CHICAGO—Chicago-based The Habitat Co. recently became one of the first national property management companies to roll all of its market-rate rental properties into an electronic rental payment system. Habitat implemented its new online payment program earlier this spring across its five-state, 8,800-unit rental portfolio, and company officials say the move will benefit their residents as well as the environment.

Habitat first introduced an online payment-only system to a few properties in 2011. It began to gradually move more of its properties to electronic rental payment systems and recently revamped its payment system to make it possible for residents of all of its market-rate properties to pay from anywhere they have online access. Now, residents no longer have to spend time physically dropping off payments or waste paper writing checks.

“The Habitat Company is always looking for ways to positively impact the lives of residents, and streamlining our payment system achieved immediate benefits as well as environmental efficiencies,” says Sheila Byrne, executive vice president of property management for Habitat. “Plus, on the back end, eliminating the administrative and accounting work of processing checks helps free up time for the Habitat team to better serve the needs of our residents.”

Habitat has tried other ways of making sure residents can fully utilize the internet. It developed, for example, an electronic package management system at Hubbard Place, a 44-floor residential tower in downtown Chicago. Residents receive between 150 and 300 packages each day, and get notified via text messages with secret codes they use to open custom wood drawers built into the lobby wall and retrieve the packages.

And according to Byrne, the online payment system allows Habitat's staff to spend more time interacting face-to-face with residents as opposed to working in the office and processing checks. For every 200 residents who pay online, Habitat saves approximately 2½ hours that would have been spent on check processing and accounting.

A company spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that Habitat already requires online payments from prospective tenants, but has now extended that to all market-rate units. It has also not decided whether it will utilize this method for its huge affordable housing portfolio.

“We knew some residents might need a little extra hand holding during this process, so we saw it as a great opportunity for our management teams to use the high level of customer service Habitat is known for,” says Byrne. “In some cases, our teams even went so far as to create email accounts for residents so they could pay online. The residents were so appreciative, as many had wanted personal emails accounts for years, but didn't know how to create one. It was a real win-win for everyone.”

Residents uncertain about this new process can still pay with cash. Habitat's “Pay a Better Way” program helps to identify the closest location where residents can submit a cash payment and have it wired directly to their resident account for payment.

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Habitat Moves to Electronic Payments

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