A new survey shows that multifamily landlords are increasingly worried about late payments from their tenants, a result that isn’t overly surprising as rising costs on items such as groceries, healthcare and transportation continue to stress consumers, including many renters.
RentRedi, which provides property management software for real estate investors, published its Rent Collection Survey Dec. 15. This survey marked the first time that RentRedi expanded its research to include direct insights from not only landlords but renters.
The big takeaway from the survey? A growing number of landlords worry that their tenants will miss or skip their monthly rental payments as rising costs continue to shrink the buying power of their paychecks.
RentRedi found, too, that landlords who want to reduce late payments should invest in such tools as autopay and credit reporting.
“Landlords are telling us they’re more worried about getting rent paid on time,” said RentRedi co-founder and chief executive officer Ryan Barone, in a statement. “What’s encouraging is that our survey shows that renters are clear about what helps them follow through: tools like autopay, automatic reminders and credit reporting.”
The RentRedi survey found that for both renters and landlords, automatic rent reminders are a key tool for on-time payments. More than half of landlords surveyed said they rely on automatic reminders to encourage timely payments. Tenants agreed, with 44% saying that reminders help them stay on schedule.
Autopay ranked as the next most helpful method for ensuring on-time rent, according to the survey. A total of 41% of landlords said they offer autopay to encourage on-time payments, while nearly a third of tenants said that autopay is the technology most likely to help them pay on-time. This ranked second only to automatic rent reminders.
RentRedi’s own data supports this. The company said that units with tenants enrolled in autopay achieve an on-time rent rate of 99%, compared with 87% for units without it.
Additionally, more than half of tenants surveyed said that having multiple ways to pay rent would help them make their payments on time each month.
In its survey, RentRedi also asked landlords about the incentives they use to encourage their tenants to pay rent on time each month. Of those landlords who incentivize paying rent on time, more than 70% said they use credit reporting to encourage it. Internal RentRedi data shows that credit reporting is also one of the most effective tools for improving renter payment habits, leading to a 13% increase in on-time rent payments.
In a more surprising result, only 19% of large landlords who incentivize tenants offer autopay as part of their strategy, RentRedi found. Landlords who operate smaller portfolios, though, are more likely to offer autopay, with 34% of small landlords and 36% of medium-sized landlords telling RentRedi that they include autopay as an incentive.
As part of its study, RentRedi partnered with BiggerPockets on three surveys conducted from September through November of 2025.
The surveys revealed that:
- 41% of rental investors said they are more concerned about tenants not paying rent than last year, while 15% said they feel less concerned.
- When asked about actual performance, 36% said they’ve seen more unpaid or late rent in the last 12 months, while 45% reported no increase at all.
Landlords on BiggerPockets were also asked how their tenants prefer to pay rent:
- Two-thirds said that tenants preferred ACH/bank transfers.
- 25% said tenants pay by cash or check in person.
- 7% reported credit or debit card payments
- Among tenants using RentRedi, those preferences look markedly different:
- 58% prefer ACH/bank transfers.
- 38% prefer credit or debit cards.
- Only 8% prefer paying in person using cash or checks.
