JPMorgan wants you to say goodbye to rent checks

Many of the 100+ million Americans currently renting a home or apartment could see changes to how they pay rent starting next year — and we're not talking about a new job or roommate.

According to CNBC, JPMorgan has launched a public beta test of its very-own online rent invoicing and payment platform, called Story. The platform, built to eventually become an all-in-one property management tool, also comes with features like tenant screening and market metrics to help landlords set rent levels, and will go live sometime in 2023. Landlords using the program won’t have to be JPMorgan customers.

📈👀 The opp JPMorgan sees… 78% of the US’ $500 billion in annual rent payments are made using old-school checks or money orders. The reason? While digital payments have been on the rise in many other sectors of the economy, the rental market is highly fragmented. The US has about 12 million landlords, most of whom are responsible for small portfolios with fewer than 100 units and use inefficient systems to manage their properties.

And although JPMorgan isn’t the only software solution aimed at solving this problem, it’s arguably the best-positioned.

• The bank is the largest lender for multifamily property owners in the country, reporting over $95 billion in such loans as of June 2022.
• Overall, JPMorgan has 33,000 clients in the sector – each of whom is a potential user.

📸 Big picture: Story is just one part of JPMorgan’s bigger push into tech. Under CEO JP Dimon, the bank has committed to spending $12 billion/year on technology.