Rent Drops

We take online payments but there are still residents who opt for dropping their rent by the office in person. Some have complained about our drop box being permanently closed. From what I understand, the management company closed it due to creative thieves with coat hangers and gum! I want the drop box back - any suggestions on a safer drop box? We are an "A" property in a very nice part of town, so I don't think it's a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Thanks!

Our way of preventing theft is making payments useless to any would-be thieves.

Residents who drop payments in the drop box pay by money order, and the money orders have to be completely filled out with the property name and address, so no one else can cash them.

The payment instructions on the door by the drop box probably deter anyone from even trying it!

Rose M wrote:

Our way of preventing theft is making payments useless to any would-be thieves.

Residents who drop payments in the drop box pay by money order, and the money orders have to be completely filled out with the property name and address, so no one else can cash them.

The payment instructions on the door by the drop box probably deter anyone from even trying it!

They shouldn't be able to cash checks not made out to them either, but they managed to. There are check cashing establishments that do this illegally, I'm told. I wish someone would design and theft proof night drop. I need to research it.

Thank you for the reply

I will be putting in a check request tomorrow - it's called Nite Drop Zone!

Our community drop box was targeted by thieves. And in response to the earlier comment that money orders and checks can't be tampered with is wrong. We had several checks and money orders stolen out of our drop box. The check information was able to be used for other purchases and the thieves had sophisticated ways of blurring out the ink on the money orders and writing in their own information.

The safest drop box should have a long drop and as long as your residents are informed that it is a risk to drop their rent off then you're ok.

When I was on site, we also closed our drop box permanently. It just wasn't worth the risk. If opening your drop box isn't a possibility, get creative with the ways you collect rent from your residents who would typically use this feature. Offer to pick it up from them at their apartment, send them a stamped envelope for them to send it in the mail, remind them of your online payment system. Market as you being there for them and caring about their financial security. While it may initially sound like an inconvenience to them that you don't have a drop box available, when they're fully aware of why you're doing it and what you're doing to help them, I think it'll be a non-issue.

There are rent drop boxes with metal teeth on the inside...They dont open very wide either...We haven't had any issues since installing ours at our property...

One way to avoid this is thinking about viable options: make provisions for your residents to be able to pay online, consider direct debit on a monthly basis. In cases were residents are not able to take advantage of one of these options, money order companies are now offering a service through which residents are able to pay rent at the location whenre the money order is being purchased. Global Express is one such example. There is something in it for everyone when it is done this way. The resident does not have to go to the office in order to make a payment; the transaction is no more expensive that a typical money order transaction and the chances for the money order being lost or stolen are seriously minimized. This process also faciliates adminstration on the Property Manager's end since the funds are automatically posted. It also saves everyone the trouble of trying to catch the money order thief.

Would you please tell me the name of the company from which you purchased the drop box? Thanks!

However, Morgan, the inconvenience is not with the residents, per se, it is inconvenient for the office to stop and take a check from the residents on the 1st and 2nd of the month when they want to talk at the same time. I realize that sounds harsh, but trust me, we have 317 units with many older residents who will stay and chat for an hour when they drop of their rent. Short of being rude, it's impossible to work while they are paying rent. Also, this weekend poses a problem with the office being closed - our rent is late on the third, so everyone will have to come in on the 2nd to pay.

Of course there is the convenience factor for the residents and I appreciate the ideas. I'm not sure it would be any more convenient for them to drop a piece of mail in the post office box as in our drop slot. I do like the idea though, just in general! Thanks!

Customer Service is part of your job! Without it you would not have residents who want to pay your rent and therefor pay your pay check! I know it can be very aggrevating when corporate or people are wanting things right away at the first of the month. But you can not lose sight that you still have to sell your property to your current residents even if it means that you have to talk to them for an hour. When you are dealing with older people they want to talk because belive it or not you maybe the only person they have social contact with outside of their family. Customer Service is your biggest and best marketing tool out their that you have available to you. Now if you don't like giving customer service then you really should not be in this bussiness period. We are a customer service based company.

Morgan O that is great on the ideas I love them! You can get a box from Peachtree that opening is only large enough to put a check through!

Sorry, I meant BJ, not Morgan.... wrote:

However, Morgan, the inconvenience is not with the residents, per se, it is inconvenient for the office to stop and take a check from the residents on the 1st and 2nd of the month when they want to talk at the same time. I realize that sounds harsh, but trust me, we have 317 units with many older residents who will stay and chat for an hour when they drop of their rent. Short of being rude, it's impossible to work while they are paying rent. Also, this weekend poses a problem with the office being closed - our rent is late on the third, so everyone will have to come in on the 2nd to pay.

Of course there is the convenience factor for the residents and I appreciate the ideas. I'm not sure it would be any more convenient for them to drop a piece of mail in the post office box as in our drop slot. I do like the idea though, just in general! Thanks!

I have to say I agree with Jolene on this one. I totally understand how frustrating it can be to take time out of your busy day to talk to residents. Trust me, been there, done that for 7 years. But customer service should be your number 1 priority. And their convenience should be a priority over yours. Rent time is a busy time in every office. If you ever find it difficult to manage, then perhaps a talk needs to be had with your supervisor about reducing your responsibilities over that time period or perhaps extending office hours to accomodate the extra traffic and/or work that needs to be done. But I think it's super important that the focus is ALWAYS on the resident.

On a side note, I can see you have an issue with January's payments because of the holiday. I think it may be a good idea to extend your grace period for this month. I understand some owners may not want to do this, but again, it's showing your residents that your priority is them and you want to provide exemplary customer service. Not only will it be helpful for them, but it will also alleviate the stress you'll have in your office if everyone pays on the same day. Just my 2 cents.

Jolene/Morgan

I'm actually just trying to find a drop box from which checks and money orders can not be stolen with a coat hanger and gum. The ones with the small mail slots are not the answer for a patient and accurate thief - not to mention if I am going to invest in one that is safe from illegal retrieval, I would want it to have a slot large enough to accommodate envelopes containing keys from move-outs.

As for my ability to deliver customer service, it is not about me, it is about a busy staff and sometimes even busier residents. The drop box is a convenience most apartment communities have offered to their residents for as long as I've been in the business, about 25 years. Many businesses have after hour drop boxes as a convenience to their customers. Residents appreciate being able to drop their rent in a drop box after they get off work, usually after we close. On the other hand, many times we watch residents walk up and use the drop box while the office is open because they don't want to engage with the office staff, they just want to pay their rent and go on.

Having 290 residents come in to pay their rent between the 1st and 2nd, as well as walking move-ins/move-outs and showing apartments on the same days, is going to be chaos, period. As you might logically deduce by doing the math, I and my staff have to inconvenience residents waiting to pay their rent, in order not to be rude to the person carrying on an hour conversation on the busiest day of the month for us. With fewer residents having to come in and wait on us to physically take a check from their hand, we have more time to use our great customer service skills on the ones who need it most.

While I appreciate your interest in my post, I find your comments condescending and not at all relevant to my initial post. Again, the drop box is not for use by the residents while we are actually in the office contemplating our navels, it is primarily meant for residents to use, at their convenience, while we are out of the office.

Thanks!

I'm sorry you find my comments condescending, that certainly wasn't my intention. I post here to support other industry professionals and my comments, along with suggestions for you, were attempting to do just that. You said yourself that your way of doing business sounded harsh, and I must admit, it did come across that way, which was probably why Jolene pointed out what she did and why I did as well. It is the Internet, though, and it's alot more difficult to convey your true opinions and tone, so I apologize if I misunderstood what you were trying to get across.

Also, I also hadn't realized you were the original poster of the topic as you haven't posted your latest comments logged in as the same user, so I was writing most of my comments in response to those in addition to your original question. Now I see they were all you.

Anyway, I hope you get the answers you're looking for and I wish you the best on your property.

Perma-Vault offers a small through the wall depository. It is relatively inexpensive with a cost of $500 or so delivered.

This small wall safe can include a extension chute to stick through the wall with an "Anti-fish" baffle to deter the removal of the contents.

I understand that you are looking for a secure night drop box that is both convinent to your residents and safe to use. I know it can be insane at rent time and sometimes frustrating when it comes to the resident that talks to you for an hour. Have you ever thought to in a very kind way put a letter in your news letter or community board on setting an apointment to meet with a staff member about any issues they may have to be schedule after the first of the month? Sometimes people just don't realize that you are really busy and they just want to talk. It's just a thought and might be a solution to your problem on the hour talkers. I already know that come the 2nd I will be crazy here with my talkers (I love them) So I'm making arrangements now to be prepare for that time frame.

Peach Tree
Winter 2009-Spring 2010 Book Pg 131

We purchase this one shortly after we had several money orders stollen ( at my previouse community), sense installing this one we have had no problems with rent being drop off and keys. This is very secure and hard for the celver theif to get in we actually tryed several diffrent tricks of the trade to make sure it was secure enough.

Well I hope you fined what you are looking for and have a great Holiday Weekend!

Morgan O you were fine in what you said if not very helpful on some suggestions and ideas.

I have thought of promoting automatic payments from bank accounts to Paypal. Setting up an account with Pay Pal for my personal rentals has been the least inexpensive way to accept credit cards or debit cards. I love the feature and my residents are getting use to posting the payment. There is a feature that can be set up on a website to automatically charge their credit card or debit card. This is just some food for thought Thanks Robbin

Thank you....I will look into this one on Monday - sounds exactly like what we need.

I think Pay Pal is something to consider if they would make an exception for bulk payments. Their fees are crazy high.

Thank you Jolene

We were having the same problem and our maintenance man made the slant smaller and then he made a metal ring to put in the box on our end that the gum would stick to. It worked.

I guess I am fortunate in that I have a smaller property and rent collections are not a problem; my residents for the most part bring their rent in within the grace period while I am in the office (my property is a seniors property, and I live on site); so having an after hours rent drop is not a factor. In my area, there are 'payee services' that cut a check on a client's behalf and drop it in the mail so it arrives on time; and some of my residents do that. I also have residents who are using Housing Choice Vouchers; and their payments are always mailed (with the residents bringing their share to me directly).

As far as recommendations to residents who need to use alternate forms of payment; I do NOT accept credit/debit card payments; but depending on a resident's bank and their relationship with them, they can instruct their bank to cut a check and mail it to the property so it arrives on time. Sometimes it can be difficult to identify who the check is for, so when residents use this as a means to get rent in on time; I always ask to make sure that the resident's name/apartment number appear on the check. The bank may or may not charge for this service.

I am not sure I want to do the paypal thing; but I would like to know how it works.

As far as customer service goes; I feel for you! I have ONE resident in particular, that has some very bad habits.....

1) she always starts off a request with 'you BETTER'. What happened to 'Can you' or 'Would you'????
2) she will come to me with a problem, and expect me to drop everything to solve it; without knowing IF I already know about the problem and I am already working on it's solution..... This impedes progress......
3) she always asks questions that do not have anything to do with her, or affect her life in any way; yet she expects an answer, even if that answer involves confidential information that she has no need for. I am very aware of privacy issues, and refuse to put myself in a position to release any information to anyone without a legitimate need to know.

That said, I expect that this resident will actually move; and a large portion of my time will become available to me once again. This portion of time is currently being used to address her and the problems she creates by her actions described above. I want to welcome her to leave....

Those types of Residents are never happy Your not required to renew her lease and dont have to list a reason why.

Problem is, we are tax credit and she has not been on a lease since she completed her initial obligation AND our occupancy numbers suck. Because our occupancy sucks (of 66 units, one is mine and exempt, we have 20 vacants PLUS 2 more pending eviction); I will not welcome her to leave until we are above 95%... gotta pick my battles wisely.

Incidentally, this resident did not particularly LIKE my last boss (regional manager); in fact; she tried to get her FIRED.... Subsequently, and not as a result of this; we made a change and my new boss has more experience with properties that have problems similar to mine... Naturally, this resident thinks that my boss was fired because of what she had to say; so she is feeling all high and mighty about it.

Our property had an issue with this. It was quite simple to fix. We had a small mail slot installed about 5 feet up the door with NO box behind it. The checks and money orders fall on the floor. It works great, all I have to do is pick them up off the floor.

Otherwise known as Mrs. Kravitz - once she leaves there will magically appear another to take her place...

I currently manage an access controlled building so the rent drop box is actually just a mail slot in my door, however in the past I had my maintenance install a drop slot in the wall of my office from the outside of the building. The rent drops onto the floor, therefore it can't be reached.

As to the inconvenience of residents taking up our time- This is what we are paid for. I have 200+ senior residents. Most of them love to spend time chatting with me, however I have yet to have one take up my time when they know another resident is waiting. If you are having this issue, I'm sure an excuse such as "I have to get my boss this report in 15 minutes" would give even the most Chatty Kathy resident the hint to move on, and keep from hurting anyones feelings. Bottom line is even if I have to spend an hour with a current resident, it's better than spending HOURS getting a rental for a vacant unit.
Johnny I had the same problem with one of my residents. I bluffed her with a non-renewal letter. She came in very upset. I was very straight with her stating her continued complaints and gossip was causing others to be uncomfortable in their community. I told her I would talk it over with my boss, made her wait 7 days then allowed her to renew. This was over a year ago and I haven't had a bit of trouble since. Even one of our utility providers who'd been stuck listing to her complain for years called me up to see what I did to this resident to cause her to be nice. Honestly I think no one has ever called her on the bad attitude. Also if I were you the next time resident X asks about things that are private I would just ask her if it would be okay for you to share the same information about her to others. I've learned with Seniors you have to be stern but respectful.

I had no idea that theft could be such a problem! I really feel everyone who has to deal with that and I'm so grateful that it's not an issue at my property. We did have an issue with someone taking netflix out of the outgoing mail box, which was just a non-secure plastic container, but we purchased an inexpensive locking mail box at HD supply and use that for outgoing mail now. I suppose it would work for a rent drop too. There is a rotating metal piece inside that allows you to put things in but not take anything out.

Johnny, I'm sure you'll fill up your property in no time!

Hi Morgan - the name of the company is Permavault Safe compnay...Their phone number is (215) 293-9951...Let me know if you need any more info!!!

I like for the box on the inside to be secure in case there is a break-in. I like the idea of the ring so the gum gets stuck, but I haven't figured it out yet!

We have one of these mailboxes for outgoing mail, but it would work for collecting rent too. There is a rotating metal bar inside that allows items to be put in but not taken out without opening the box with the key.

hdsupplysolutions.com/webapp/wcs/stores/...816964-1&req=catalog

Rose - I am going to call HD tomorrow and learn more. Thanks so much!

Johnny Karnofsky wrote:

As far as customer service goes; I feel for you! I have ONE resident in particular, that has some very bad habits.....

1) she always starts off a request with 'you BETTER'. What happened to 'Can you' or 'Would you'????
2) she will come to me with a problem, and expect me to drop everything to solve it; without knowing IF I already know about the problem and I am already working on it's solution..... This impedes progress......
3) she always asks questions that do not have anything to do with her, or affect her life in any way; yet she expects an answer, even if that answer involves confidential information that she has no need for. I am very aware of privacy issues, and refuse to put myself in a position to release any information to anyone without a legitimate need to know.

That said, I expect that this resident will actually move; and a large portion of my time will become available to me once again. This portion of time is currently being used to address her and the problems she creates by her actions described above. I want to welcome her to leave....

UPDATE... this resident turned in her notice to vacate today; trouble is that this was not a 30 day notice (as required), it was a SEVEN day notice!!! She will be out on January 4. I am torn in that this hurts my already disgusting vacancy rate; but happy that the problems she creates by her interruptions are soon to be over... I could not close my office door and window fast enough to do my happy dance discreetly for that fact alone!

To answer the paypal questions - paypal works on a sliding scale based on the amount of the deposits made in a month.

Here is a link to their current fee schedule: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_displ...ceiving-fees-outside

The big difference between paypal and a merchant account is that the merchant account is a regulated bank whereas paypal uses their own system. This is important if you ever need to do an integration with paypal. As a side note, the examples shipped with the paypal integration kit do not work so be kind to your developer because he has to troubleshoot a hairy mess of code.

One thing to keep note of with paypal is they have a nasty habit of freezing accounts of people who show a large increase in funds. For those interested here are some links documenting these issues:

www.paypalwarning.com/

www.paypalsucks.com/frozen-accounts.shtml

money.howstuffworks.com/paypal7.htm