Paying off
A low-key Vancouver startup has quietly built a roster of 600 clients across the country over six years and is beginning to explore opportunities in the U.S.
Tenant Pay, which helps property managers and others receiving recurring payments from property users, has doubled its business in each of the past five years. It has largely built its business through participation in trade shows and word of mouth, working on the inside of the real estate business to establish a stable following.
Tom Lennox launched Tenant Pay in 2006. He developed the business plan after seeing an opportunity to cut costs for property managers and landlords and to give building users – residential and commercial tenants, as well as strata owners – greater control over payments.
“This is the only industry in the world that takes post-dated cheques,” Lennox said. “They’re dinosaurs in terms of how they deal with money. People don’t want to pay by cheque, and most people don’t want to have pre-authorized payments that require them to reveal all of their credit or personal information.”
His company makes it easy for tenants to pay rent and other charges (such as parking) without the need to relinquish as much personal information as for pre-authorized payments.
Working with banks, credit unions and cheque-cashing agencies such as Money Mart, Tenant Pay enables tenants to set up an account that receives funds on their schedule rather than the property manager’s. The system is similar to credit card and hydro payments.
The appeal for property managers is guaranteed payment – unlike cheques and debits – and streamlined accounting.
Tenant Pay charges property managers a dollar per transaction and aggregates payments into a single deposit that makes the charge worthwhile. Property managers receive a daily report that enables them to take action on missed payments.
“When you could have electronic funds in your bank account within 36 hours, with a complete record of it, why would you have Sally at your front desk looking at a cheque made out from somebody to somebody, check the dates, check the signature, all that stuff?” he asked.
Apartments lead
Statistics Canada’s recent release of household numbers shows that Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey led the province in adding apartment units in the five years between last year’s census and the 2006 census.
But according to figures this columnist requested, Port Moody ranks among the municipalities most affected by the shift toward apartment living.
Apartment-dwelling households rose to 36.3% last year, from 25.3% in 2006, Statistics Canada reports. Households in buildings five storeys and more drove the change. They more than quadrupled to 13.2% last year from a mere 3.1% in 2006.
By contrast, Vancouver’s apartment dwellers held steady at more than 59% (but less than Montreal or New Westminster); Surrey’s proportion of apartment dwellers inched down to 23% from 23.4%.
It’s all right
With listings outstripping sales in local real-estate markets, buzz is rising about a possible increase in foreclosures in 2013. Canadian Bankers Association statistics released at the end of September indicate that B.C. mortgages in arrears stood at 2,589 at the end of July, or 0.43% of all mortgages in the province.
That’s down from the most recent peak of 0.49% seen in February 2011 and par with July 2010. Moreover, in May 2002, an equivalent number of mortgages in arrears put the rate at a whopping 0.56%.
While mortgage in arrears might be a sign of impending foreclosures, the numbers point to a stable situation in the province rather than an impending sharp meltdown.
