7 Steps to Better Rent Collection

 

Rent Collection 101

You’re an “A” student. Take a front row seat to the industry-leading rent collections process. After 25 years of rental property management, Sacramento-based Real Property Management Select graduated with honors from the school of hard knocks when it comes to keeping the rent check coming in on time each month. You’re welcome to learn from our experience.

 

Prepare Like Property Management Companies: Sacramento Search

Successful rent collection starts before you even rent your property. We call it the great “Sacramento Search.” Cast a wide net for applicants through aggressive marketing, then rigorously screen those potential tenants. Decide and document ahead of time what legal qualifications you require, then hold each applicant to this same standard. If you don’t find them right away, don’t settle. Continue your Sacramento search for the right applicant. Once they become your tenant, you will be grateful you put in the extra effort.

 

Communicate Clear Expectations

“I didn’t know,” is likely the most commonly used phrase in disputes around rental property management. Sacramento arbitrators would be wealthy if they earned a dime for every time they heard it. Ensure your tenants know everything you want them to know and have proven, through both a verbal acknowledgment and written signature, that they do. Don’t leave anything to chance or assumptions. Document and discuss when rent is due and what happens if it is not paid – starting with notices and fines all the way through the evictions process. Also, include information about property care, roles, and responsibilities. Lease-signing time should be a time of crystal clear communication around expectations.

 

Simplify and Automate

We live in a digital world. Ditch the rent checks and go electronic. When tenants pay online, you get the rent faster and with no effort on your part. If this doesn’t happen, however, you would ideally have an electronic process to trigger automated notices and fees. The goal is to make the rent collections process professional, not personal. Putting technology to work on your behalf builds a buffer between the hard feelings that tenants and landlords can sometimes have towards each other when things don’t go as planned.

 

Now let’s take a pop quiz. Who can do all of this for you? Real Property Management Select. Working with us is like taking the best crash course in rental property management, Sacramento homeowners have ever seen. We’ll be your tutor, your coach, your professor, and the smartest person in your study group combined. Watch this video for 7 specific steps we will take to help you ace rent collections every time.