How do you collect rent on each type of property you have and which is safest,convenient and quickest?
For example, an apartment building with units renting at perhaps $800 a month you could perhaps collect cash, checks and use an online portal or ACH.

However, with an office building with units perhaps renting at $10k a month I doubt you would collect cash as commercial tenants are more professional and may use checks most likely I don’t know.

Please go into detail and explain how the process of you collecting rents etc
[{"id": "fxnxptl", "text": "Paper trail is important. These days most do it electronically/\n\nWith pandemic every tenant is  demanding forgiveness and or reduction. Here in Northern CA they have 6 month or longer before you can do anything.", "replies": [{"id": "fxnxx1x", "text": "I agree I know paper trial is important that\u2019s why I\u2019m trying to look at solutions besides cash. \n\nHow do money orders work? \n\nI\u2019ve heard that if tenants insist on cash they can go to shops to buy money orders which puts money into the recipients account. \n\nCould you please explain to me money orders in detail?", "replies": [{"id": "fxnz5tr", "text": "Money order is same as cash so far banks are concerned. Now it is the most expensive method they go to quick stop pay a premium like $500 limit each. They bring the MOs to landlord and you deposit at your bank. If they like to pay cash ask them to deposit in your bank account direct. It costs them nothing and I am sure you have more important things to do.", "replies": [{"id": "fxo2b9i", "text": "I've read (and I have not yet verified, so take with a grain of salt) that accepting direct bank transfers is risky for rental payments. The issue, as I understand it, is that if an eviction process is underway and a landlord accepts payment from the tenant, then it can derail the eviction process. And despite you not having to approve individual deposits into your account, a deposit being made into your account is considered your acceptance.\n\nSo if you were three months into non-payment and the tenant sends you some money via bank transfer, it could put you back to square one.\n\nIf that is accurate, then it's much safer to rely on checks or a payment service that allows you to either pull money from the tenant's account or at least safelist the people that are allowed to send you money.", "replies": [{"id": "fxohe91", "text": "Most property management companies in No CA prefer electronic paying. . To evict a tenant is costly and lengthy. $2-3K for a standard lawyer handled eviction and 2 months to process it. It takes two 3 days to pay or quit notices to get court authorize sheriff dept to evict them. If they send payment electronic or paper or not law firm can cancel it. Often landlord pays the tenant to get them out. This year they can stay til epidemic is opened up and can defer payment from 6 months and up.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "fxpheb6", "text": "Money order is better than cash.\n\nCash in the eyes of a bank is crap because you have no proof which tenant it came from. Money order at least you can put a name on it.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fxo1z7x", "text": "Standing order.", "replies": [{"id": "fxo2bgp", "text": "Yeah seems good. However, would they need my details to set up the standing order at the bank so the money goes to me. I\u2019ll like to keep my private financial details as private as possible.", "replies": [{"id": "fxo4rjb", "text": "You can always set up another bank account for that property so your usual account details are not associated with the rental income.", "replies": [{"id": "fxo5gbf", "text": "I know I plan to create a separate LLC for each property with its own bank account etc. The issue is I don\u2019t want tenants knowing the routing number etc.\n\nThink of it like this when you go to stay at a hotel you can book a room via their website and pay by card or you can book a room directly at the hotel desk and pay by card or cash. However, you don\u2019t see them giving you their routing number to wire them the funds etc.\n\nI\u2019ll rather my tenants pay me in a way where they don\u2019t require such details. \n\nWith a standing order will the entity name such as ABC LLC be good enough so the bank know the funds go that LLC which owns the property?", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fxog3ni", "text": "Never collect cash always check or wire for audit / accounting. Also should have cash wired to a deposit account and transfer money to an opex account to pay bills for best practices. Never give employees access to deposit account to prevent fraud, only sweep budget amount to opex account each month and require a reconciliation each month of over / under spend for better cash control and fraud prevention. Sweep excess cash from deposit acccount to your holdco account as appropriate so as to not have too much cash sitting at lower tier entity.", "replies": [{"id": "fxopsuw", "text": "Exactly I\u2019m trying to look for cash alternatives.", "replies": [{"id": "fxoxgy4", "text": "Generally anyone paying cash/money orders for large amounts of anything is specifically avoiding any kind of paper tail.", "replies": [{"id": "fxoy62p", "text": "Exactly my worry I keep trying to tell people that and then one person thought that maybe I\u2019m talking about myself and I\u2019m drug dealing etc.\n\nI like cheques and electronic stuff because it ensure no bs and accounting is way easier.", "replies": [{"id": "fxp08ri", "text": "Just tell them that cash isn\u2019t accepted under any circumstance. Check or wire, and if they don\u2019t pay that way they\u2019ve hit a payment default.", "replies": [{"id": "fxp0rcy", "text": "I remember asking a couple months ago on Quora I believe if I can ban cash as a rent payment method but apparently I can\u2019t as it\u2019s a common payment method or some people may have no alternatives etc. \n\nWhat about using cash to get money orders. Why can\u2019t people just open bank accounts for holy sake if your eligible or whatever if your not doing any illegal bs then why not honestly.", "replies": [{"id": "fxp6qtn", "text": "I\u2019ve never heard of a cash ban being illegal. Talk to a lawyer, don\u2019t ask quora. If tenants can\u2019t pay you with a check or wire there\u2019s an issue with your tenants. What do you own like class D apartments? (Not saying that negatively, just have never heard tenants not being able to pay with anything other than cash...). If you\u2019re credit screening your tenants that should weed out this stuff too.", "replies": [{"id": "fxp6z23", "text": "Well on Quora some people are qualified and have credentials etc believe it or not many professionals and business people use Quora. Obviously I take things with a grain of salt etc.\n\nI don\u2019t own any apartments. I recently turned 18 and am learning as much as I can about real estate so that one day I may invest in it.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpoibi", "text": "My only advice then is that Quora is not a good source of advice. Good luck with your career, only way to learn is to work for someone who can show you the ropes before you try and do it yourself.", "replies": [], "depth": 9}], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "fxpho7j", "text": "Not true. Some people just dont like banks. I have plenty of tenants without banks.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpjuvg", "text": "That would never fly with our credit screen.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpkhiw", "text": "My best tenants are the ones that pay cash because other people wont rent to them so they make sure they are on time.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpnxzq", "text": "Yea I don\u2019t doubt it, I\u2019m just not in that business.  I work for an institutional firm primarily buying class b+ garden style 200+ unit buildings. We have pretty strict credit standards for tenants on our multi side, we won\u2019t take \u201clast chance\u201d renters. I think any eviction or BK in last 7 years bars you from renting.", "replies": [{"id": "fxr20nu", "text": "What this guy said", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}, {"id": "fxr1rmx", "text": "Same but they\u2019re mostly small leases &gt;5k a month. However absolutely no one with large leases is bringing us 25k per month in bills...", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fxojsll", "text": "We pay office rent via ACH but could just walk a check down to the PM since they are in our building. I collect apartment rent. No one writes me checks anymore. 2 of them have a set of deposit slips for my rental account and they self deposit at the branch. The rest pay electronically.", "replies": [{"id": "fxoqpgr", "text": "How did you set up the ACH to pay office rent could you please go into detail? \n\nI\u2019m confused your saying 2 tenants having deposit slips for your rental account and self deposit money into your rental account? How? You granted them access to the account? They are tenants are they not. Please explain.\n\nThe rest pay electronically but how exactly, do they perhaps use an online portal such as the likes of AppFolio and Buildium or do you give them your routing numbers and they wire it via online banking etc?", "replies": [{"id": "fxpg1rx", "text": "The ACH is for rent I pay out to the LL for office space. The online payments are done through apps like PayPal or Zelle. And two of my tenants paying me rent receive a book of deposit slips for my account. They fill the slip out and make the deposit at the bank. It does not allow them to make a withdrawal and the numbers on the slip are not the same as on a check.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpto4q", "text": "Ok I think I get it. So if I have a tenant a deposit slip from my landlord business account they can only deposit money into it. Would they present the slip to the bank followed by the cash etc.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpzj6z", "text": "Ask your bank. Most will only allow cash deposits by someone named on the account due to money laundering laws. But they can freely deposit checks. Most tenants now prefer zelle or PayPal or Venmo etc", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fxphu0z", "text": "Accept moneu orders and never cash. If you need to prove rental income to a bank they wont count cash deposits.\n\nCash is only good if you want to keep a rental off the books.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpu0f9", "text": "Exactly my point cash worries me too much and having too much cash from rents would make me feel like some sort of drug dealer with so much cash around.\n\nI\u2019m pretty sure people who accept mostly cash and run mostly cash based business are lying on their accounting and doing tax fraud etc.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpueol", "text": "It's very possible and sometimes it's just a distrust of banks.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpuy45", "text": "Distrust of banks is unlikely the reason for having hordes of cash it\u2019s most likely they are doing shady business, keeping things off the books and playing with their accounting to alter taxes etc.\n\nEven if I don\u2019t fully trust banks if I had lots of money I\u2019ll deposit my money in a bank and perhaps do extensive research on different banks to find a good one to place my money in.\n\nIt\u2019s like if a tenant says that they want to pay you only in bitcoin tell me that you won\u2019t think they are a criminal and laundering money.", "replies": [{"id": "fxpvcla", "text": "I have tenants who always pay in money order. It doesnt matter to me.personally how they make their money or if they pay taxes. Im not the irs", "replies": [{"id": "fxpywfq", "text": "Well to me those factors do matter. \n\nIf they make their money from crime like selling drugs I could be under investigation and I could be investigated even if I am innocent as the tenant was renting from me. \n\nIt\u2019ll just be a hassle etc and no one wants the authorities on the case. For all I know they could accuse of laundering the tenants money, profiting from them or working with them etc. I personally don\u2019t want to rent to shady people they can find another landlord.\n\nTaxes is important as well. If a tenant doesn\u2019t pay their taxes it could suggest many things. \n\nFirstly, they have legitimate income from a job they can prove but they are not responsible enough to set aside enough money for taxes or pay it on time. A legitimate source of income is good but paying taxes late or forgetting to file them suggest they are irresponsible and they could perhaps not pay rent to me or pay it late.\n\nSecondly, they have illegitimate income from crime such as selling drugs and may not be able to show signs of having a job or pay taxes etc. They may pay in cash and may or may not have a bank account. Again if they are under investigations it\u2019ll lead back to me and I could get involved in something that I had nothing to do with etc and affect business.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fxqpebd", "text": "I use avail.co\n\nBasically automatic with tenant authorization. It's a set and forget service though (sort of).", "replies": [{"id": "fxqvlqd", "text": "Does avail support both residential and commercial properties?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]