Positive Rent Payment

Borrower Fact Sheet

Overview

Did you know you can help your residents establish, maintain, or improve their credit scores? When they pay rent on time, these positive rent payments can be reported to the credit bureaus to help them build credit. This is an important part of Fannie Mae’s plan to advance greater housing equity.

Our Positive Rent Payment program connects property owners with providers that can report the positive rent payments of their residents directly to credit bureaus.

Getting started

Fannie Mae has approved the following fintech vendors for the positive rent payment reporting pilot:

Visit this page to learn more about the fintech partners and connect with them to get started. These partners will confirm eligible loans/properties with the Fannie Mae Multifamily product development team.

Borrower benefits

Participate in the pilot at no cost. One year of Positive Rent Payment services via one of the three designated vendors will be covered by Fannie Mae.

Reporting rent may increase timely rent payments. When rent is reported, renters may be motivated to pay on time, which could help reduce delinquencies, evictions, and turnover (and increase net operating income (NOI)).

According to a TransUnion study, 73% of renters are more inclined to pay rent on time when their rent payments are reported.

Help renters establish or improve their credit scores. Informed and responsible renters are good for you and your communities.

FAQs

Positive rent payment reporting is the submission of renters’ monthly on-time payment to the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) for inclusion in the calculation of a consumer credit score.

Rent payment reporting has been identified as a tool to create a more equitable housing system. Some jurisdictions including the state of California now require landlords to offer positive rent reporting to their residents. Fannie Mae’s mission is to facilitate equitable and sustainable access to quality affordable rental housing, and this pilot is part of Fannie Mae’s Equitable Housing Plan and Duty to Serve plan for 2022.

These companies provide the technology capabilities to report positive rent payments to credit bureaus. Depending on the platform, companies may provide additional services such as:

Offering emergency rent loans at 0% interest.
Providing budgeting solutions to help renters stay current.
Reporting up to 24 months of previous on-time payments.

There are three fintech partners in the pilot program. Visit this page to learn more about the fintech partners and connect with them to get started. These partners will confirm eligible loans/properties with the Fannie Mae Multifamily product development team.

Eligible properties include loans that are active Fannie Mae debt as well as having five or more years left to maturity.*

To make it as quick and easy as possible, vendors integrate with most property management software and/or have teams that support the onboarding process. However, onboarding times can vary by vendor.

Each vendor has a different fee structure. Detailed cost analysis can be found on the webpage here. On average, the cost for a property is about $1.50 – $1.60/unit/month (which will be annualized). There are also some onboarding fees that vary from vendor to vendor.

We are only reporting positive payments to the credit bureaus. Vendors may offer different programs to support renters with late or missed payments. Review the specific vendor’s offering to understand how a missed rental payment is handled.

Fannie Mae works directly with the vendor to pay for one-year of services. No action is needed by the Borrower once they've contracted with their selected vendor.

View other FAQs and learn more here.

*Note that the five-year eligibility rule is general guidance, but each loan will be looked at on a case-by-case basis, and Fannie Mae reserves the right to waive that eligibility rule.