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Maybe you’re hacking a house or managing a single-family rental to make extra cash. Or maybe you’re managing multiple properties and running your own business full-time.
Either way, tracking income, expenses, and tenant payments for your rentals takes time. But keeping up with your bookkeeping is critical to filing your taxes correctly and taking advantage of potential deductions. And it’s even more important that your tenants pay them on time so you don’t miss payments.
Fortunately, Baselane is a complete banking and accounting solution for homeowners that helps with property management. If you want to get paid on time, simplify your accounting, and even earn rewards, their free platform might be what you’re looking for.
Our Baselane review covers how it all works, the pros and cons, and its best features.
Commissions and fees – 9
Characteristics – 8
Ease of use – 9
Customer service – 7
9
total
Baselane is a rent management platform for landlords that helps automate tenant payments. It also has great accounting tools so owners can track income and expenses to simplify tax preparation. And their online bank account even pays interest and allows owners to earn cash.
Pros Cons
pros
- Completely free to use
- Competitive APY and cash back rewards
- It helps owners track income and expenses for tax filing
- Free ATM withdrawal at over 55,000 ATMs
- Supports automatic rent payments
against
- There are no tenant selection tools
- It doesn’t help landlords advertise their rentals to find tenants
What is Baselane?
Baselane is a financial services company that provides bank and rental management software for landlords. The company was founded in 2020 with the goal of helping owners track and grow their rental businesses.
The landlord management space has traditionally focused on tenant screening and applicant tracking. But Baseland is different. The platform is more of a mobile bank that also has accounting and analytics to help owners understand their businesses. It also makes tax filing easier, helping homeowners claim eligible deductions.
What does Baselane offer owners?
Landlords are Baselane’s main clientele, although tenants can register on the platform to facilitate rent payments. It offers various banking and rental management features that can help landlords simplify their business and save money.
Owners’ bank
One of the most attractive features of Baselane is its fee-free bank account for owners. This account combines the best of both worlds between a high-yield savings account and a checking account, allowing you to earn rewards while keeping spending simple.
The main advantages of the Baselane bank account include::
- An APY of 2.40%.
- There is no minimum balance requirement
- Up to 5% cash back on debit card purchases
- Support for ACH payments
- Up to $250,000 in FDIC insurance
- Free ATM withdrawal at over 55,000 Allpoint ATMs
However, the cashback reward system has some quirks. Earn 5% cash back when you spend at eligible home improvement merchants, and this rate is limited to $5,000 in annual spending ($250 cash). For all other purchases, earn 1% unlimited cashback.
Earning bonus cash on home improvement purchases and everyday spending is nice. But the real selling point of the Baselane bank account is the 2.40% APY. Plus, you can create an operating account for individual properties, helping you categorize and track expenses per unit if you have multiple. And the Baselane bank account is available for LLCs, partnerships and corporations.
Easy rental collection
If you’ve ever had to constantly remind tenants to pay their rent, Baselane’s rent collection feature could help save you some headaches.
This rent collection solution allows tenants to pay by debit/credit card or ACH payments. They also receive automatic payment reminders and can turn on automatic payment to help reduce late payments. And you have the option to apply late payment fees if you want.
All you have to do is enter the lease terms in the Baselane app and invite your tenant to sign up for payments. From there, payments arrive in your bank account within two to five days, depending on the payment method and banks involved.
There is a 2.99% fee for tenants to pay rent with a debit or credit card, but ACH payments are free.
accounting
As a homeowner, managing your books and keeping track of income and expenses is important for filing taxes. Fortunately, Baselane helps make this process simpler and more automatic with its one-click accounting tool.
With Baselane accounting, you get a record of all your transactions and can tag expenses to specific properties. Transactions are also automatically categorized, so it’s easy to track all relevant household expenses for potential deductions. This includes Schedule E transactions, making it easier to report income or loss from your rentals.
Owners can also split transactions and attach receipts or notes to transactions for future reference.
Property analysis
Your analytics dashboard provides a breakdown of data such as:
- Operating cash flow
- Expenses by property (broken down by category)
- Return on capital
- Maximum rate
- Estimated estimate of the house
You can also see month-to-month performance, and it’s nice to consolidate all that data into a simple, elegant report.
Homeowner’s Insurance
Through its partnership with Obie, Baselane helps homeowners obtain homeowner’s insurance to help protect their properties. All you have to do is answer a few questions about your insurance policy and existing properties. From there, you get a quote and can decide if homeowner’s insurance is worth it or if you can get a lower rate if you already have coverage.
loans
As well as its insurance offering, Baselane is also partnering with Lendency to help landlords find flexible loans to expand their rental businesses. Loans range from $50,000 to $2 million, helping cover everything from single-family homes to multi-unit properties. You can also choose between long-term rental loans and rehabilitation loans.
What does Baselane offer tenants?
Landlords can invite tenants to join Baselane and it offers two features for tenants.
Simple rent payments
As mentioned, landlords using Baselane can onboard their tenants to simplify rent payments. This makes it easy to keep up with payments and you can pay by bank transfer, debit or credit card.
Baselane also works with Stripe and Plaid to keep your financial information safe and securely process payments.
Renters insurance
Through its partnership with Sure, Baselane helps you find affordable rental insurance with the right level of coverage. Plans are as cheap as $8 a month and help protect you and your belongings. Renters insurance can also limit liability if someone gets hurt in your home.
Baselane prices and rates
Baselane is completely free for both owners and renters. This means you pay no monthly account fees, bookkeeping fees or even inactivity fees. And there is no minimum deposit or balance requirement for Baselane banking.
You might be wondering how Baselane makes money since the platform is free. The company mostly generates revenue from its banking service, as it earns interest on balances and merchant fees when you use the Baselane Visa Debit Card. It also charges 2.99% if tenants pay their rent by debit or credit card. Finally, Baselane receives kickbacks if it refers users to its various insurance and loan partners.
According to its website, premium features will be coming to the platform in the future. But for now, Baselane is basically 100% free and just makes money like other free mobile banks.
How can I contact Baselane?
You can contact Baselane by emailing support@baselane.com or calling 1-888-586-1618. Customer service is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST. The lack of weekend customer service is a small drawback that should be noted.
Better alternatives
There are numerous Baselane competitors that specialize in simplifying rent payments and managing tenants. For example, both Avail and Hemlane allow you to automate rent collection. And unlike Baselane, these competitors have tenant screening features to help you find trustworthy and responsible tenants. Additionally, these sites allow you to advertise your rental to help you find tenants in the first place.
But Baselane has many more features and banking rewards than its competitors. And it’s really a landlord banking solution, not tenant control. If anything, it’s a middle ground between online banking for companies like Novo and other proprietary payment platforms.
The main drawback of Baselane is that it has no tenant tracking or applicant tracking systems. But this is not its main goal. Rather, it’s designed to simplify rent payments and help landlords keep track of all aspects of their business. And earning rewards with your bank account is a unique selling point.
bottom line
If Baselane charged a monthly fee, I’d probably say it’s only worth it for landlords managing a few rentals. However, since Baselane is free, it’s an excellent solution for managing everything from single-family homes to larger rental businesses.
If you are looking for help with tenant screening or advertising your rentals, Baselane is not for you. But it has a great bank account with a competitive interest rate and nice cash back rewards. And only their accounting software can help you save money when you file your taxes.
Renters can also benefit from Baselane as it simplifies rent payment. Ultimately, you can try this free platform to test the waters and see if it simplifies your life as a homeowner.
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