Stripe Integration for Real Estate Platforms

Rent and large-deposit payments make card fees genuinely uneconomical — a 2.9% fee on a $2,500 rent payment is real money every single month. ACH and bank transfers become the primary rail by necessity, with cards offered as a convenience fallback that the tenant typically absorbs the fee for.

Structuring Rent Collection and Deposits Correctly

• ACH settlement takes days, not seconds — rent-due logic needs to account for that lag, not treat ACH like an instant card charge
• Security deposits held separately from rent, often via a distinct Payment Intent, to match how landlords are legally required to segregate deposit funds
• Recurring rent via Stripe Billing with ACH as the default payment method, cards available but fee-adjusted
• Multi-property/multi-owner platforms need Connect payouts scoped correctly per property owner, not pooled into one balance

The deposit-segregation requirement is where we see the most legal-adjacent risk in real estate payment integrations — many jurisdictions have specific rules about commingling deposit funds with operating revenue, and the Stripe architecture needs to reflect that separation technically, not just track it in a spreadsheet after the fact.