Apartment Management and Collecting Rent

The end of the month brings nightmares for many people. The bills are due, quotas need to be met, and the lines at the department of motor vehicles are horrendous. But no matter how stressed and exhausted you are at the end of the month, no one has it worse than the folks in apartment management. While anxious people stand in long lines to renew their car registration, landlords are chasing after deadbeat tenants absconding from paying rent. Apartment management can put an open for business sign at his desk, but he will be very lonely there because no one will form a line to pay rent. Instead, he has to knock on doors, hide in corners, and wait in the cold in front of the building to track down eluding renters.

In the middle of the month it is a whole different story. Apartment management is the most sought out person on the planet. He is a movie star, a hero, a Buddha; only, he fixes leaky toilets and kills rats. So what can apartment management do to cling to his mid month false identity as a celebrity?  Here are a few tips.

Now there is not much you can do about the frequent late rent payers who already live in your apartment if they are up to date on payments, but you can weed out any potential deadbeats of the future. Creating stricter qualification standards that are legal could protect your interest. If apartment management is not currently running credit and background checks, then they have brought these nightmares on themselves. Nevertheless, put on your detective’s cap, smoke a pipe, and investigate.

Common rent collection failures are from fear of vacancy, the apartment management easy going reputation, and inadequate information on the rental application. So, what is the answer to this question? Who has more money, an apartment management who doesn’t collect rent from a tenet, or an apartment management who has a vacant apartment? It’s not a hard question; it’s like asking, how much does a 300 pound person weigh on the moon? Give up? Both answers are zero. A landlord who doesn’t collect rent, or has a vacant apartment has zero dollars coming in. You may ague that the occupied apartment has money potential, but so does a vacant apartment. You might as well get someone in there who you have screened, like a 300 pound man from the moon. Now, everybody likes a nice guy because they are usually pushovers; on the contrary, no one likes a 300 pound guy because no one can push him over. If you are one of these people, a pushover landlord, then don’t show your true face until after a new renter has been a tenant for a long time. Hold out as much as you can. If you reveal your easy going nature at first sight, then they will take advantage of it. Try playing good cop, bad cop; only, play the bad cop first. The last common failure is not double checking the information on the rental application. If apartment management ran a credit check, then there shouldn’t be a problem. However, check to make sure their documents, such as a photo ID, match what is written on the application.

Possibly the best apartment management tool is automatic rent collection. This service automatically withdraws rent from a tenant’s bank account and directly deposits it in your checking account. Not only does this avoid chasing down tenants, it eliminates listening to terrible excuses for not paying rent.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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