Collecting rent can be a painful experience or a smooth transaction. As a landlord, and no matter how good or bad, you always want to make this situation as smooth as possible and comply with the law of your state when collecting rent on your rental property.

It is safe to make leases so that the rent is due on the first of the month for all of your properties. This way, you don’t need to keep track of when each tenant is due to pay rent. When rent is due on the first of the month with a grace period with no late fees, but if rent is not paid in full or is paid late, you charge a late fee as stated in the lease .

You will have a tenant who is late in paying rent beyond the fifth day. He has written in his lease that he can charge an additional amount per day until the rent is paid in full. The reason for this is that you want to make sure paying rent is a top priority for your tenants.

Even in some cases with your best tenants, if their rent is not paid by the fifth of the month, you have to serve them a notice to pay or vacate. It is always better to deal with all your situations personally and in a pleasant way.

When you can deliver these notices to tenants and how long the notices allow for payment or vacating depends on the state. But remember, if your tenants are having trouble paying you on the fifth of the month and they promise to pay you on the fifteenth of the month, how are they going to pay next month’s rent on the first of the next month?

It is best not to have or let this situation drag on. You want to face the problem head-on now and you may be able to save a difficult point for your tenant and the rental property.

Now, in some cases, as a landlord, you can make arrangements with the tenant to pay you over a set period of time. But you need to let them know that if they miss a scheduled payment in full, the legal process will unfortunately start and run its course, which would not be good for them because their record would be affected by an eviction.

Always in a nice way and because it’s the truth, you can let your tenants know that you have a bank loan and rely on your rent payment to help make your mortgage payment. Let them know that you have a mortgage payment due first and that the bank doesn’t care if you collect rent or not. They only care if the payment is due first or they charge a late payment fee. This approach has gone a long way in getting the tenant on their side and painting their late fees in a way they understand. So that is why I can truly say that collecting rent can be either a painful experience or a smooth transaction.