Full transcript: Shane Lavagna-Slater — RentPay: flexibility and rewards for renters

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Shane Lavagna-Slater: Thank you for having me.

Kylie Davis: Um, look, it's, it's great to have you here, and I'm really interested in hearing about some of the changes and the work that you guys are doing in the rental market. So tell me what the RentPay elevator pitch is.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Okay. So RentPay is a dual-sided market app that we provide renters with flexibility on how they pay their rent, as well as cashbacks and rewards for paying their rent and staying on top of their rent. And for agents, we provide accuracy, certainty, and simplicity in reconciling and receipting those rents that are collected. So we serve on the front end renters, and on the back end we integrate into property managers' CRMs and trust accounting systems, so we provide them with accuracy and certainty.

Kylie Davis: Okay, awesome. So how big a problem is collecting rent? 'Cause I know rent, you know, rental affordability is such a big issue at the moment. What's been wrong with the past ways that we've asked renters to pay?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, well, if you start at the top, so 32%, 33% of all Australians rent. Huge market. Um, a lot of pressures in the market at the moment with rental increases, cost of living pressures. Um, we provide a user-friendly service for renters to get ahead on their rent. So, um, cost-effective way to pay your rent, cashbacks for paying your utility bills through RentPay, as well as rewards for shopping at retailers, and those cash discounts could be put towards your rent. So I think that's what makes, uh, RentPay a little bit different in our rewards, is that all these cash discounts and, um, rewards are actually put towards your next rental payments, which helps every single bit, um, of renters.

Kylie Davis: Okay. So are you... And so, okay, I'm getting cashbacks. Are you also charging a fee if you're putting it on cr- are you putting it on credit card, or are you putting it on direct debit, or are you doing the new, um, payment subscription system? What, what... How does that side of it work?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So we, uh, RentPay, we don't make money off of moving money. So we don't, um, charge variable or additional fees. Um, we charge a $2 per month subscription fee for using the app.

Kylie Davis: Right.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, so this includes unlimited direct debits and unlimited PayID. If a renter wants to use credit cards, BPAY, AliPay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay, there are banking surcharges that are attached to that that we pass on to the consumer, and we don't make a margin off of those.

Kylie Davis: No. Okay. Um, but I guess what you're saying, though, is that in the past you could either turn up to the property manager with cash, which nobody doesn't want. I don't even know if rent- if property managers even accept that anymore. Um, or you could set up a direct deposit.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah.

Kylie Davis: But if the direct deposit failed for any reason, then that would be a problem. Um, or you could m- m- manually manage it, but you're doing PayID as well. Is that correct?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. So we offer eight, eight ways to pay your rent.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And, uh, a lot of those, uh, ways to pay revolve around the renter and convenience for the renter. So you could use RentPay and pay via direct debit and kind of set it and forget, and never come back and use RentPay. Majority of our users, uh, take back, uh, or take advantage of the additional features that we have in RentPay So I've mentioned the cashback and the rewards, but we also have things like a buffer to get ahead of your rent. So you could put little bit extra into your Rentpay wallet each week or fortnight to build up a bit of a buffer in case of uncertainty in the future. There's also a credit score builder feature built into Rentpay that allows you to, um, use your rent payments and your behavior and keeping up to date to contribute positively to your credit score.

Kylie Davis: Ah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: We s- we see a huge amount of renters y- wanting to use their renting and their tenancy period wisely to end up in a better position so they can purchase a house one day. So things like the buffer, getting ahead is a bit of a savings mechanism, and the score builder improves their credit score, so when they do apply for that mortgage in the future, they'll be in a better position than when they started.

Kylie Davis: Okay. I love that. That, that's a, that's a great option. And, and I think, too, that ability to be able to create that buffer, especially if you're a freelancer or gig economying or-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Exactly

Kylie Davis: ... things like that, you can therefore prove that you, even though you might... your, your income might not be consistent all the time, that you've got a really good record in that space.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Exactly. I actually bumped into a hospitality worker over the weekend, um, and we just got to chatting, and I found out that she rented, and she actually uses Rentpay. And the reason she uses Rentpay is because of the buffer feature because she is unsure of next month's shifts work-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... December's shift work. She's unsure of that, but she is certain of her rental payment each week.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So she puts $20, she puts $20 into her Rentpay wallet every week additional so that she has one week's rent saved up. So if anything changes in the future, she knows that she will be covered for at least one week's rental payment.

Kylie Davis: Fantastic. Okay. So how did it start? H- What's the, what's... How, how long has Rentpay been around for?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. So Rentpay is owned by rent.com.au, and they're the largest, uh, rental portal in the country. Um, so rent.com.au listed on the stock exchange, uh, in about 2015, um, you know, was growing. They have, uh, you know, a really amazing stat, 700,000 unique views each month, heaps of properties to, to view. Um, and about two, three years ago, they purchased a payment system that they reinvented and, and rejuvenated. So Rentpay's really been going for two and a half years, three years, and we're hitting some really, really good milestones. I mean, we've got thousands of renters across the country. We pay to thousands of agencies across the country. We, at the moment, are doing just over $4 million in rent each week, and we've just crossed over, a few months ago, um, the $250 million mark bit of total rent processed.

Kylie Davis: Right. Okay. And that's fantastic. And so what, what does it feel like from the property manager end? How, what are the benefits to accepting Rentpay as an option as a property manager?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. So it's a big driver for property managers. They're super busy. They've got a lot of tenants to deal with, a lot of landlords. So we provide simplicity and accuracy and certainty in their solution. So we collect all the rent from all their tenants, and we pay over in a single daily batch payment into their trust account. That batch payment is accompanied with a pay file, which is an ABA file, that is compatible across all trust accounting systems. So whether they use PropertyTree, PropertyMe, Console, they drag the pay file into their system, and it r- reconciles and receipts for them. Um-

Kylie Davis: Automatically?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Automatically.

Kylie Davis: Ooh.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Uh, save- We, we aim to cut down the admin time from about two hours a day to about 15 minutes a day.

Kylie Davis: Oh, my Lord. No more trust reconciling. Been doing my betting hat.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: I would, I would love to say there would never be trust reconciling, but there's always-

Kylie Davis: There will always be some. There's always a problem child somewhere.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Exactly right. Exa- And, and we do this for rent, for water bills, for bonds, uh, if you, if you collect those. So, um, the unique references that we put into the back end w- we aim to eliminate those unknown funds.

Kylie Davis: Right. Yep.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, so the unknown fund's a big one, and also because we are collecting rent from, uh, renters, there will never be dishonors or clawbacks. All the money that we transfer across to a trust account, um, for the agent is cleared in full payments. So there's never part payments. They are all cleared funds, so the money that you receive in your trust account as an agent, um, you know is all cleared funds and is never gonna be a clawback.

Kylie Davis: Okay. So let's just unpack that a little bit. Um, does that mean, is there, does that mean there's a delay of a day or two from you receiving the money from the tenant and then it going over to the, to the property manager? Or how does that, how does that work?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. So it depends on what payment choice the renter has selected.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So if they've chosen a direct debit, it takes two days to clear. So, um, let put in an example. If, uh, the rent is due on a Wednesday and the tenant has chosen direct debit, we'll take that out of their bank account on the Monday.

Kylie Davis: Right.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: It clears into our account 5:30 on the Wednesday. It transfers into their trust account in a single batch payment, and the pay file is available the next morning for reconciliation. BPAY we'll take out on the Tuesday, one day's delay. Um-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... credit cards, pay ID are all instant, so-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... we'll take them out on the Wednesday, and the agent will receive them on the Wednesday.

Kylie Davis: So with the money going straight in via this ABA file or the, the tr- transaction being recognized, does that mean you don't need to do- Deep dive back end API calls or connections up to the different property management software, or is, is, is this part of your integration with them?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So we're compatible across all, uh, systems. We are the most integrated with PropertyTree. So-

Kylie Davis: Right

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... uh, we work the best with PropertyTree, and then information flows between, um, PropertyTree and RentPay. Um, but we still have that file that gets dropped into each of the system that reconciles and receipts one. So, um, it's a simpler, uh, solution for property managers, especially trust accountants. Um, and there's, there's a, a whole heap of benefits in terms of efficiencies, accuracies, certainties for the agents that they start to realize when more and more of their rent roll moves across. So we have large agencies, 3,000, 4,000, that have migrated their entire rent roll across to using RentPay. And, um, uh, we, we mentioned that... or I mentioned that the, there's a $2 subscription fee. Um, agents who migrate their entire rent roll across and subsidize that $2 gets the best results. So, um, instead of the renter paying the $2, we have agencies that pay the $2 for their renters, effectively making it free for the renters to use.

Kylie Davis: Okay. 'Cause I was gonna ask that, 'cause I have spent quite a lot of time in the last couple of weeks, uh, with the New South Wales, um, rental commissioner and a advisory, uh, committee talking about improving equality and fairness and data privacy around, um, around rentals. And they all look very dimly upon anything that costs renters money at, at a time when, um, rent is so expensive. But with the cashbacks and the q- uh, uh, are the majority of your renters getting more back than they're paying?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Funny you ask, I just did the calculation last week, so

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Okay

Shane Lavagna-Slater: The renters who use our cashback who pay their, uh, bills at Origin-

Kylie Davis: Yep

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... uh, get a $5 per week cashback into their RentPay wallet. Um-

Kylie Davis: Right

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... the rewards program, um, is at 140 retailers across the country, and you get between 3 and 15% cash discounts. And these aren't retailers that are fringe retailers. These are Coles, Woolworths, BWS, Myer, JB Hi-Fi. So we're not changing behavior here. If you are shopping at either Coles and Woolworths and you're using RentPay, you can get 3% discount. That can go-

Kylie Davis: Right

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... towards your rent. So, um, if you just use Origin, you'll be kind of up.

Kylie Davis: 20 buck, yep.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: If you use, uh, our rewards program, you'll be further up. Um, and you know, it makes... it, it'll effectively make you money.

Kylie Davis: Okay. And the, the property managers who are deciding to cover the cost of it, uh, the subscription fee, what's their thinking behind that?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So it's interesting. It's saves them money as well. So if you think of all the costs that are associated with collecting the rent, there are your transaction costs, there are your, um, you know, your backend costs around your lines, your ABA files, not to mention the FTE person that has to sit there and reconcile each one of these.

Kylie Davis: Mm.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So by subsidizing that $2 for tenants, our agencies are actually saving themselves a lot of money. Um-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... if they just do the simple maths around what it costs them to process a BPAY transaction at their bank and put that against, um, RentPay $2 per month subscription fee, they will make, um, a huge saving.

Kylie Davis: Awesome. I also love that idea that, um, property managers can help redress this idea that, you know, this st- terrible stereotype that exists out in the market that we're all terrible people, um, and, and cover that cost. Let me ask you a question. Are you happy with your current operational workflow? Are you really satisfied with printing, signing, scanning, and emailing contracts, and then having to wait days for them to be signed and returned? Well, I didn't think so, and I have some good news. There is a better way. Dynamic Methods is the team behind leading real estate industry tech platforms such as FormsLive, REI FormsLive, and RealWorks. With a mission to make better happen, Dynamic Methods are dedicated to providing efficiency and productivity tools, boosting form technology to real estate agencies across Australia. Each month, 50,000 real estate professionals across eight and a half thousand agencies from every Australian state and territory use Dynamic Methods form technology, empowering more than 7.2 million transactions a year. Dynamic Methods is also proud to host quality integrations with some of the PropTech industry's most powerful technologies, such as DocuSign, Secure Exchange, Equifax, and more, putting everything you need to get forms and contracts filled in, signed, verified, and exchanged into one easy platform. So if you're ready to ditch the pen and paper, make your agency look more efficient, head to dynamicmethods.com.au/partners to learn more. This episode is sponsored by EasyPay. EasyPay makes collecting PropTech payments easy. As one of Australia's leading subscription payment providers, EasyPay is helping real estate and PropTech businesses to improve rental collection rates, transform arrears management, and increase cashflow. Built for integration with a focus on partnerships, EasyPay's platform works seamlessly with your existing PropTech software, giving you access to industry-leading features that enable complex billing and settlement to support trustless business models. Discover the power of payment automation, and leverage one of the first platforms to enable the pay to payment solution at easypay.com/proptech For almost 16 years, Direct Connect has made moving easy for over 1.2 million renters and homeowners by arranging connections to a wide range of services, from electricity and gas to internet and pay TV. With a national team of local account managers who are experts in the industry, Direct Connect are there to support your real estate business with competitive rewards for every successful connection, plus an industry-leading rewards program. The connection process is simple, and Direct Connect's Always On guarantee ensures your customers will be connected on the day they move in. Direct Connect offers a range of market-leading suppliers, and Direct Connect has now made it even easier than ever to send connections, directly integrating with MRI Software's Property Tree. So in just a few clicks while processing a tenancy, you can send the connection details through and get your customers connected. To make the right connection and find out how Direct Connect can make moving easy for you and easy for your customers, visit agents.directconnect.com.au or call 1300-558-169. Now I'm gonna confess, and, and I apologize if this sounds extraordinarily ignorant, but rent.com.au has completely slipped under the radar for me. I didn't... I wasn't aware that you were on the stock exchange and, and listed.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yes.

Kylie Davis: Um, how, how, how long have you been involved with them for? Tell us about your, how you got involved.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So I've only been a, a recent hire to RentPay to look after the RentPay business as GM. I've been in the role for just over seven months now.

Kylie Davis: Ah, okay.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, prior to this, I've always been in financial services, in credit and academics. So-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... I, um, taught at UWA and ECU, so I taught finance on the MBA programs. So-

Kylie Davis: Ah, okay

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... um, was in that world, and I've always been aro- around banking and finance and now going into payments is another sort of real big challenge for me. So, um, yeah, it's been a, a really interesting journey.

Kylie Davis: What, what on earth made you decide to move from academia and MBA- and teaching in MBAs to, to go over to the crazy world of proptech?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, I don't, uh, I don't know. It's-... I don't regret it some days. I'm really energized by it. But it, uh-

Kylie Davis: That sounds like, that sounds like a typical week. Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: It's, uh, it's up and down, but it's interesting. I was doing well in academics and, uh, you know, teaching was really interesting and research was fun, but, you know, I, I really wanted to get stuck into the, the practical side of things and, and really get back to what I was doing before academics, which was credit, insurance, banking, finance, financial services. I, I really think that's, that's the, the zone and that's my enjoyment.

Kylie Davis: Fantastic. So how big is rent.com.au and, and RentPay.com.au? Are you a separate, are you a separate organized company under that umbrella or are you part of or a division or how, how does that structure work?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: So RentPay is its own business, but we-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... sit in rent.com.au, wholly owned by rent.com.au. We are based in the same office. We have shared resources, so a shared dev team, shared customer service team. Um, we do, for RentPay, have analysts and product owners who are dedicated towards RentPay. Um, yeah, but based out in Perth, servicing the whole of Australia. We have, uh, a lot of, um, East Coast agencies and our renter book is spread across Australia. Um, so it's not un- uncommon for us to start taking calls at 6:00 AM for agents in Perth, you know, uh, chatting back and forwards. But, um, I think part of rent.com.au's evolution is moving into the payment space and proptech space and really keeping up in that, um, in that space and competing effectively, uh, is, is rent.com.au's objective.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, because there's a, there's a lot of payment options and pay ID coming into the, into the proptech space now-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah

Kylie Davis: ... isn't there? Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Um-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And, and RentPay, a- and part of RentPay is to keep up with the evolution of these payments. So you'll see, um, there's a move t- towards PayTo, which will come out, uh, hopefully this year.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And we'll be at the forefront of that. We had calls from our international students and our expats living in Australia to pay via international wallets, like of Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay. So we've built that in.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: We are talking to other wallet providers now to build in the new payments methods into RentPay, which effectively means we take up the kind of payments arms race and, uh, so our agents don't have to. So when we add in a new payment method, the agents automatically offer that to all their renters.

Kylie Davis: Oh, okay. So they don't have to think about it, it's all, it's all done automatically.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: It's, it's our job to keep up to date with them. They just release it to the renters when they're ready.

Kylie Davis: Just let them know that we can now take it that way. Oh, that's awesome because-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah

Kylie Davis: ... yeah, it g- it's really giving renters back choice as to how they, how they make their money available-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, and that's-

Kylie Davis: ... or how they prefer to pay bills

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... that's, that's 100% right. We have renters who choose to pay by credit card, and my initial thinking is, "Oh, I, I'm not sure about that. That seems a bit, uh, uh, of a risky move." But they're not going into debt. What they're doing is they're shifting their money from their bank accounts onto their credit card to use their credit card to get frequent flyer points.

Kylie Davis: Yep, yep.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And we have renters who have flown to Bali because they've accumulated these points over the past 18 months. Uh, it's, it's wonderful. I mean, why not make your rent money work for you?

Kylie Davis: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's quite a lot of money these days.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yes.

Kylie Davis: So what have the biggest... Well, so how many staff have you guys got? Like, give us a bit of size. You gave us some numbers before about how many transactions and things you've done through the platform, but how, how big are you as an organization? I didn't know you were based in Perth, so y- big, big cheer out, big shout-out to the West Australians out there.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yes, proudly based in Perth. Um, yeah, so we're about 25 staff. Um, we have, you know, uh, five customer service agents. We have, uh, six or seven people in our dev team that look after the rent and rent, uh, uh, rent.com and Rentpay space. We have product owners, we have marketing and UX people. So, um, we pretty, um, lean in the way we operate, um, and we cover both businesses and we leverage that. So, uh, you know, key, key competitive edge for Rentpay is that we get to leverage the infrastructure from rent.com.au, the databases. Um, you know, the brand being listed is another big advantage for us in terms of transparency, in terms of accountability and compliance. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a real big advantage from, for Rentpay perspective to work, uh, so closely and be owned by rent.com.au.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Okay. And one of the... And, and coming from academia as you have, and, and from the finance industry, what have you found in the seven months that you've been in this that your, been your biggest challenges and the lessons that you've learnt?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, so it's interesting. Um, probably the easiest part for me is understanding the tech and understanding-

Kylie Davis: Yes.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... the, the value proposition. Uh, the, the, the hardest, uh, part that I... or the most difficult part that I'm still trying to get my head around is dealing with the differences and the variance in, in how property managers work-

Kylie Davis: Mm

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... deal with their, uh, landlords, deal with their, um, renters. Uh, you know, property managers are a unique bunch and, and, you know, the majority of them do right by the renters and do right by the landlords, and they're just trying to do the best job that they can.

Kylie Davis: Absolutely.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: But you get the, the fringe ones who are quirky and, uh, and interesting. So I'm just trying to-... work out that, how, how to navigate the, the property manager space.

Kylie Davis: Right. Well, yes, that is, that's probably quite a challenge on its own.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah.

Kylie Davis: Who are your, who are your competitors in this space?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yes.

Kylie Davis: We're seeing... Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: There's, um, probably three or four big competitors. Um, Deft by Macquarie is a, is obviously a big established one.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, Simple Rent is an, uh, quite established, uh, payment provider. Uh, Rent or Rewards is another big one. Um, but we see ourselves as, as a, a challenger in the space. We are dynamic. We are... We've got more flexibility, we've got more options. Um, we can change and move quicker than, than established providers. So a bit of a competitive edge there, a bit of a challenger. We're, we're the newbie on the block, and we're pretty proud of that.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. So who was the founder of Rentpay.com... uh, sorry, rent.com.au?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, I'm not sure. It was quite a while ago. 2007, established.

Kylie Davis: Ah, okay. Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, but listed since 2015. And our CEO, Greg Bader, is at the helm.

Kylie Davis: Right. Okay. And what's Greg's background?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, Greg has always been in the retail, uh, space, uh, in telecoms, um, customer facing. Uh, I must actually get him to do a bit of a, a, a, a spiel to you about his background.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. Okay, cool.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Always been very senior in the telco space.

Kylie Davis: Okay, fantastic. Cool. So what do you see coming down the pipe? There's so much, you know, we've got rental affordability at an all-time low. We've got, um, property managers, um, experiencing, you know, extraordinary job intensification and, and, um, and, and s- stress, I guess, around not as many property managers out there a- as, or people wanting to get into the field. But what do you see is coming down the path for, um, for both tech and behaviorally that is gonna really impact this space?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. So, um, in the payment space, I think there's gonna be a lot of pressure around affordability and, you know, a lot of pressure around payment providers doing the right things. So there's a lot of providers out there that are charging exorbitant fees and charging variable fees and really compounding the problem for renter. I think that's gonna come to light, uh, s- very, very soon. And it-

Kylie Davis: Well, I think we'll start to see legislation and regulation around that. Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah. Yeah.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And we pride ourselves on being, you know, very transparent, um, doing right by the renter, providing the best possible service at the, at a margin that makes us sustainable. Um, so I think that's gonna come to the helm. I think, um, there's gonna be new payments method that come in, so PayTo is gonna be a big disruptor, um, for kind of everyone on direct debit. And I think those changes, if you have a partner that can help you navigate that, I think that you're in a, in a really competitive space. Um, yeah, and I think the, the, the rental market in terms of, um, the renter's cost of pressure, I think that's gonna continue. I think, uh, I'm not sure I could see an end in sight in the, in the near future. So I think that's gonna be a continual, um, problem and challenge for everyone in, in the property space, property managers, landlords, renters, and service providers.

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, in, in our space, we are continued adding in more and more payment options. Um, the rewards program, we're gonna grow. Um, you know, we've got a few, few nice things that are, are, are planning, we are planning and we're putting in our roadmap. So expanding our offering, expanding what we can do, who we can help, and who we can reach. I think that's gonna be a, a, a challenge for us, and a good challenge.

Kylie Davis: Cool. And what are you excited about coming up?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: For Rentpay?

Kylie Davis: Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um

Kylie Davis: Or generally, or after

Shane Lavagna-Slater: I'm trying to think of what I can and can't say, which we've been released here. Um, so we, we're talking to like the likes of PayPal, for instance. That's gonna be a really nice, uh, addition to, to paying your rent. Um-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... we are building in some really nice features to increase who can use RentPay, so the likes of share houses and, um, for that. We're also starting to look at our big next evolution is gonna be in moving towards a mortgage product or mortgage builder product. I think that's incredibly exciting, where you can, um, yes, build up a buffer, but you can also start investing that money and building up a deposit so that you've got the credit score improvement, you've got your buffer, and then moving into a mortgage builder down the track.

Kylie Davis: Fantastic. Okay. And when is PayTo gonna come? When a- when are we expecting that to come down? Because it's been flagged for a while now, like over-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah

Kylie Davis: ... a while.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, so you can see more and more take up of the banks, and I'm expecting by Christmas we could see some real activity. Um, we're really talking to our payment providers and our infrastructure. Um, we're starting to really get the dev team up and the knowledge to build this, um, to be able to input it or put it into RentPay as quickly as possible. Um, so I'm expecting by Christmas we'll have some really big take up of it.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. And so does that mean that we won't be able to direct deposit anymore, or i- will that be wound out, or is that-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Um, I think-

Kylie Davis: ... not, not, or not on the cards yet?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: I don't think it'll be a, a, a switch over automatically, and I don't think it'll be a cut over automatically. I think it'll be a wind down. But I, um, I do think it's gonna be a competitive edge to people and agencies who offer this to their renters as a service. Um, I just think in this market with, um, all the competitive pressures agents are facing, landlords are facing, if you're at the cutting edge you're in the best possible space.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. And so just to give everybody a quick summary at home for what PayTo actually is, it's, it's basically a s- like a subscription payment service. Have I got that right, Shane?

Shane Lavagna-Slater: It's, yeah-

Kylie Davis: I'm gonna let you do it.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Yeah, exactly. So on two fronts it's a instant direct debit-

Kylie Davis: Yep

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... that the authority is controlled by the renter themselves. So gone are the days where you have to or you need to fill in a form and it's given someone else authority to debit your account. This is giving you the authority to send money to someone else's account, and you control that from your app and your internet banking.

Kylie Davis: Yeah. So if for any reason the direct debit doesn't or the payment doesn't go through, you can then organize to set that up again. You don't have the bank chasing you or y- or your payer going, "Oh, it didn't go through and now it's a terrible-

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Exactly

Kylie Davis: ... problem." Yeah.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: And I, and I think it's long overdue that the c- the consumer has more control over-

Kylie Davis: Sure

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... who's debiting their account and who's taking money from their account. I, I love that. And-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... and the fact that it's gonna be an instant payment is even better. So-

Kylie Davis: Yeah

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... there's none of this two days, three days in limbo where the money's in the ether somewhere waiting to land-

Kylie Davis: Mm-hmm

Shane Lavagna-Slater: ... in someone's account. It's instant and the control sits with the consumer.

Kylie Davis: Awesome. All right. Well, Shane, it's been absolutely fantastic talking to you about RentPay and the new rental payment options that are coming through for renters. And I especially love that, uh, you've got that cash back based on things that people, you know, real cost of living things that people are doing every day to, to make, make it more affordable. So thank you so much for telling us about RentPay. It's been great to have you on the PropTech Podcast.

Shane Lavagna-Slater: Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.

Kylie Davis: So what do you think about RentPay? With rent now so expensive, I love that there are solutions out there for renters now that are making it easier and more convenient to pay their rent and to offer effectively a reward system which provides such valuable benefits. Now, since we did this interview, there's been noise in the media about evil PropTechs ripping off renters with fees and charges or risking tenants' consumer rights, and I want to stress that RentPay is absolutely not in this cohort. And while I would never support any unnecessary fee being charged to renters, we can have a discussion about how imaginary that threat is another time. In states where tenants cannot by law be charged additional costs for renting by their landlords, the cost of RentPay, the $2, is actually covered by property managers onboarding their rent rolls. But RentPay advised that about 20% of their customers are tenants who come direct and who, without the knowledge of their property manager, download the app because they want the convenience of being able to pay in this manner. And that speaks directly to the demand for services like this from renters who wanna be able to pay their rent the same way they pay any bill or utility. They don't wanna go back to the '90s just to pay rent. And trust accounting has also become a bit of an issue since this i- interview was recorded. And so for the record, RentPay manage all funds that are received from renters into their own trust account, and they only ever pay over their funds to a trust account of registered real estate agencies. They have very strict rules and contracting around this, and this is super important because it means that the rental money paid by tenants is covered under state-based consumer protection laws. And so that is an important factor that delivers peace of mind. Now most importantly, though, RentPay makes it possible for the gig economy and for international students and, uh, new immigrants to pay rent more easily and to build up their credit scores that in ways that traditional me- methods have never been flexible enough to deliver. So in this way, the solution they deliver is supporting greater rental access and fairness. So well done, RentPay. I love your work. Now, if you have enjoyed this episode of the PropTech Podcast, I would love you to tell all your friends or drop me a line either via email or LinkedIn or on our Facebook page. And you can follow this podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Apple iTunes, and anywhere good podcasts are heard. I would like to thank my podcast producer, the fabulous Charlie Hollands, podcast website editors Jill Escudero and Shira Sexison, and our sponsors. HID, digital identification solutions for your building. Direct Connect, making moving easy. Dynamic Methods, the name behind Forms Live, REI Forms Live, and Realworks. Easy Pay, making collecting payments easy for PropTechs. And the PropTech Association Australia, Australia's industry body which is supporting the flourishing PropTech community. Now, if you're an Australian or New Zealand PropTech who would like to be on the show, please drop me a line via LinkedIn or email kylie@proptechassociation.com.au. Thanks so much, everyone. Until next time, keep on PropTeching. Do you run a PropTech business or are you the founder of a PropTech? Make sure you join the PropTech Association of Australia. It's Australia's new not-for-profit association made up of tech people who are passionate about the property industry and committed to improving experiences in how we buy, sell, rent, manage, build, and finance property. Joining will give you access to events and networks across Australia and globally to help you promote and grow your business. Go to proptechassociation.com.au and follow the prompts to join.