Baselane review: Simple landlord banking & rental management
Moneywise.com / Moneywise.com
Updated: December 29, 2023
4.5
4.5
Features4
Customer service4.5
Commission and fees4.5
Ease of use4.5
Baselane pros and cons
Pros
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Completely free to use
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Competitive APY and cash-back rewards
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Helps landlords track income and expenses for filing taxes
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Integrated bookkeeping tools
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Free ATM withdrawals at 55,000+ ATMs
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Supports automatic rent payments
Cons
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No tenant screening tools
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Doesn't help landlords advertise their rentals to find tenants
What does Baselane offer landlords?
Landlords are Baselane's main clientele. It offers several banking and rental management features that can help landlords simplify their businesses and save money.
Landlord banking
One of Baselane's most attractive features is its no-fee bank account for landlords. This account combines the best of both worlds between a high-yield savings account and checking account, letting you earn rewards while keeping spending simple.
You can earn up to 5% cash back on debit card purchases with eligible home improvement hardware purchases, up to $2,000 per year ($250 cash back). All other purchases earn unlimited 1% cash back, and authorized users also earn cash back.
The APY earnings are tiered, separated by balance, which are all higher than the 0.07% national average for interest-bearing checking accounts and the 0.47% average for savings accounts, according to the FDIC.
Open a Baselane Account| APY | Balance minimum |
|---|---|
| 1.95% | Less than $10,000 |
| 2.93% | $10,000 to $24,999 |
| 3.4% | $25,000 to $49,999 |
| 4.19% | $50,000+ |
The main perks of Baselane's banking account include:
- Up to 4.19% APY
- No minimum balance requirement
- Up to 5% cash back on debit card purchases
- Support for ACH payments
- Up to $3,000,000 on deposits in FDIC insurance, thanks to the fintech bank's partner Thread Bank and its network of program banks.
- Free ATM withdrawals at 55,000+ Allpoint ATMs
Earning bonus cash for home improvement purchases and daily spending is nice. Plus, you can create unlimited accounts for individual properties, helping you categorize and track expenses per unit if you have multiple. And Baselane's banking account is available for LLCs, Partnerships and Corporations.
Easy online rent collection
If you've ever had to remind tenants endlessly about rent payments, Baselane's rent collection feature could help save some headaches.
This rent collection solution lets renters pay you through debit/credit card or ACH payments. They also get automatic payment reminders and can enable auto-pay 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 hit your bank account in two to five days depending on the payment method and the involved banks.
There's a 2.99% fee for tenants to pay rent with a debit or credit card, and ACH payments are $2.
Bookkeeping
As a landlord, managing your books and keeping track of income and expenses is important for filing taxes. Thankfully, Baselane helps make this process more simple and automatic with its one-click bookkeeping tool.
With Baselane's bookkeeping, you get a ledger of all your transactions, and you can tag expenses to specific properties. Transactions also get categorized automatically, so it's easy to track all of your relevant home expenses for potential deductions. This includes Schedule E transactions, which makes it easier to report any income or losses from your rentals.
Landlords can also split transactions and add notes to transactions for future reference. Baselane is planning to add the ability to upload receipts to individual transactions as well.
Property analytics
Your analytics dashboard provides a breakdown for data like:
- Operating cash flow
- Expenses per property (broken down by category)
- Net operating income
- Schedule E Report
- Estimated home appreciation
You can also view month-over-month performance, and it's nice to consolidate all this data in a sleek and simple report which you can also export to CSV.
Landlord insurance
Through its partnership with Obie, Baselane helps landlords get landlord insurance to help protect their properties. All you have to do is answer a few questions about your existing insurance policy and property. From there, you get a quote and can decide if landlord insurance is worth it or if you can get a lower rate if you already have coverage.
Loans
Like its insurance offering, Baselane also partners with Lendency to help landlords find flexible loans to expand their rental businesses. Loans range from $50,000 to $2 million, which helps cover everything from single-family homes to multi-unit properties. You can also choose between long term rental loans and rehab loans.
What does Baselane offer renters?
Landlords can invite tenants to join Baselane, and it offers two features for renters.
Simple rent payments for free
As mentioned, landlords using Baselane can onboard their tenants to simplify rent payments. This makes it easy to stay on top of payments, and you can pay via bank transfer, debit, or credit card.
Baselane also works with Stripe and Plaid to keep your financial information secure 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 per month and help protect you and your belongings. Renters insurance can also limit liability in case someone ever gets hurt in your home.
Baselane pricing and fees
Baselane is completely free to use for both landlords and tenants. This means you don't pay monthly account fees, bookkeeping fees, or even inactivity fees. And there's 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 since it earns interest on balances and from merchant fees when you use the Baselane Visa debit card. It also charges 2.99% if tenants pay their rent with a 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 are coming to the platform in the future. But for now, Baselane is basically 100% free and only makes money like other free mobile banks.
How do I contact Baselane?
You can contact Baselane by emailing support@baselane.com or by calling 1-888-586-1618. Phone customer support is available Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm EST. A lack of weekend customer support is a small downside worth noting.
Open a Baselane AccountBest alternatives
There are numerous Baselane competitors that specialize in simplifying rental payments and managing tenants. For example, both Avail and Hemlane let you automate rent collection. And unlike Baselane, these competitors have tenant screening features to help you find trustworthy, responsible renters. Plus, these sites let you advertise your rental to help you find tenants in the first place.
But Baselane has way more banking features and rewards than its competitors. And it's really a landlord banking solution, not a tenant screener. If anything, it's a middle ground between online banks for businesses like Novo and other landlord-tenant payment platforms.
The main downside of Baselane is that it doesn't have tenant screening or applicant tracking systems in place. But this isn't its main purpose. Rather, it's designed to simplify rental payments and help landlords track every aspect of their business. And the fact you earn rewards with its bank account is a unique selling point.
The bottom line
Baselane is an excellent solution for managing everything from single family homes to larger rental businesses and considering that it's free there is nothing preventing you from checking it out.
If you're looking for tenant screening help or to advertise your rentals, Baselane isn't for you. But it has an excellent business banking account with a competitive interest rate and nice cash-back rewards. And its bookkeeping software alone can help you save money when you file your taxes.
Tenants can also benefit from Baselane since it simplifies paying rent. Ultimately, you can give this free platform a try to test the waters and see if it simplifies your life as a landlord.
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Tom Blake is a staff writer who specializes in cryptocurrency, investing, and passive income.
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