Cash Pay Balance Issue

We have a park in Texas and are setting up Rent Manager with Cash Pay. We just installed metron submeters and integrated metron with Rent Manager.

Rent Manager said that some Walmart locations display the Cash Pay balance (rent + utilities), some don’t display anything at all, and some only display the rent.

Our issue is how to make sure the tenants know how much they owe (rent + utilities) if many of them do not have online access and if Walmart does not display the full rent + utilities balance?

Does anyone have experience with this?

Mail your tenants statements each month.

Thanks, Shawn. It would be great to not spend $80 every month on mail. Capitalized, that’s $10.6K in value lost at a 9 cap.

Hire a teenager to stop by the office, collect the printouts, and distribute them in person. Still cost you the same.

Or step in, manage each individual household uniquely, meet them on their turf whether it be phone msg blast (can be automated), email, text msg, in-person visit to the office, etc.

Or just accept that your business has costs and it is Impossible to be 100% efficient. Save (part of)$80 some other easier way. Like doing nothing at all. And catching up with past due as needed.

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Some states allow an administrative fee as part of submetering, and this $80 should be included if allowed. If this requires a rate increase will have to be re-baked into a lease renewal or novation.

By the way Texas allows up to 10% per the Public Utilities Commission. Confirm with your attorney.

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Tenants pay cost. Increase rent to cover the additional administrative costs.

@JoshuaCO , as per your post:

  • “We have a park in Texas and are setting up Rent Manager with Cash Pay.”
  • “We just installed metron submeters and integrated metron with Rent Manager.”
  • Our issue is how to make sure that the tenants know how much they owe (rent + utilities), some don’t display anything at all, and some only display the rent."

First of all we do not use Rent Manager (although it sounds like it has good features).

Some of my previous jobs included working at Computer Software Companies to find “bugs” in Computer Software & the usability of the Computer Software.

Not showing the Total Amount Due is a big Computer Software issue in terms of usability. However, everything has pros & cons.

You indicated that you were in Texas.

I would find out if any of the local Walmarts near your MHP in Texas will show the Cash Pay Balance & then direct all your Tenants to that specific Walmart.

IF none of your local Walmarts show the Cash Pay Balance, I would just text the Tenants the monthly amounts.

We use Microsoft Excel & Word to do Monthly Invoice Statements & then physically mail the Invoices.

Sometimes, the Monthly Invoice Statements get lost or the Tenant wants to pay before the Invoice arrives, so we just text them the info.

Yes, it will cost your MHP extra time & money to text the Tenants.

Hopefully, the local Walmart near your MHP is a good one that can provide the Amount Owed.

We wish you the very best!

It is almost 2020, email/text the bill. No cost at all and it ensures you have a current contact number for your tenants.

I use Rent Manager with PayLease and Cash Pay. Not sure how you have yours set-up but the tenants CAN see their account and balance online before going to use CashPay card at local retail outlet. They just look it up on the day it posts and then go pay.

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