The multifamily industry has a reputation of being slow pokes when it comes to adopting technology. Between rent checks, applications and leases, there are a lot of paper documents circulating around your typical leasing office.

But according to PayLease’s 2014 Market Survey, many multifamily firms are finally bringing their online technology to this century's standards, especially when it comes to online rent payments.

The survey is conducted by New Heights Research and polls hundreds of multifamily and HOA firms about their usage of online payments. The results are analyzed by the property management industry overall, and also dissected by portfolio type and company size. This year’s survey revealed some promising trends for multifamily. Some of the highlights:

• 62% of multifamily firms now accept online rent payments, up 8% from 2013. 
  
  
• For the first time in the survey’s history, multifamily firms outpaced HOAs in the rate they added online payments. 

• 32% of companies who made a change to their payment collection process added online payments for the first time.

• 14% of firms who made a change to their online payment solution in 2014 increased the number of online payment solutions they offer.

A big round of applause for multifamily firms for finally jumping on the online payment bandwagon! With fewer rent checks to process, community managers have more time on their hands to focus on bigger priorities, like fulfilling vacancies (which, by the way, happened to be at a record-low in 2014). Offering online payment options and seeing traction from residents actually using the service is finally becoming the norm for the industry.

The tides are turning! It will likely be many more years before rent checks are truly a thing of the past, but multifamily made a huge leap in technology offerings during 2014, and 2015 is looking bright!