Rentec Direct

We’re pleased to announce a new, updated, and more powerful reporting system. One of our frequent requests from property managers was to make historical renter reports available. In order to accommodate this as well as some additional reports which we’ll be releasing over the next few months we’ve updated the reports interface.

Updated Reports Are Now Available!

We’re pleased to announce a new, updated, and more powerful reporting system. One of our frequent requests from property managers was to make historical renter reports available. In order to accommodate this as well as some additional reports which we’ll be releasing over the next few months we’ve updated the reports interface.

What’s new?

1. Updated Interface. Next time you click the Reports tab, you’ll be presented with the new interface. Instead of reports all being grouped into a single page, they are split into separate frames controlled via the buttons at the top. Your current category is highlighted. Here’s what it looks like.
   
2. New Reports. Within the Renter / HOA Reports frame, nearly all of these reports are now available by both account and date. Previously these type of reports (in the right-hand column of the previous report system) were only available based on the current date. Now you can run Rent Roll, Deposits, and all other reports marked with the calendar for any date in the past. Also new closed workorders and property listings reports have been introduced in the Misc Reports area.
3. Legend. A legend (key) is available in the bottom-left which lets you know at a glance the capabilities of each report.

While we are always very excited to roll out new features to benefit all of our users (at no additional cost), we’re also very sensitive to your workflow. Because this new report system is significantly upgraded and different from the previous report system, we’re leaving the old system for you to use indefinitely. To go back to the old report system permanently or temporarily, just click the link at the top of the page; it looks like this . You can get back to the new report system, or switch back and forth as much as you like.

We’re pleased to feature Mark Z’s Michigan Property Management Company as this month’s featured property manager. Mark has levereged his vast experience with internet marketing to develop a successful real-estate and property management operation.  Some successful practices used by Mark are:

• Creating a professional web presence.  This includes updated listing of properties for sale, vacancies, and a data sharing system that involves over 45 web sites with over 1.2million views per month.
• Taking applications and fees online through Rentec Direct save Mark and his team valuable time filling vacancies.  The result, vacant properties are filled faster for JMZ’s clients.
• Video walk throughs provide potential internet buyers and renters the ability to have a virtual walk-through of the property.  This generates higher interest and fewer false-positives when showing a property, thereby making JMZ’s operation more efficient.

The owner of JMZ Property Management comments on how Rentec Direct has influenced his business and customers.

Rentec has been so user friendly right from the start. I got to know the entire platform within 2 days and have been using it to manage our entire portfolio for almost a year now. I have used many other property management software companies and they were either so complicated you had to be a scientist to figure them out or they were so expensive it just didn’t make sense. We have integrated it into our Michigan Property Management website and our clients just love being able to check their account balance, pay their rent online and even fill out applications and pay their application fees all online. The best part is we can login from anywhere and access the data. You can always reach their support team. All in all, great product and a great price.

Are you interested in being featured on our property management blog? Let us know by emailing info@rentecdirect.com.

We have updated the application system to allow for collection of application fees directly via the online form.  We take care of all the work with the bank and merchant processing so your setup is as simple as telling us how much to charge.  To use this feature, first you must be already setup with EasyPay (which allows us to process transactions on your behalf).  Our basic EasyPay account has a setup fee of $25 and no monthly fee.  If you aren’t setup, you can get setup quickly by downloading the single page setup form at Settings, Setup EasyPay.

Once you are setup with EasyPay (or if you are already), visit Settings, Rental Application Defaults.  Scroll to the bottom for the new options under the Applications Fees heading.  Specify your fee, and if you would like us to automatically post a income entry under the associated property for you when it is received.

Once a tenant completes their application, we credit 95% of the fee received to your account (the remaining 5% is used to pay for our transaction costs).  You can then either use those funds for tenant screening, or allow them to remain as a credit on your account which will pay future invoices.

We’ve expanded late fee support in Rentec Direct’s property management platform to include new advanced options, yet still maintain a very simple and intuitive interface.

As can be seen in the screenshot on the right, the same monthly late fee and daily late fee settings are available.  Just like before you can select either of these and the system will charge accordingly.

What’s new?  You can now select both options and the system will charge the monthly late fee as soon as the grace period expires, and follow each day after with the specified daily late fee.

In addition an option for late fee maximum has been added to provide a way to cap the maximum late fee.  As shown in the example in the screenshot a $25 late fee would charge to the tenant on the day following their grace period.  The day after a $5 daily late fee would accrue until a maximum of $40 was charged.  This would amount to the initial $25 charge, plus 3 additional $5 charges to equal the maximum of $40 at which point the system would stop.

Another improvement we introduced with this release is the system will not include the current month’s late fees in the calculation to determine if the tenant owes late fees.  For instance, if the tenant pays all rent and other charges, minus the current month’s late fees, no further late fees will be imposed.  This is to comply with most state regulations and practices.

All previous late fee settings have been preserved.  To use the system, edit the tenant and click on the ‘edit fees’ link in the same location where late fees were specified.

Below are various sample forms used within Rentec Direct.

• EasyPay Tenant Pays -EasyPay form for tenant to fill out and return where the tenant pays the fee.
• EasyPay Owner Pays – EasyPay form for tenant to fill out and return where the owner/manager pays the fee.

Ready to easily create beautiful, attention grabbing craigslist ads?  We’ve just made it as super simple with our new craigslist listing generation tool.

To use:

1. Right click the vacant property, choose File Library, and upload photos.  Select the check-mark to make them available for external listings.
2. Right click the vacant property, choose Edit Property.
3. From the property menu (upper-right), choose Profile / Marketing.  Enter the information here that you would like to see in your listing.  When done editing, click Save Changes.
4. Click the link to Preview and setup your Craigslist listing on the right.  Choose your theme, then follow the simple instructions to post your craigslist listing on the right panel.

That’s all there is to it to have the best looking craigslist listings in town!  Listing your property on other sites that accept HTML?  Feel free to use the same process and paste the code into any other site that accepts HTML formatting.

Now and then we get some questions about the difference between ACH and paper checks and how quickly those deposits work for property managers.

ACH transactions are typically faster to clear and far more reliable than paper checks; however, it may not appear that way from a bank statement without knowing more about how the system works.  Especially in this day of online banking, one can see pending as well as completed transactions into your bank account.  An ACH transaction (initiated by Rentec Direct) will withdraw from a tenants account either the same, or the following business day it is posted.  Now, just like a check has to clear, so does the ACH transaction.  Rentec Direct (and our affiliated banks) hold the funds until they clear.  Most all errors (including bank error, and NSF) return within 3 business days.  If an error is returned, you are notified at the time we receive it and no funds transfer.  In most cases a property manager is notified about NSF or any other error 24-72 hours after the transaction, which can be up to 2 weeks sooner than a paper check.  Provided the funds clear, the funds are then re-transmitted (deposited) into the property managers account.   This process takes on average 3 business days.  A transaction debited on the 1st of a month, depending on weekends and holidays, may show up in a property managers account anywhere between the 10th and 15th of the month.

So how is this better than a check?  The most common question is “if I deposit a check, it deposits the same day into my account, how then is ACH better?”.   It is a common mis-conception about how paper checks are handled by most banks.  Yes, when a check is deposited into an account, it often shows an addition to the balance of the account, and depending on the bank policies sometimes that balance is accessible.  The thing is, is that the bank is actually fronting that money, trusting the check is good and holding you responsible for it if it is not.  The bank does not know the status of the check that was just deposited for sometimes up to 2-3 weeks, at which time if it comes back as a bad check the funds are withdrawn from your account.  Now what if that just deposited check was used to pay the mortgage?  And the check bounces 2 weeks later, thereby causing your mortgage check to bounce as well not to mention the overdraft fees.

Here’s a few additional facts about the benefits of ACH over paper checks.

• More guaranteed. ACH transactions, because electronically submitted, typically deduct from a tenants account prior to any other checks the tenant may have written.  This provides a better guarantee of funds for the landlord.
• More reliable. You know the status of the transaction much faster.  Paper checks can bounce any time up to 3 weeks later (even longer in some cases, google how long for check to clear for some examples), wheras you often know the status of an ACH transaction in less than 72 hours.
• More accurate. Paper checks require humans to read the digits and/or OCR software to electronically read handwriting.  The error rate therefore is much higher.
• More convenient. An ACH transaction (with Rentec Direct) can be completely automated, just like a utility bill.  Rent payments can be scheduled to happen any day of the month, and they then happen automatically every month thereafter without ever having to take a trip to the bank or manually collect rent.  ACH is more convenient for the tenant too, they don’t have to remember to pay rent or drop a check or cash off.
• Longer term renters. When payments are happening automatically, they are less in front of the tenants mind.  The pain of writing their largest monthly check each month disappears, thereby causing a tenant to be happier with their home and have less chance of moving.  Most landlords collecting rent via ACH have far fewer vacancies.

We’ve added video training to many locations of the software to help new and experienced users alike to quickly learn the components of Rentec Direct.

When you login now, you will see the film strip icon on the right (a smaller version), in the upper-right hand corner of the pages, right under the Settings tab.  Simply click the filmstrip image and a video tutorial will pop-up giving you a walk-through of the current process.

We’ve already updated the system with training videos for the following topics:

• Managing properties
• Managing tenants
• Managing bank accounts & owners
• Reports
• System Settings
• Workorders
• Recurring Transactions

We’ve started with videos for these areas as they are the most used and/or more complicated parts of the system.  If you have any suggestions for other locations within the software which would benefit from a training video, please let us know.

You can also quickly access many of the training videos from this training videos page.

It is easy with Rentec Direct to setup tenant and owner portals so tenants and owners can have their own login to the system to view their accounting details.

Training Video #3

Here is an educational video showing how the ledgers work together in Rentec Direct to automatically flow transactions to the tenant, property, owner, and bank account ledgers.  Rentec Direct automatically takes certain transactions and flows them to the appropriate accounts, such as; A tenant payment received automatically posts as income to the property and any associated owners and bank accounts.  As multiple ledgers are concerned for a single transaction, this video illustrates how the process happens.

Previous Video: (Howto Manage Tenant Deposits)