It's simplest solution that I've found and very affordable to boot. Rather than go into all features and benefits here, I'll just give you a link so you can read about it at your own convenience.
http://www.clearnow.com/public/ClearNowEnrollmentGRQ1.pdf
I also got them to agree to offer a trial period. If you sign up through link above, they will give you two full months to try service at absolutely no cost. I know that if you give them a try, you'll be hooked.
Sincerely, Tim Randle http://TexasRealEstateClub.com (c) Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved.
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