Money saving web sites such as Living Social, Groupon and ShopKick, have spread through the World Wide Web like wild fire. A survey by RedPlum reported, more people are searching for coupon codes prior to making a purchase and most are members of several reward programs. Are you taking advantage of this money saving, coupon clipping, mentality at your property?

This thrifty trend has opened the doors for innovative and relatively inexpensive ways to increase renter retention and resident satisfaction in the multifamily housing industry.  Many apartment communities currently offer cash rewards if a resident refers a friend, renews a lease, etc.  Although this is a great incentive to a resident, the value of the reward is equivalent to cost to the property, denting your property’s revenue.

The latest trend in the multifamily housing industry is to utilize resident rewards programs rather than cash based incentives. These rewards programs can vary from point based systems to simply offering discounts and coupon codes.  Points or rewards can be given for anything you choose, like renewing leases, referring friends, or helping around the community. The greatest benefit of resident reward programs is you no longer have to give dollar for dollar incentives. The perceived value of a discount or reward is usually much higher than the actual cost to the property.  You can finally reward resident loyalty without “breaking the bank!” 

Although initiating a resident rewards program can seem like a daunting task, as it could take some planning , it has the ability to set your property or Property Management Company ahead of the competition. You can also reach out to local merchants and companies that would like more business from your residents about coupon and discount offers. You would be surprised how many would jump at the chance to give your residents freebies. Resident rewards can prompt renewals, increase referrals and get your residents more involved at your property; so why not give it a try?

RentPayment is always available to discuss reward programs for your renters, whether it be coupon codes, rebate offers, or gift card giveaways, we are ready to work with your property. If you’re interested in learning more about RentPayment promotions, feel free to contact us at Marketing@RentPayment.com.

Want to learn more about Resident Rewards? Read this article by Multifamily Executive.

YapStone Inc., the parent company of RentPayment, is proud to announce we are now processing over $14 Million in electronic payments every day. With the recent acquisition of our largest competitor PropertyBridge Inc., YapStone Inc. has continued to grow as the largest electronic payments-as-a-service (ePaaS) provider for the property management industry, processing significantly more payment volume than any of our payment processing competitors. This astonishing number will only continue to grow in 2012, with our international expansion into residential markets overseas and our new product RentPaymentNow! which is designed for smaller single family residential property owners in the United States.  Matt Golis, CEO of YapStone, explains: “Our significant scale is a testament to our vertical focus and software-centric approach to the market. Unlike competitors who take more of a low tech, one-size-fits-all approach, our ePaaS software is designed with the customer in mind, adhering to the specific business rules of recurring bill payment industries. We believe this approach is a significant differentiator that will continue to drive revenue growth in 2012 and beyond.”

To view the entire article, in Payments Market, click here or for a link to the Press Release, click here.

The CEO of YapStone Inc., RentPayment’s parent company, Matt Golis, was recently interviewed and featured in an article by Multifamily Executive titled, “Durbin Does Debit: Dodd Frank Amendment Saves Multifamily Some Dough.”  The article discusses the widely debated Durbin Amendment and its potential effect on the multifamily housing industry.

The Durbin Amendment is an addendum to the Dodd Frank Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress in 2010, which calls to expand Federal Reserve powers for setting interchange fees in relation to debit card transaction processing.  In laymen terms, the Durbin Amendment, which went into effect on October 1, will lower the fees associated with processing debit card payments.

This is a great benefit for the multifamily housing industry, as it will facilitate the transition to electronic payment options for properties and their residents. Property Management Companies and individual rental property owners can now provide their residents with the luxury of paying their rent online, by phone, or by text, with a debit card, at lower prices than ever before.

To read the entire article click here.

With the holiday season well on it’s way, we thought it would be fun to share some pictures of our Halloween Company Party.  This was the first Holiday event to take place at our new and improved Headquarters in Walnut Creek, CA! 

This year’s festivities included a Costume Contest awarding the Best Male, Best Female, Funniest, Scariest and Prettiest costumes, as well as a Mummy Making contest, which called for each department to make a Mummy out of their Department head!  As you can see, everyone had a wonderful time at this big company bash.

Visit our Facebook Page for more pictures of this spooktacular event!

Happy Friday everyone! We thought we would end your week with a little “treat.” Say hello to Alexis, one of the youngest members of the YapStone (RentPayment’s parent company) family. She stopped by the Santa Monica office to visit her Dad and made a quick cameo for all to enjoy.

No tricks here, just adorable treats!

Last month on the RentPayment blog we outlined some interesting Mult-Family Housing Industry facts. Our findings demonstrated a significant majority of rental properties happen to be smaller unit properties owned by individuals, rather than larger properties owned by property management companies. We also shared some ways we felt electronic rent acceptance could be of great benefit to individuals who own small unit properties and their residents.

RentPayment leads the electronic payment industry yet again …. Today (drum roll please), we are proud to announce a solution that will provide all U.S. renters with the rent payment flexibility they demand and provide individual property owners with an easy to use and value adding  service to accept credit, debit eCheck payments.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce this GREAT solution is RentPaymentNow!

RentPaymentNow! provides residential properties of all sizes the ability to apply online – in a couple easy steps – to process electronic payments. Within minutes these properties can begin accepting online rent payments! Prior to RentPaymentNow!, it was only feasible for large property management companies to assume the cost of transacting in the digital world. RentPaymentNow! introduces an affordable way to process credit card, debit card and eCheck for any residential rental property! 

Depending on what types of payments individual properties choose to accept, renters will have the option to pay rent with eChecks online, debit cards online, and credit cards over the phone, in-person AND via RentPayment’s innovative RentByText^TM service. RentPaymentNow! is more than your average online payment processor; it is opening the doors for individual property owners to grow their business like never before and to provide their residents with the flexibility and freedom they deserve when paying their rent each month.

So if you, or anyone you know owns or manages a property, visit RentPaymentNow! and follow our 4 easy steps to start accepting electronic payments NOW —it’s THAT easy.

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.

Just as promised, we are excited to announce the BIG PREMIER of RentPayment’s 2011 Student Housing Promotion Wrap-Up Video!  Seeing the “Love at First Click” Promotion come to life was extremely exciting for us and we couldn’t wait to share this video with all of you.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the “show”!
 

Once again, thank you to all the property managers and their management staffs! Without your help, dedication and enthusiasm this promotion could not have been such a success.  We promise to keep the promotions and prizes coming for you and your residents.

Don’t let your community miss out on a chance to win BIG for just paying their rent online! Stay tuned to the RentPayment blog for future promotions, giveaways, coupon codes and sweepstakes.

NMHC Student Housing Conference & Exposition

October 3^rd & 4^th, 2011 | Phoenix, AZ

The National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) will host their 9^th annual Student Housing Conference & Exposition at Phoenix’s Biltmore Hotel over a two-day span.

Stop by RentPayment’s booth to learn about how we can help drive on-time payments from your student residents.  RentPayment, among many other benefits, hosts a Student Housing Promotion each year at move-in time.  This promotion incentivizes students to use your ePayment channels as well as introducing them and their parents to the ease of electronic payments.

At NMHC’s Student Housing Conference and Expo, you will meet Kris Rudeegraap, the Southwest’s Regional Sales Director, as well as Kiara Kempski, RentPayment’s Marketing Manager and Annalies VanStigt, a RentPayment Marketing Associate.  Stop by Booth #100 to discuss how to optimize your RentPayment services and have a chance to win a $200 MasterCard gift card.

Check out a live Tout from the Show!

Multifamily Executive Conference

October 3^rd, 4^th & 5^th, 2011 | Las Vegas, NV

Exciting news: RentPayment will be at the Multifamily Executive Conference (MFE) in the place of our former competitor, PropertyBridge.  This comes on the heels of the announcement that YapStone, the parent company of RentPayment, has acquired PropertyBridge.  This will be the first time that RentPayment is able to introduce itself at an industry conference in the place of PropertyBridge.

Bill Evick, RentPayment’s Vice President of Sales, will be at the show representing RentPayment and sharing news about the acquisition.  Stop by Booth #210 and learn more about the new added benefits for each client base in the wake of the acquisition. Bill will be giving away a $100 MasterCard gift card.

Yesterday, it was annouced that YapStone, Inc., RentPayment’s parent company, acquired PropertyBridge, one of RentPayment’s largest competitors. It’s an exciting time here at YapStone and in order to share our excitement, we decided to take to Tout to relay the news to all of you! Tune in for a quick Tout annoucement by YapStone’s VP of Business Development, Mike Denbeau.