I was wondering if anyone has advertised a discount in rent as an enticement to tenants to use the Clearnow rental collection service?

For example, fair market value of my property is $1300/month. However I would like to advertise it as $1300/month (*if tenant signs up for clearnow), $1350 otherwise.

I have started requiring enrollment to be confirmed before lease can be signed. I've had ZERO pushback. If they balk and say no, they have failed a part of the screening and I won't sign lease anymore.

I require online payments, direct deposit at a local bank branch or money orders/certified checks in the mail as a last resort. I quit taking checks almost 10 years ago after chasing a bounced check every month for 12 months. After about the 4th month, I started requiring electronic payment or direct deposit at a local bank branch on every new lease I signed. I offer no discount for rent & have had zero push back with this requirement.

Ken, I don't know if I can legally force them to do this. If they pushed back, I'd take the check by mail, but not after explaining to them why we prefer it. I also charge a $10 extra fee for checks by mail. The bi-weekly option I think helps tenants prefer this method.

If they have a checking account, they can do this. Most tenants get direct deposit from their jobs anyway.

SSI tenants are a different animal.

If Clearnow flaked out like the other autodraft company did, yes I'd be in a world of hurt. Not sure what to do there.

We have required electronic payments for almost 10 years. We have one tenant who is unable to do electronic (second change bank account) so he pays a $25/m administrative charge for the additional time and effort for us to manage direct deposits.

Our payment provider charges .50/transaction which we credit the tenants.

ACH is the way to go. You take the money from tenant account, no 3rd party involved. Also, saves a lot of time paying your contractors and vendors.

I agree with Sisco that ACH is the way tot go with no 3rd party involved other than my bank and their bank.

When I first started taking ACH payments, I would advertise a place for $750 if they paid via ACH and $775 if they wanted to drop their rent off. After a while of doing this I figured out that most all of my problem tenants were the ones paying higher rent for the privilege of dropping their rent off instead of paying by ACH. So now I only take payments by ACH.

I also switched to Clearnow being mandatory about ten years ago. No pushback except one inherited tenant without a bank account that was therefore not allowed to remain.