The Hidden Cost of Payment Processing in Property Management
When I started building ExactEstate, I got a firsthand look at what my clients were actually paying each month for payment processing through their existing systems. For related operational guidance, review property management tools and dashboards.
The numbers shocked me.
One client had 2,500 tenants. Most paid rent over $1,000 per month. Most used credit cards. The processing rate was 2.95%.
Do the math. That's $885,000 per year. Just for credit card processing.
And that was before ACH costs came in.
Why Nobody Questions the Cost
My clients weren't questioning these fees because they thought it was a standard cost of business.
Everyone pays it. It's just how things work. But I couldn't accept that.
I started reaching out to payment providers directly to see what they could actually offer if I integrated credit card and ACH payments into our own system. I wanted transparency, not a black box.
What I found changed everything.
The rates I could negotiate were significantly lower. Half a percent lower for credit cards. Way lower for ACH transactions, too. The gap between what property managers were paying and what was actually available was massive.
Where Your Money Actually Goes
Property managers are told they're paying for convenience, built-in compliance, and integration. In most cases, they're paying for layers of companies sitting between the tenant and the bank.