The Daytona Beach rental market is as strong as ever right now with the average rent price sitting around $1,500.
If you're a landlord, you'll be very happy as rent prices continue to rise. At the same time, you need to ensure you're collecting rent on time every month if you're going to maintain a lucrative rental. Rent collection may sound easy, but ask many landlords and they'll tell you horror stories about chasing tenants down for rent money.
In today's post, we'll help you by giving you five rent collection tips. Keep reading and you'll be able to manage payments effectively while maintaining positive landlord-tenant relationships.
1. Clarity in Your Lease Agreement
Your lease agreement is where you'll outline how and when you want your tenants to pay their rent. When a tenant signs the lease, they're legally obligated to follow what's on it, so if you say rent is due on the first of the month by post-dated cheque, that's how it should be delivered.
Failing to abide by the lease agreement is grounds for eviction. For that reason, it's important to be as clear as possible about these things in the lease.
2. Grace Periods
It's in everyone's best interest for you to offer rent grace periods for all of your tenants. Everyone falls on hard financial times and a good tenant shouldn't be punished if they miss the rent due date once or twice.
Many landlords will build a grace period of three to five days into the lease agreement. This helps you establish trust with your tenants, but if they routinely abuse it, you'll need to consider late fees.
3. Offer Several Rent Collection Methods
Every tenant is a bit different in how they prefer to pay their rent. Younger tenants will almost always prefer to pay their rent with a bank transfer or through an online platform. Older tenants, on the other hand, may prefer to give you post-dated cheques or even cash.
It's all money, so cater to your tenants' wishes. It'll help you get paid faster if you let them do it the way they want to do it.
4. Tenant Portals
Tenant portals are important in more ways than one. Yes, they'll help you collect rent and you can even build an automatic withdrawal system into the portal.
They're also great for communicating with your tenants. Encourage all of your tenants to use the portal to make maintenance requests or let you know that they need an extra day or two to pay rent. It makes it easier for you to have a single place where you can deal with all of your tenants.
5. Hire Property Management
You can make your life even easier by hiring property management. A good property manager will collect rent on your behalf, ensuring that no tenants are forgotten. They'll also help manage the property in a more general sense, dealing with maintenance, property marketing, and tenant screening.
Be a Better Real Estate Investor and Landlord
If you find rent collection difficult to keep up with, it might be time to bite the bullet and hire a property manager. Not only will they collect rent, but they can handle every aspect of running a Daytona Beach rental property.
PMI Daytona Flagler is Daytona Beach's premier property manager. Contact us today for more landlord advice.
