ManageGo To Let Renters Pay Via Bitcoin

ManageGo, a New York company that provides payment and maintenance scheduling services online for landlords and tenants, will enable tenants to make rent payments with bitcoin.

According to news from CNBC, ManageGo said the ability to pay via bitcoin will kick off in the early part of next year with tenants able to pay with the cryptocurrency via the company’s mobile app. When the tenant pays with bitcoin, ManageGo converts it into dollars via Coinbase, the cryptocurrency broker. The landlord gets paid in dollars, and the value of the digital currency is locked in at the time the tenant makes the payment. While there hasn’t been much demand to pay for rent via bitcoin, ManageGo thinks that will change.

“We lead in innovation, so we saw bitcoin was something that’s going to happen and become a standing currency sometime in the future,” said Chaim Lowenstein, vice-president of business strategy at ManageGo. “Right now there are types of clients we have, their tenants fit the profile and we wanted to offer it as the new amenity beyond a fancy gym or a new couch in the building.”

The executive said that landlords have already expressed interest, but the same hasn’t been said of tenants yet. The company is sending the word out about the cryptocurrency service on a national level.

Toby Bozzuto, CEO of the Bozzuto Group, an apartment development and management company, said the company is not interested in the cryptocurrency as a payment method: “Currently, we have had zero interest in paying rent through bitcoin. You don’t know who owns it, and that’s the knock on it. It’s been considered black market with a dirty reputation.”

The executive did note that if there is a shift by consumers to embrace bitcoin, the company is always looking for ways to ease rent payments. “I’m not closed-minded enough to say it’s off the table,” he added.