How do you communicate with your renters? Communicating with residents in the digital age is quicker and easier than ever if you know how to capitalize on the available technological resources! According to CNET News, Americans now spend an average of 13 hours online a week, excluding email. Why not communciate with renters via these same channels? We bet you’ll have a much greater response. Consider using digital communication for rent reminders, community announcements, and maintenance requests, among other things.

Gathering Resident Emails: It’s as simple as requiring an email address at the time the lease is signed and requesting email addresses on rent checks, maintenance requests and forms, as well as using email as your preferred communication avenue. With an email, residents are able to open the message and take action immediately or at their convenience. This channel is also easy to use, considering you can reach all residents with one single email.

For your convenience, RentPayment offers customized email blasts for your community. If requested with ample time (usually one week in advance), we are able to build a payment reminder email that can reach your residents instantly. Please contact Marketing@RentPayment.com if you are interested in learning more.

Social Media Platforms: Tools such as Facebook and Twitter are a great way for residents to feel more connected to your property. If your renters are talking about your property – potential renters will as well. These outlets allow for two-way communication and for your residents to be more candid with you about their wants and needs.

Text Message Communication: With many people opting to forego landlines these days, cell phones have replaced them as the most common communication tool. Collecting phone numbers and confirming that residents do in fact receive text messages, is a great means of communication for short messages (usually under 160 character spaces). However, be cognizant and try and keep text messaging to a minimum and reserve it for important messages.

Video Sharing: Making video announcements and tutorials can be a fun and innovative way to share news and information with your residents. Videos can also be wonderful leasing tools. Looking for ways to energize or motivate your team? YouTube, Vimeo and Tout are a few of the websites that can be used to post videos on and the videos are fun to create as a team.

YouTube and Vimeo both allow you to create customized channels where all of your videos can be aggregated. You are able to brand these pages to your community and residents will be able to access new and older videos through a video library.

Tout is a new micro video website. Users can create 15-second videos from an iPhone or pull clips from a YouTube video. This is great for frequent and brief one-way communication with residents.

The multi-family housing industry is a robust and unique industry that has found significant growth in occupancy and revenue despite our country’s economic downturn.  The Census Bureau and the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) survey claim thirty-three percent of Americans live in renter-occupied housing.  For many, the first thing that comes to mind when hearing “multi-family” industry or “apartment” industry is large property  management companies.  However, the truth of the matter is, most rental properties are in fact owned by individuals, not large corporations.  An unpublished Census Bureau Property Owners and Managers Survey as stated by NMHC, revealed that 46.9% of all rental properties are owned by individuals, 20.3% by partnerships and only 5.8% by real estate corporations. 

The majority of apartment buildings in the United States are not thousand unit high-rises, but rather they are complexes with fewer than one hundred units.  Seventy-nine percent of all rental properties in the United States have 2 to 4 units. Only 2% have over one hundred units, meaning 98% of all rental properties in the United States have less than one hundred units according to NMHC tabulations of a Residential Finance Survey.

Because most multi-family housing properties are so small, electronic payment options are not available to the majority of American renters.  Electronic rent payment acceptance would be such an immense benefit for these smaller properties because it is likely that most individuals who own small complexes have other careers as well.  Therefore, spending time and effort to collect paper checks, make a trip to the bank, keep track of payments and post late notices could be extremely costly. Not to mention, residents of such communities are likely unable to stop by a leasing office to simply hand in a paper check. Instead, residents are required to purchase postage and mail a check well in advance of their rent due date to ensure their payment gets made on time and without penalty. 

The multi-family housing industry is evolving and participating in the digital revolution we are currently experiencing.  Eighty percent of all large property management companies already provide their residents with electronic payment options. It only makes sense for the largest bulk of the multi-family industry to jump on board and begin accepting electronic payments with a safe and secure electronic payment processor like RentPayment.  American renters deserve the flexibility of online payment options, so why not find a way to give it to them?

For more information about how to get RentPayment at your property contact Sales@RentPayment.com.

It’s no secret that collecting rent from residents can be a tedious and time consuming endeavor, especially when property managers use outdated or inefficient methods. Landlord.com and the Tenants Screening Blog have recently profiled some of the most outlandish and outdated rent collecting methods.  Here are some examples of the extreme lengths property managers have taken to collect rent in the multifamily housing industry. Luckily for you, all of these headaches can be avoided by transitioning your residents to electronic payments with RentPayment. 

• Filling out 12 Self-Addressed Envelopes for Every Unit: It’s safe to say that no property manager enjoys opening hundreds of envelopes each month.  However, the idea of having to make 12 self-addressed envelopes for each and every unit in your community seems completely inefficient and borderline humorous.  Property Managers should be able to focus their efforts on improving their community, acquiring new leases and streamlining their workflow, not self-addressing envelopes.
• Individual Bank Accounts for Every Unit: Imagine the headache of opening up a separate banking account for each unit and asking your residents to deposit the money directly into their specified account each month. Property managers that use this method have to confirm each unit has deposited the correct rent amount and on-time and open /close accounts whenever new leases are signed or old residents move out. This increases the property manager’s workload exponentially!  Why not integrate your accounting software with RentPayment and completely automate the process? We can even keep a payment record archive for all current and previous renters forever.
• Cash or Money Order Drop Boxes: Drop boxes have been known to increase the likelihood of theft and fraud in apartment communities. Methods to make drop boxes more secure have been passed around for years in the multifamily housing industry.  But the bottom line is that no external drop box is safe, and it could be a source of payment disputes over the amount of rent paid or incurred late fees.
• Creating a Monthly Bill for Every Unit: Besides that fact that you have to create and print individual monthly bills for every unit, someone has to deliver them. Skip the printing, save some trees and utilize electronic communication with your residents.  Residents at your property are able to sign onto their RentPayment account from any internet connection, 24/7 and see their account balance* or receive click pay reminder emails (another form of an invoice).  Another example of utilizing RentPayment’s marketing resources is in the form of custom eBlasts, that can be sent to your residents as a “Rent’s Due” reminder. *Available with most property management software integrations.
• Require 12 Post Dated Checks: This method involves having residents fill out 12 postdated checks upon first signing the lease.   By allowing credit card payments, residents are able to pay their rent even when they may not have the whole rent amount in their checking accounts.  Electronic payment solutions also allow residents to sign up for services like RentPayment’s AutoPay.  AutoPay is a recurring monthly debit from your checking account in the form of an eCheck, an electronic version of a paper check.
• Collecting Rent Door-to-Door: This method is as tedious as it sounds, and not to mention, dangerous. No property manager should have to deal with the confrontation that comes with knocking door to door to collect rent. This method could also result in payment disputes as there is no paper trail or better yet, e-trail.   

The benefits of electronic payment methods are clear; they save you both time and money.  Educate your residents on the benefits of electronic payments and start to enjoy the ease and convenience of collecting with RentPayment. 

For more information about your RentPayment services please contact CustomerService@RentPayment.com. 

For assistance with promoting RentPayment at your community feel free to contact Marketing@RentPayment.com.  Or CLICK HERE to learn more about RentPayment’s marketing advantage.

Although electronic rent payments may sound like a boring subject, trust us, it can be fun!  RentPayment, the world’s greatest apartment and multifamily electronic payment processor is Touting! 

Tout is a new social media platform in which members “follow” one another.  This video micro-blog allows users to post 15 second video clips in lieu of standard text status updates.  We hope to share some of the fun that goes on at the RentPayment offices as well as at our company events.  Through this, you’ll be able to get to know some of our dedicated employees that help your business accept electronic payments smoothly each and every month!

Follow us out on Tout!

Another NAA Annual Education Conference & Expo has come and gone.  For RentPayment, this NAA show was our largest trade show presence in the company’s 12 year history.  With 14 employees representing our brand and a state-of-the-art 20’x20’ booth, we were out in full force to connect with current and future clients on the exhibition floor.

RentPayment was proud to discuss and educate NAA participants on our newest ePayment technologies including RentByText^TM which allows residents to pay their apartment rent via text message, our innovative iPhone app, our customizable eBlasts to help you market RentPayment to your residents, and much more!  Many conference attendees were also eager to learn about the various types of property management software that RentPayment is capable of integrating with.  Online payments are only a piece of the technologies and services that RentPayment offers its clientele.  While learning about RentPayment’s unique features, guests were able to unwind from their busy day in Vegas and relax with complimentary massages.

If you missed us at NAA and are interested in talking to one of our Sales Representatives regarding our services, please contact us at Sales@RentPayment.com and stay tuned for more information on where to find us next!

Here is a brief history on where the company name YapStone originated and why it was chosen to represent our company.

Although many Americans have seen foreign currency, not many know about the more rare forms of money that exist outside the traditional means of paper bills and coins.  One example of this occurs in the fascinating islands of Yap, a country which has been captivating anthropologists, naturalists, and economists since the mid-1800s with their unique idea of money. 

The islands of Yap are tucked away in the Western Pacific Ocean near the island of Papau New Guinea and are part of the Federated States of Micronesia.  All of the islands are encompassed in a common coral reef and have a total square mileage of only 38.7 miles.  Even in this millennium, the population still stands around roughly 6,500 people (see map).

As their national currency, the Yapese used (and still currently use in some cases) a stone currency called Rai.  These calcite stones are shaped in the form of thin wheels with small inner circles carved out.  They are generally much taller than they are thick and range in size from one inch to 12 feet. 

The value of each Yap stone is not determined by size but rather by the lengths that were taken to acquire the stone.  None of the Yap stones found in the Yap Islands are indigenous to the area; they are mined and shipped from Palau primarily, 250 miles to the southwest.  Factors that contribute to a stone’s value include the type of tools used to mine and carve the stone (the more primitive the tools, the higher the value) and the manner in which it was shipped.  The more difficult the circumstances were for acquiring the stone, the higher the value.  For instance, if a man working on mining, carving, or transporting a stone died in the process, the stone was considered extremely valuable.

Many modern societies claim that the Yap stone currency suffers because it lacks the “portability” factor of paper and coin monies but this is not completely accurate.  However, physical possession of the stones is not necessary for the transfer of ownership.  For instance, the transfer merely has to be communicated between parties for the ownership to be changed.

To many American citizens the transfer of funds via this sort of “honor systems” seems improbable and illogical.  However, we often forget that nearly all transactions on a daily basis occur without the transfer of anything physical, in the form of electronic payments.  EPayments account for most dollar transactions within the US and are represented only on balance sheets showing adjustments from one financial institution to another.  Like in the Yap stone currency system, with ePayments there is no need to physically transfer money or deal with the burdens of transacting through physical exchange.

This core concept behind the Yap Stone currency symbolizes the business of ePayments and digital transactions.  The Yap stones represent a fundamental shift in how we view the transfer of money in today’s world.  YapStone, Inc., at the forefront of eCommerce evolutions, reflects upon a common, old world currency exchange that has been long forgotten and offers a fresh,  new outlook on ePayment options.

-Annalies van Stigt, YapStone’s Resident Anthropologist

Sometimes getting accustomed to new ways of making payments can be a bit intimidating or even frustrating for residents, and unfortunately some residents might not be ready to completely ditch those paper checks.  If you face this problem but still desire to automate rent collection at your community, check scanning allows property managers to seamlessly convert slow paper checks into fast and efficient electronic payments!  Check scanning reduces manual data entry while still allowing managers to accept checks from residents who are not ready or willing to make payments online via eCheck or credit card. Converting payments from paper to digital transactions can bring a multitude of benefits to a Multifamily property; here are top 10 reasons you should take advantage of Check scanning with RentPayment!

1.       100% Automation of Accounts Receivable:  With check scanning, all paper checks can be processed electronically, making record management completely automated and more organized since property management software can be synced with your check scanner and immediately updated.

2.       Time Savings: With check scanning, property managers can save themselves a lengthy trip to the bank.  Checks are easily processed from the comfort of your office and no longer need to be photocopied.  Every paper check has an electronic version which can be securely archived for as long as you wish!

3.       Improved Cash Flow: Check scanning quickly automates the payment process.  No more waiting around for slow paper checks to clear; with check scanning next day funding is always available.

4.       Lower Costs: Check scanning costs are much lower than both the hard and soft costs of processing paper checks as well as the fees associated with processing credit cards.

5.       Eliminates Duplication of Tasks: After a resident pays via check once, subsequent checks that pass through the scanner are automatically attributed to that resident’s respective account and RentPayment’s Optical Character Recognition technology automatically reads the amount on the check.

6.       Integration: If your RentPayment account is integrated, all check scanning information will be automatically posted into your accounting software for you!

7.       Improved Reporting: By using check scanning, a single platform for all payment methods is established, giving you a robust assortment of 20+ RentPayment reports — including a Batch Reconciliation Report for all payment types which simplifies reconciliation.

8.       Faster NSF Notification: Receive notice of non-sufficient funds in 2-3 business days as opposed to waiting around for 4-7 days with conventional paper check processing.

9.       Better than Bank Check Scanning: RentPayment check scanning allows you to apply business rules specific to the property management industry; a feature not available with check scanning from banks.  For example, check scanning through RentPayment lets you assign multiple checks to one unit, a great feature when trying to accommodate residents that live with roommates.

10.   Multiple Check Types Accepted: Check scanning is not only available for personal checks, but also to money orders, certified checks and business checks, giving your residents flexible and versatile options!

Change can be difficult, but RentPayment is here to make the transition to electronic payments as smooth and easy as possible.  One of the easiest ways to transition to electronic payments is with RentPayment’s check scanning option; plus you can reap these 10 amazing benefits at your property while doing so! All you have to do is sit back, relax, and let the scanner do the work for you.

Paper money is wasteful, time consuming, and expensive.  Cash transactions are extremely dirty and contain millions of bacteria cells and germs that fuel the common cold and other infections outbreaks. The exchange of cash currency has also been tied to black market crimes and money laundering.  Checks are also not exempt from security issues, tied to check fraud and identity theft they are the most antiquated form of payment in exchange today. Checks require tedious steps to write and process and consume a large amount of paper waste.

In addition, paper money (cash & checks) is slow.  In this fast paced ecommerce world, why slow down the line waiting for change or filling out and processing paper checks.  Today most transactions occur electronically, but why not all of them?

One third of all Americans rent, and unfortunately most still pay their rent with a paper check.  At RentPayment, we encourage renters to go green and experience the efficiency of fast, clean and safe digital transactions.

Don’t be paper in a plastic world.

Art by Amy Orr.  About the artist:  Amy Orr has been working with credit cards for several years. She cuts them up, then rearranges the fragments into mosaic-like compositions.

Breaking news in YapStone world!  RentPayment‘s sister company, VacationRentPayment has recently partnered with HomeAway,  the world’s largest vacation rental reservation website.  HomeAway makes it easy for customers to book vacation rental home and offers more than 540,000 paid vacation rental home listings across 120 countries.    This technology partnership is designed to change the way travelers book vacation rentals, allowing all reservations to be payed for electronically using VacationRentPayment‘s payment processing technology.   In sync with the company’s slogan, “Why hotel when you can HomeAway?”,  HomeAway’s goal in partnering with VacationRentPayment is to make booking a vacation home just as easy as booking a hotel online.

Learn more about the partnership and read the Press Release below:

YapStone to Provide Online Payment Processing to Homeowners Listing on HomeAway.com and VRBO.com  SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 9, 2011)

YapStone, Inc. the largest electronic payments-as-a-service (ePaaS) provider focused in property management – today announced a technology partnership with HomeAway®, Inc. – the world’s leading network of online vacation rentals. This agreement enables Yapstone’s VacationRentPayment™ to deliver credit/debit card acceptance, electronic check processing and integrated payment reporting to U.S. homeowners listing on HomeAway.com and VRBO.com.

Yapstone was founded in 1999 to create a payment-processing platform for property managers to easily accept credit cards and e-Checks for rent payments. YapStone, through its VacationRentPayment™ division will offer HomeAway.com and VRBO.com homeowners and property managers low-cost payment solutions fully integrated into an online reservation management dashboard.

“As the vacation rental industry evolves from personal checks to online payments, we knew our product would be a perfect fit with HomeAway,” says CEO of YapStone, Matt Golis. “We are thrilled to be a payment technology partner to HomeAway and we look forward to accelerating homeowner and traveler adoption for our electronic payment services.”

“By partnering with Yapstone, we will advance our strategy to create the best traveler experience, offering a seamless process for our travelers and our owners to pay and collect payments online”, says Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway. “This is a major step to make booking vacation homes as easy as booking a hotel online.”

About YapStone
YapStone, Inc. is the largest electronic payments-as-a-service (ePaaS) provider focused in property management and several other bill payment industries. YapStone’s payment service processes billions of dollars annually, with an on-demand platform that offers Web-based and mobile technology to its clients. YapStone’s technology includes a unified, real-time reporting platform for check conversion, credit/debit card processing, and electronic check processing.

About HomeAway, Inc:
HomeAway, Inc., based in Austin, Texas, is the worldwide leader in online vacation rentals, with sites representing more than 540,000 paid vacation rental home listings throughout more than 120 countries.  HomeAway offers an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. The company also makes it easy for vacation rental owners and property managers to advertise their properties and manage bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio of websites includes HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; HomeAway.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; HomeAway.es in Spain; and AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil.

In addition, HomeAway operates BedandBreakfast.com, the most comprehensive global site for finding bed-and-breakfast properties, providing travelers with another source for unique lodging alternatives to chain hotels. For more information about HomeAway, please visit www.HomeAway.com.

Contacts:
Kiara Kempski
PR Manager
kkempski@yapstone.com

This year a select group of Americans will get their tax return in the form of a pre-paid debit card. This pilot program is being launched by the US Treasury Department to cut the expense of paper checks and also aid the “unbanked population” that do not have bank checking accounts to receive refunds. This recent news article supports the fact that electronic transactions via credit and debit card are easy, efficient and will soon become the standard for payment transactions in our society.

It is also clear that the paper check is becoming antiquated quickly. With online bill pay, payroll direct deposit, and electronic rent payment services (such as www.rentpayment.com), both consumers and businesses are using paper checks less and less. This group now includes the United States Government!

Internet purchases, payroll, and now tax refunds are all making use of electronic payments, but what about person to person transactions? Most people still use cash and checks for interpersonal payments such as gifts, yard sales, friendly loans etc… However, trends indicate that there will a time when all these transactions will be electronic as well. One company leading this revolution is Square (www.squareup.com). Square “enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere” by using a mini credit card swiper that plugs into a cell phone or an iPad. This enables person to person transactions, and is also an excellent solution for small businesses.

Think about how many checks you wrote 5-10 years ago, and how many you write today. I’m willing to wager that this number has dropped significantly. As the tail-end of generation Y become adults, familiarity with the internet and electronic transactions is more and more prevalent. In addition, much of this generation does not own a checkbook. It is undeniable that electronic payments are the future!

Check out this article posted by The Wall Street Journal:
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury Department plans to launch a pilot program Thursday to deliver tax refunds through prepaid debit cards, an effort to cut the expense of paper checks and aid lower-income taxpayers who don’t have bank accounts.
About 600,000 low- and moderate-income taxpayers nationwide, a slice of those earning about $35,000 or less annually, will receive letters inviting them to activate a debit card that can receive direct deposits.

The Treasury Department’s new program will deliver some tax refunds on prepaid debit cards, giving recipients an alternative to check-cashing outlets.
The program will cost the government about $1.5 million and marks the latest federal effort to send fewer payments by mail. The U.S. still issues an estimated 45 million paper checks a year for tax refunds. Each one costs the government about $1, including the cost of processing roughly 600,000 claims a year for missing checks. Each payment by direct deposit costs the U.S. about 10 cents.
“My goal, one that’s been talked about for many years, is to get out of the check-payment business,” said Richard Gregg, Treasury’s Fiscal Assistant Secretary and one of the officials overseeing the program.

At the same time, officials across government have been exploring how to nudge consumers who don’t have bank accounts toward lower-cost financial-services providers. An estimated nine million households—about one in every 12—don’t have bank accounts, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. survey……. >>> View the full article