Frequently Asked Questions

To Add a Bank Account, you will need to visit the "Accounts" page. This is on the left side navigation when you have logged-in and are on the dashboard.

Once on the "Accounts" click on the "Add Bank Account" button.

You will need your account number, and the banks routing number (9-digits); this can be found on the bottom of a check, or by contacting your financial institution.

Once you have entered your bank account information, Smart Housing will make two (2) small deposits into your bank account. This typically takes 2-3 bank days to show up on your bank account statement. Once you have these two (2) amounts return to the "accounts" page on Smart Housing and click the "verify" link beside the account you wish to verify. You will then be prompted to enter the two (2) amounts.

Once this has been successfully been completed you will be able to use this account to transfer money

You can link as many bank accounts with Smart Housing as you need free of charge.

No, it is free to transfer money from Smart Housing to your Bank Account, and from your Bank Account to Smart Housing.

This charge is used by Smart Housing to verify your card payment information such as billing address and verify the card is active. This charge is cancelled after your bank confirms this information and can remain in a pending state for 1-30 bank days depending on your financial institution.

You can get started right away by registering for a Smart Housing Property Manager account (for managing properties and accepting rent payments), or a Smart Housing renter account (for paying rent, and finding and applying for housing).

Absolutely, and Yes that is a loaded question. However, Smart Housing has been in business since 2008 and has processed thousands of rent payments. Smart Housing enables Property Managers/Landlords and Tenants to view their account information online anytime, and make payments via electronic check (ACH) and major credit and debit cards. Transparent accounting between Landlords and Tenants is created and the overall Tenant experience is enhanced.

Smart Housing is always looking for ways to improve its service. If you have a suggestion feel free to let us know, and you may see them integrated in the future.

Nothing, If you have a computer with an internet connection you have everything you need. The Smart Housing application is web-based. Property Managers/Landlords and Tenants/Prospective Tenants are only required to have an account to use the software.

Smart Housing automates many of the routine tasks that Property Managers and Landlords perform such as rent collection, accounting, and advertising of vacancies. Smart Housing enables property managers to accept rent payments online via eChecks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, and American Express. Additionally Smart Housing is a single central place to store all your rental business information. There is no software to install and it is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year wherever you have internet access.

A Maintenance Request is a service request to repair or alert a landlord/property manager to a problem with a property/unit. This can be something like a broken window, a mold problem, or a furnace failure, etc.

Each Tenant has their own register of rent invoices and rent payments, as rent payments are received they are applied to the oldest invoice first. Tenants can pay their rent invoice in as few as 1 payment or as many payments as they require. (tenants can pre-pay their rent should they desire).

Tenant Accounts are viewable to Property Managers/Landlords and Tenants who have enrolled in online access.

No. Tenants must have sufficient funds in their bank account, or available credit on their credit card for Smart Housing to collect successfully. Additionally, Smart Housing will only process rents payments with the consent of the tenant.

Smart Housing will first notify the tenant of their failed rent payment and enable the tenant to make other payment arrangements. Next Smart Housing will assess applicable late fees, and/or processing fees to the tenant. If the tenant is unable to provide other payment arrangements they will be placed on the Property Managers/Landlords unpaid rent report.

Smart Housing will not automatically re-attempt to collect the failed rent payment. If the tenant is unable to provide to Smart Housing another accepted electronic payment arrangement they can make a payment directly to their Property Manager/Landlord through accepted payment methods.

Smart Housing enables tenants to pay their rent electronically (even automatically every month) via electronic checks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, and American Express Card. Electronic rent payments reduce the risk of theft, the time it takes to process rent rolls, and can eliminate trips to the bank for deposits. All rent payments are automatically posted to the property ledger, thereby reducing the workload of the property manager. Additionally Smart Housing makes it easy to see who has NOT paid their rent, and can even send reminders and post late fees to tenant's accounts.

Yes, a landlord can require a tenant to pay an application fee prior to submitting their application for tenancy. Tenants can pay via credit or debit card, these funds are then transfer to the landlord and deposited in the landlord's smart balance account.

It is free, there is no fee to accept an online tenant application.

This depends if the landlord has opted to charge a tenant application fee. If no application fee is charged then there is no fee for the tenant, if an application fee is charged then the tenant is required to pay the application fee prior to submitting the application for tenancy.

For Property Managers/Landlords there is a fee of $1 per $300 rounded up per transfer for both electronic checks (ACH) and credit cards. For Tenants it is always free to pay via electronic check (ACH), for credit cards there is a small convenience fee. Check out our pricing structure page for more information or our Full Price List for a comprehensive list of fees charged by Smart Housing.

There is a fee charged to the landlord which is 3.5% or $5.00 whichever is greater. See our Full Price List for a comprehensive list of fees charged by Smart Housing.

Yes, Smart Housing's team has years of experience in developing secure web-based applications that enable e-commerce services. Smart Housing follows security best practices and adheres to the Payment Card Industry's (PCI) data security standards (DSS). All sensitive information is encrypted using US Government and Bank grade encryption standards.

The Smart Housing application uses SSL/TLS (https://) to securely transmit data between your computer (phone, or tablet) and the Smart Housing servers.

You can have as many as you would like, they are free. We recommend you have one per bank account this way you can have your Tenants Online Rent Payments deposited into this account and then sweep to the correct bank account.

This is an account within Smart Housing that represents money that is owed to you by Smart Housing. You can withdraw money from your Smart Balance Account to your bank account, order services such as tenant screening or pay bills.

In some situations your Smart Balance Account can actually go negative, when you receive an Online Rent Payment from a Tenant paying via an electronic check this takes a couple of days to clear. This posts to the balance of your account but is not available right away, when the service fee for accepting the rent payment is posted to your account it clears instantly causing your available balance in you account to temporarily go negative. When a Tenant makes a payment via a Credit or Debit card the transaction happens instantly and your funds become available instantly.

Smart Score is a special tenant score that has been developed by Smart Housing to enable you to quickly qualify your tenant applicants. This score takes into account all aspects of the tenants financial life, criminal history, eviction history, sex-offender status (if any), terrorist records, and debt-to-income ratios. Through this we are able to assign values to this information to enable you to compare applicants apples-to-apples without violating any equal housing opportunity guidelines or fair housing rules.

Smart Score takes into account more than just a tenant applicant's financial history, it looks at criminal records, sex offender records, terrorist records, eviction, and debt-to-income ratios. The FICO score looks at your financial history and how likely you are to repay a debt; this works great for a bank but it doesn't tell you if your tenant applicant is likely to trash your rental.

To ensure your tenant screening report is accurate we have a screening professional review your report prior to it being completed. This ensures you do not have criminal information appear incorrectly on your report which can sometimes occur with just a database search alone. This extra level of detail can delay the time it takes to receive your report, but it greatly improves the trustworthiness and quality of the tenant screening service.

Property Managers/Landlords can login to their account anytime and view each tenants account to check to see if they have paid, additionally Property Managers/Landlords can use the unpaid rent report and see which tenants have not paid there rent.

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