After a Utah-based company allowed college students to pay their rent with Bitcoin, now it’s time to present Rentalutions, a new solution for United States residents that allows tenants to pay their rent with our favorite cryptocurrency.
The company was co-founded by Ryan Coon in April 2012 as an online property management platform, based in Chicago. The original goal was to help landlords check potential tenants and look after their properties, also enabling the tenants to pay their rent and request maintenance work. However, not long after Rentalutions’ kick-off, Coon discovered Bitcoin and started researching it.
“My co-founder Laurence Jankelow and I watched the value of Bitcoin spike earlier this year and have been watching the recent regulatory issues. It has become obvious to us that digital currencies will play a role in our economy for a long, long time“, the co-founder of the company said to Coindesk.
Rentalutions decided to add Bitcoin as a payment method for tenants mainly because Coon and the rest of the team believe in the power of cryptocurrency. “As more people become comfortable with the currency, we expect individuals will want to use it to pay for things they need, including rent. Our decision to accept Bitcoin was driven by our desire to anticipate our customers’ needs”, he added.
The service users are still warming up to the idea of paying the rent with cryptocurrency, but are showing a lot of interest and some of the tenants have already asked Rentalutions how to do it. The company is now looking to add Litecoin to their options, as well, after a client asked about it.
For now, the tenants can’t pay their rent in Bitcoins directly via Rentalutions’ website, so they have to send an email to the company with the amount they want to pay in US dollars and then the service will send back an invoice through Coinbase. The landlords can receive the rent in US dollars or in Bitcoins, if they prefer.