Beyond apartments: 8 kinds of space you can rent out

When people hear "rent collection software," they picture apartments. Fair enough — that's where most of it started. But a lease is really just an agreement that someone pays you on a schedule to use a space, and an enormous amount of the economy runs on spaces that aren't apartments at all. If you're collecting money every month for somewhere a person or a business uses, you have a rent-collection problem — and it's the same problem whether the space is a two-bedroom or a boat slip.

Here are eight kinds of space that landlords collect rent for every month, and why the workflow is identical to residential rent.

1. Self-storage units

A storage facility is a rent roll with a lot of small line items. The margin on any single unit is thin, so the time you spend chasing a late payment can eat the profit on the unit itself. Putting every unit on a recurring invoice with autopay turns a hundred units into the same effort as one. See how it works for self-storage →

2. Salon suites and booths

If you rent chairs, suites, or rooms to independent stylists, your rent often falls weekly — fifty-two collection days a year, per chair. Asking for cash between clients is awkward and easy to let slide. Online autopay makes the rent something nobody has to bring up. See how it works for salon suites →

3. Boat slips and marinas

Marina billing has more moving parts than a typical lease: seasonal dockage, annual slips, dry storage, and the winter haul-out, all on different rhythms. And boaters are rarely on-site to hand you a check. A recurring invoice per berth — paid from anywhere — keeps the season from lapsing. See how it works for marinas →

4. Warehouse and industrial space

Industrial rent is bigger, which makes the card fee sting and the bank transfer the obvious choice. Multi-tenant buildings add the wrinkle of several businesses on different rates and terms. One invoice per bay, paid by bank for a low capped fee, keeps a larger rent roll from becoming a larger pile of checks. See how it works for warehouses →

5. Commercial and retail

Business tenants want to pay like a business — by bank, on a schedule, with a real invoice and receipt for their bookkeeper. A payment-app request doesn't cut it. Professional recurring invoices and a clean ledger make commercial and retail rent feel like the rest of their accounts payable. Commercial real estate →  ·  Retail & storefronts →

6. Offices

Whether you lease whole floors or single private offices, the tenants are businesses that want a record both sides can trust. Invoices that send themselves, autopay, and a shared ledger turn monthly office rent into a non-event. See how it works for offices →

7. Parking spaces

Monthly parking is high-volume and low-touch: dozens of small payments that have to land on time to add up, from renters you may never see in person. Autopay for every space means a full lot collects itself. See how it works for parking →

8. Apartments and homes

And yes — the original. Everything above is the same toolkit that independent residential landlords use to collect rent online: recurring invoices, reminders, autopay, a tenant portal, and deposits straight to your bank.

The common thread

Different spaces, same monthly job: bill the right amount, get paid on time, keep a record everyone agrees on, and don't lose a slice of it to fees you didn't expect. RentMerchant is built around that job rather than around one kind of building. Tenants pay by bank or card and cover the processing fee, so the rent you set is the rent you keep — and you can see the exact fee before anyone pays.

If you rent out a space — any space — you can start collecting the rent online for free on up to three properties.