You can use a multitude of on-line banking companies that can do some of this. I use MSN Bill Bay and have a lot of routine items placed on it and I just go in and put check marks and totals next to them when paying.
But I did belong to my bank’s service a few years ago that allowed you to schedule payments on a continual basis. If the mortgage is due on the 1st each month, you could schedule the payment to automatically be sent each month on the 24th. No interaction if everything stays the same.
Search the web for services like this, or maybe even your bank. You can do as I do with having the writing, stamping, mailing, and sending done by the service you use; and you only go in and put a check mark next to it along with the date and amount to send them. You have an initial setup of course to give the servie the company name and address to use, but from there, it can be made ‘routine’.
Should you get to 50 properties, a bookeeper may be a small price to pay for all the other things that go with having many rentals.
I was wondering if some of you could share how you handle the volume of payments when you have lots of properties? I only have 3 rentals now but i have the fever and want lots more. For instance, i want to get to 50 properties or more but don’t want to spend 5 hours writing checks for payments. Are there any sites you guys know of that do this? Do you big volume guys use bookeepers? I want to spend my time looking for deals and not doing paperwork. Any suggestions?
QBooks is easy to use. It lets you “memorize” checks that are to be written each month. Thus you can have a group called “mortgage payments”, click on that, and all of your mortage checks are automatically printed and the info posted to the correct accounts. We use this and are in charge of about 60 mortgage payments.
FYI, I used to send “bulk” checks - that is one check to say Washington Mutual that covered 6 different payments. We would list all account numbers on the checks as well as send the coupon for each account. The royally screwed this up and it cost me a lot of time, money, and aggravation to get it straightened out and the credit repaired (they reported late when actually it was on time but Wash. Mut. posted incorrectly). I STRONGLY advise to send one check per loan account. Much easier to fix if bank makes error.
I use Paytrust.com for personal and business bills. You can turn on automatic payments, and have them go out automatically (just make sure you have enough money in you account!) If you decide to use em, tell em I sent you and then I get a free month of service
Steve If all you are worried about is writing checks each month, I’ll collect your rents on the 50 properties and write the checks each month! lol
Have you not heard of automatic withdrawal from your bank account. Just deposit on time each month, the banks will be happy to take your money for payments.
