The advent of smartphones has fundamentally changed the way business is done, and the rental business is no exception. Mobile devices have become incredibly common, with screen-time increasingly shifting away from computers and onto smartphones, so it is no wonder that many landlords have started to take advantage of the affordances that they offer. You might be wondering if making the switch to mobile rent collection is the right thing for your business.
Mobile devices are an effective rent collection tool for many reasons. Considering how important rent collection is for a landlord, these reasons are worth looking into. Whether your rent collection is offline or relegated only to desktops, here are some reasons to look into adopting the trend of mobile rent collection platforms.
Flexible Rent Payment for Tenants
Timely rental payments are absolutely essential for your business, and it can be a headache to deal with late or missing payments. Sometimes, a late or missing payment happens because a tenant simply forgets or isn’t around to write a last-minute check.
Mobile rent collection platforms allow your tenants to set up renewing rent payments that automatically charge their credit card or withdrawal the necessary amount from their bank account every month. With this feature, forgetfulness is no longer an issue. Tenants won’t have to worry about late fees, and you won’t have to worry about missing payments.
The inconvenience of not being around when a payment is due is also no longer an issue with mobile platforms. Mobile apps can generally operate reliably without internet connection and can use cellular data, meaning that payments can be made from anywhere. The flexibility of paying rent from anywhere makes the process less of a hassle and makes timely payments more likely.
Access to Your Business from Anywhere
The flexibility of a smartphone means that you can check in on your business at practically any point. The good news is that rent collection is also just one feature of property management software, meaning that if you’ve downloaded your platform’s mobile app, you’ll have access to leases, rental applications, maintenance management, and other features right at your fingertips.
This kind of access means that you’re granted a lot of the same flexibility that your tenants have when making rent payments. From anywhere, you might choose to send out a notification to your tenants to remind them about upcoming payments. As mentioned above, screen-time on mobile apps has surpassed desktops and laptops, meaning that a notification sent to your tenants’ mobile phones is much more likely to be seen.
Mobile devices streamline rent collection by making it easier for you to manage payments on-the-go and in real-time.
Automatic Records
Automatic payments and their benefits for tenants have already been outlined, but a mobile app’s automation can have tremendous benefits for landlords as well. A big one has to do with alleviating the workload of manual bookkeeping.
Whenever a rent payment is made, it is essential for you to keep records of the transaction in case there are any problems or disputes in the future. Property management apps are often able to automatically produce records whenever a tenant submits a payment. Rather than having to input this information yourself, it is instantaneously generated, meaning that your records can be accessed directly on your smartphone or other device.
Because these records can involve sensitive client information such as credit card numbers, it is important that the software that you’re using is reliable and secure. Mobile platforms have an advantage here, since their security features and credibility are often under heavy scrutiny so that they can be approved for mobile app stores. With all of this in mind, record-making becomes a faster and safer process through the use of mobile property management software.
Conclusion
With the above reasons in mind, it should be clear that mobile platforms are one of the safest and easiest ways to collect rent . If you are used to offline methods of rent collection, the transition to digital spaces can seem daunting and challenging. However, rent collection is the financial backbone of your business, meaning that anything that can be done to make it easier is more than worth doing.