AAOA Blog

In our feature, Take Control of Your Cash Flow, we discussed how automated rent payments keep you in the driver seat with rent collection, by increasing the likelihood of getting paid in this bad economy, and lowering your expenses at the same time.

But setting up your electronic rent payment program requires some cooperation from your tenant.  One way to gain your tenants’ support is to make auto payments a part of your overall tenant incentive program.

Everyone wins with a tenant rewards plan. The goal is to retain good tenants that help you keep your costs down. Present your rewards plan with your lease agreement. 

Here’s a sample tenant incentive plan:

Step One: Sign up for AutoPay. When tenants pays on time, you have a steady cash flow. You don’t need to worry about getting paid or losing rent. You also save time, money and aggravation by not having to chase down your payments or send late notices.

Step Two: Pass all property inspections. When tenants take good care of your property, you don’t have to pay for repairs and additional maintenance costs due to property damage.

Step Three: No complaints from neighbors or police. When tenants act as good neighbors and are law-abiding, all your tenants will enjoy living on your premises. You will not lose good tenants when others cause disturbances.

Step Four: Reward Your Tenants. When tenants satisfy the above conditions you will automatically renew their lease! They have helped you keep your costs down and you help them by making it easy to continue renting with you.

Jim Adamek contributed to this blog. He is President of autopayrent.com, which provides landlords with electronic rent payment services.

Check out AAOA’s new web page dedicated to Rent Collection. Visit Rent Collection or click on the Rent Collection tab at the top of any AAOA website page.

Have old tenant debt files? See our feature Are You Leaving Money in Your File Drawer?

American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services for landlords related to your rental investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing. Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.

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Tags: tenant+incentive+program, lease+agreement, tenant+background+checks, real+estate+forms, landlords, apartment+owners

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