When landlords go door to door and pick up rent on a monthly basis, people notice. “Oh, here comes the landlord doing her rounds. I wonder how much cash she’s got in her purse?” It’s just asking to get robbed. Some landlords boast about the gun they carry around so they can pick up rent in cash and fight off the thugs, but… is that the kind of life YOU want to lead? We sure don’t. Picking up rent in person also puts you into the “chasing rent” category, where you are training your tenant that they can tell you to jump and you will to ask, “How high?” You don’t want this kind of landlord-tenant relationship. Maintain authority and don’t pick up rent in person.
The only benefit to picking up rent in person is the ability to check up on your property to see how it’s performing. We get this, the desire to know what’s going on with your tenants and build a relationship. But there are much more efficient ways to do this than picking up rent in person, and we would encourage you to explore those.
Related: 8 Pros & Cons of Including Utilities With Rent for Your Investment Properties
Letting Tenants Drop the Rent Off at Your House
Don’t do this. Please. In fact, never give out your home address to tenants. Your tenants might be great people when they move in, but you never know the true character of someone until they are under incredible pressure or going through a difficult time. We once let a great tenant drop o rent in person to our home because he lived just a few blocks away. However, when he was late on his rent and we sent him the late notice, he stormed over to the house and started making a scene on the front porch, hollering and swearing. Of course, it didn’t do him any good, but having this take place on our doorstep was not an ideal situation.
Remember, you run a business not a hobby. The manager of the local pizza place wouldn’t give you his home address, right? When you have a problem with the pizza, you wouldn’t dream of driving to the pizza owner’s house to complain. You deal with business at the business. e same is true for your landlording business. If you have an in-home office like we do, this means issues can be dealt with over the phone or email during business hours. In the event a face-to-face encounter needs to happen, it can take place at the rental. Keep your business and personal life as separate as possible. This will ensure less stress and more safety for your family.
Mailing Rent
One of the most popular ways among landlords to get rent is through the mail. Tenants simply place their rent in an envelope and mail it to you. By having the tenant mail the rent, you don’t need to go pick it up; it simply is delivered to you. If you have a lot of tenants, picking up rent can be a five-minute task with one trip to your PO Box. (Because, of course, you wouldn’t think about giving your home address to all your tenants.)
