Cozy???
Saco, ME · Member since 2015 · 34 posts · 16 votes
If you use Cozy, what are your thoughts on it? How do you like it? Have you found any setbacks? OR if you use something else other than Cozy what do you like and not like about that platform. I am a new Landlord that is "house hacking" and I am trying to figure out what will work best way to manage everything is.
Thank you
I own and manage 9 rental units. I started using Cozy in January 2016. My decision to use Cozy has been one of the best property management decisions I’ve made. Cozy has completely streamlined my rent collection, property listing and tenant screening process. I have also been extremely impressed with the quality and speed of their customer service. Here are my big 4 for Cozy.
1. I’m collecting all my rents through Cozy. No more going to the post office to pick up rent checks and going back a 2nd or 3rd time to get the one that’s late. No more going to the multiple banks to make deposits. I also haven’t had a single argument with a tenant about why their rent shouldn’t have been late and why they shouldn’t have to pay a late fee. The payment date is all electronically documented. Best of all it’s free!
2. Once you list a property once, it’s permanently stored in Cozy. My pictures, property descriptions and details are all permanently saved. If I want to relist a property, all I have to do is click “activate” on the property listing page and Cozy creates an add on multiple websites. Best of all it’s free!
3. Screening my tenants has never been easier. When a prospective tenant comes out to look at one of my properties, the first thing I do is hand them a sheet of paper with my rental requirements on it. At the bottom of the sheet is the address to the application page in Cozy for my specific property listing. The prospective tenant can go to Cozy, fill out an application and approve and pay for a credit and background check. I get an email when everything is complete and I go to Cozy to review everything and decide if I want to rent to them. Best of all it’s free!
4. One last and very important thing to me is their customer service is a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10. They are quick and thorough with responses to questions. I recently had an issue with an ACH transfer not being processed properly by my bank. Cozy notified me to inform me of the issue before my bank. Cozy also provided me with all the information I need to straighten out the deposit with my bank. Big thumbs up to customer service rep Kayla!
Cozy has more to offer than the items I listed here. But these are the four things most important to me. I tried Buildium prior to Cozy, but found it to be too cumbersome and too pricey for my situation and needs. If you are looking for a property management website I would not hesitate to try Cozy. You really can’t go wrong, it won’t cost you anything and it’s really a user friendly site to use and setup.
@Account Closed This is a response to one of your other complaints: (from Cozy)
Hi @Gabriel T. .
I’m sorry that your experiences with Cozy, and your recent tenant, weren’t positive. I'd like to shed some more light on the payment process because it can be confusing and riddled with regulations:
First, both credit card and ACH transactions can be disputed and reversed by a tenant's bank. Turning off credit card payments is unfortunately no protection from a tenant who chooses to lie and steal or make payments with funds that aren’t theirs.
Second, Cozy doesn't do anything specifically to "allow" a dispute – in fact, all financial transactions across industries are subject to the same fraud and dispute laws – so it's not unique to Cozy. On a macro level, it's important that people can dispute fraudulent payments, because fraud happens, so it's not an inherently bad thing that banks support a payer's ability to dispute a claim. It exists for a good reason.
Finally, if the bank decides to honor the tenant's dispute, we (Cozy) have to attempt to collect lost/disputed payments from a landlord because they are the merchant and the intended recipient of tenant's payments. If we didn't collect disputed payments from landlords, Cozy would be at a loss, and hugely vulnerable to fraud ourselves. We (Cozy) work with landlords and communicate clearly about our intention to collect funds from them prior to attempting to do so. We offer a number of options, including collecting a new payment from the tenant, before we get anywhere near sending the uncollected funds to a third-party for collections and reporting. Your comment misrepresents our process and makes it look like we "come after" people and ding their credit immediately and without warning. That's just not the case, and we strive to be exceedingly patient and constructive whenever a chargeback like this happens. There are multiple opportunities to remedy the issue, on both the tenant's and landlord's behalf.
Regardless of how a landlord chooses to collect rent, they could experience the same thing that happened to you. It's really horrible what happened to you, and I feel your pain. But for you and any landlord, this is a situation in which a strong legal lease agreement, and an understanding of your local small claims court system is the best defense.
Lucas Hall
Well I agree on one point. Two of the payment methods that cozy accepts are indeed some of the riskiest forms of payment that an investor can receive. Cash>Check>ACH>Credit card.
Credit card: Disputable up to 90 days by the click of a button with minimal verification relative to the other methods
ACH: Disputable up to 60 days by informing the bank in writing (and with a higher level of verification by the bank)
Check: Disputable up to 30 days after the customer’s bank statement is issued and requires the customer to prove fraud or identity theft
Cash: is king - however the chances of getting your tenants to send you cash every month is nil
The goal of any investment is to reduce risk (or be duly compensated for accepting additional risk). A simple change from credit card payments to ACH reduces the landlord’s exposure by 30 days, providing valuable time to go through the eviction process.
If you are a current Cozy customer and there is no way that you can go back to accepting checks, you should reach out to Cozy customer service and request that credit card payments be made optional. If, as Lucas Hall suggests, Cozy doesn’t receive revenue from accepting credit card payments, then there should be no reason Cozy doesn’t add this functionality.
Lucas, as illustrated above, the landlord’s choice of payment acceptance can have a profound impact on risk. Your last statement “Regardless of how a landlord chooses to collect rent, they could experience the same thing that happened to you” is blatantly false (but I can see why you would want people to believe that).
Lucas is really downplaying the true potential impact. It's a very risky area for someone who wants to try and game the system. I answered in that original thread you quoted. My answer is below
Credit cards are the easiest thing to dispute. They require little proof on the payor (tenant) and push everything onto the vendor (landlord) for proof that the transaction was valid. They also don't have to prove fraud, they only have to prove that they didn't get the services they paid for (claim that the unit was uninhabitable anyone). It's up to the landlord to prove that the tenant did get what they paid for. Other than a lease, what landlord can prove the tenant got what they paid for? Is there a receipt of goods, a signed acceptance of services, or that all was correct for the month? Nope, it's just an automated thing. Adding that credit cards provide 90 days to dispute a charge and you can see the HUGE issue with accepting them as payments. A tenant with a well timed claim can knock 4 months of rent out in one swoop. Picture rent payments via credit card on 1/5, 2/1, 3/1, and 4/1. A dispute files on 4/4 (89 days after 1/5) would be able to pull all those payments back and it's up to the landlord to prove they were valid...with only a signed lease.
Bank ACH is next, however, if the tenant initiated the transfer from their own bank via ACH they've got A LOT they have to go through. They're basically telling their bank that their account was compromised or there was fraud. Banks don't push onto the landlord for this. The burden of proof stays on the account holder to prove that the transaction was fraudulent, and banks make sure to cross their i's and dot their t's on these claims to figure out where that money went and if it was supposed to.
Checks - again, burden of proof falls to tenant to prove it was fraudulent. even smaller time frame to dispute than ACH.
Cash, well, cash is king.
As Gabriel mentions, allowing a landlord to choose to not accept credit cards is a very valid option. Instead of poo-pooing it you should look at the valid business reasons that it would be beneficial (to landlord's at least - maybe not so much to Cozy's business model)
@PJ M. I really don't know that it is being downplayed? We are all now aware of it and it certainly makes sense in the context of a business transaction. I for one have disputed charges and had my money reimbursed. So it falls back to enforcing your legal contract. And as @Lucas Hall says- yeah it sucks. I for one never imagined that by using Cozy, risk would be removed from the equation.
This really goes back to the building blocks of any tenancy- screening. I certainly appreciate that either people don't want to put in the effort, they are rushed or they have invested in F neighborhoods, for them they should not use Cozy. There are more then enough landlords on here that DO a thorough screening process and still recognize that risk is at play, we all are on a constant vigil to hedge/ minimize that risk. If you evaluate your risk and find that by using Cozy you increase your risk... then it is a simple and unemotional decision- don't use Cozy.
But when you badmouth the company in multiple threads and drop your most egregious allegations (how they conducted/resolved the issue) after I, me, had to alert the company with an @, then I have little time for it. Clearly the landlord was very emotional and upset with Cozy instead of the person with whom he had a contract with who stiffed him. I wish I could offer him a shoulder to cry on, but I don't have the time.
Look- it really does suck for the guy, no question about it, but he has to put on his big boy pants and march into court and get his money, and then some.
@Michael Bowser
I am sure Cozy is fine for payments and they are a great additional advertising platform.......but payments comes well after advertising, screening and great state by state contracts.
They are not perfect but ezlandlord is really quite good. I am a modest size buy, rent and hold landlord with a small but meaningful portfolio and here’s what I do...
Before you market your house, freshen up and get a lot of pics..
Setup a profile for all your properties and make it as complete as you can on Zillow... it will remember your content for the next time your remarketing that property. (Believe me the year or two goes by quick.) Zillow will syndicate it to trulia, hotpads and a few others, quickly. You can copy a lot of the pics and descriptions into Cozy.
Screen applicants well, very well before taking apps or showing the property...
But always,,,, always run a full application.....credit, criminal, eviction... always... before offering to rent your property to a prospective tenant. Don’t take shortcuts here. You only hurting yourself.
I can say yes to tenants with past payment issues, modest credit issues, light criminal issues and make reasonable accommodations once I know what I am dealing with and I can end up with a great and appreciative tenant and protect myself if it goes sideways.
Several companies now offer applications, contracts that are state specific and integrated. The tenant will pick up on your professional handling and will both respect your process and act accordingly. They know not to mislead you as your doing your homework.
I set up a separate account for each house and require tenants to make electronic payments or if they choose they can drop it off at the bank. One tenant with a mixed payment track record elsewhere, asked about Cozy, because it assured they paid on time elsewhere. It can work. That tenant has never been late with me.
These are important but basic steps. There are other good options but these are some that will work.
Good luck.
Well I agree on one point. Two of the payment methods that cozy accepts are indeed some of the riskiest forms of payment that an investor can receive. Cash>Check>ACH>Credit card.
Credit card: Disputable up to 90 days by the click of a button with minimal verification relative to the other methods
ACH: Disputable up to 60 days by informing the bank in writing (and with a higher level of verification by the bank)
Check: Disputable up to 30 days after the customer’s bank statement is issued and requires the customer to prove fraud or identity theft
Cash: is king - however the chances of getting your tenants to send you cash every month is nil
The goal of any investment is to reduce risk (or be duly compensated for accepting additional risk). A simple change from credit card payments to ACH reduces the landlord’s exposure by 30 days, providing valuable time to go through the eviction process.
If you are a current Cozy customer and there is no way that you can go back to accepting checks, you should reach out to Cozy customer service and request that credit card payments be made optional. If, as Lucas Hall suggests, Cozy doesn’t receive revenue from accepting credit card payments, then there should be no reason Cozy doesn’t add this functionality.
Lucas, as illustrated above, the landlord’s choice of payment acceptance can have a profound impact on risk. Your last statement “Regardless of how a landlord chooses to collect rent, they could experience the same thing that happened to you” is blatantly false (but I can see why you would want people to believe that).
These time lines may be a general rule of thumb, but I know ACH, checks and credit cards can all have funds pulled months after the fact. I heard an extreme case where a landlord had received rent for a year from a tenant, who had been writing the checks against a non-profit checking account that she worked for. She was an authorized signer, but not for personal use. It took a year for the non-profit to catch it and every rent check was pulled out from the landlords account, going back over a year! I will tell you with certainty that checks can bounce weeks or months after they have cleared. It is scary, but all the more reason to do good tenant screening up front.
Cozy is right that the security of funds is really out of their control. If someone can make a valid claim that payments were not authorized, the money gets pulled. There is risk in most payment methods. Really cash and cashiers checks are the two safest (assuming the money isn't counterfeit and the cashiers check isn't fake), but they are not practical collection methods.
Keep in mind when someone pulls legitimate payments, that is a sign of fraudulent or criminal activity.
I agree with you that Cozy should allow landlords to turn off Credit Card method if they so chose. It seems like an easy setting to implement.
@Joe Splitrock
To add to what Joe said, after being in the banking industry for 10+ years I have seen every single form of payment get returned, kicked back, and even recalled. If you are extremely worried about this then you should only collect cash, have a money counter that verifies the legitimacy of the bills so you know you are safe. Note this is extremely unrealistic!!
It goes back to due extremely good due diligence on your tenant screening. Cozy has some features built into it already but one other step you can do is ask for 2 months of bank statements. Some people might kick back at you for it but it will truly give you an idea of the type of person you are dealing with.
As a landlord for 3 years I am extremely comfortable with checks and ACH payments. I currently don’t have anyone wanting to use a debit or CC, but having the ability to turn it off should be there.
Hope this helps.
Michael
@Joe Splitrock @Michael Bowser
The biggest risk is that to reverse a bank transaction you need to prove fraud of some sort. The proof all falls back to the complainant, which would mean the tenant.
To reverse a credit card transaction you only need to claim that you did not receive the goods or services specified. The proof then falls back to the vendor to prove goods/services were indeed provided and accepted. For service industries this usually comes in the form of a signed off work order. For a landlord, the only item we have is the lease. If the complaint was "My AC was broken so they didn't provide proper service" I can totally see the payment(s) being pulled back and it then falls to the landlord to find other means of collecting. How will a landlord prove to the unit was in perfect working order? Remember, it's just a contractual dispute and the credit card company is there to protect their customer...the tenant.
@Joe Splitrock @Michael Bowser
The biggest risk is that to reverse a bank transaction you need to prove fraud of some sort. The proof all falls back to the complainant, which would mean the tenant.
To reverse a credit card transaction you only need to claim that you did not receive the goods or services specified. The proof then falls back to the vendor to prove goods/services were indeed provided and accepted. For service industries this usually comes in the form of a signed off work order. For a landlord, the only item we have is the lease. If the complaint was "My AC was broken so they didn't provide proper service" I can totally see the payment(s) being pulled back and it then falls to the landlord to find other means of collecting. How will a landlord prove to the unit was in perfect working order? Remember, it's just a contractual dispute and the credit card company is there to protect their customer...the tenant.
It doesn't work this way. Proof of receipt is the fact that the tenant lived there, combined with what they agreed to when making electronic payment. Providing eviction papers is plenty of proof that they were there. What this comes down to is the she likely lied. She likely either stated the card was stolen or she stated she had moved out. Either way, it is criminal fraud, not just a contract dispute. This could be fought and won if handled properly.
@Joe Splitrock have you ever disputed charges for a credit card? It sounds like you haven't because it is s..i..m..p..l..e....oh so simple to do. Disputes aren't just that you received an item or service, but that the item or service was received and acceptable.
A perfect example is that I had an HVAC company come out to work on a system. They were back there for a long time and the guy kept leaving, coming back, leaving. I got an idea he had no clue what he was doing. In the end they recommended a new system. He quoted a new system for me, presented me with a bill for the work they did there, and said the amount paid would be deducted from the new system installation. Sounds good. I paid the invoice with my credit card.
To make sure I was getting quoted a decent deal 2 other companies come out the next day. The first tech asked me what happened because someone butchered my system. He said it looked like the person was just in there pulling things out. He said the system needs to be replaced, because the heat exchanger was cracked and the age. Nothing even mentioned by the previous company. This diagnosis was verified by a 3rd company.
I called the original company up and was basically told too bad, that was the charge for the time they were at my house working. Fine, I called my CC company up and disputed the charge. The dispute was not that I didn't get service, (because the company had a signed receipt from me). It was that I didn't get the service that I paid for. Other than telling the CC company why I felt I didn't get the service I paid for and my attempts to resolve it directly with the merchant, my credit card company asked me nothing. Everything shifted to the HVAC company to prove that they did provide me with the service.
I won the dispute. The credit card company protected me, their customer. I was in the right, but, it's a system that's easy to abuse.
Now, take that scenario and put it to a dispute of "I paid my rent via credit card but the landlord never came out to repair the broken whatever_you_want. The LL didn't provide the service that I paid for, which was a habitable rental. I dispute the last 90 days of charges while the whatever_you_want didn't work".
It falls to the vendor (the landlord) to prove that everything was in working order. How will you? How will you against a company that is looking to protect their client, not some nameless faceless vendor.
What you mention about the card being stolen or that she was charged after move out is claiming fraudulent charges. That's completely different than a dispute for unacceptable services. Google dispute credit card bad service and you'll see that it is a very real thing. One that is easily games because the credit card companies protect their customer, the tenant, and the burden of proof falls to the merchant (landlord) to prove the charge was valid.
@Joe Splitrock There might be situations where you're right, I'm certainly not an expert. In this situation the credit card payment was made to Cozy, not me. That would mean that Cozy would need to go through this process you're talking about, not me.
Whats more, even if I made an attempt to do what you said, Cozy wasn't allowed to provide me with the credit card company that the tenant used (rightly so). So even if I blindly reached out to every credit card provider, providing the proof you mentioned to every one, would I ever get a result?
I could take the tenant to court (which I did) and get some result. However, even this doesn't guarantee collection of the amounts owed over and above the court costs incurred (story for another day). No, the best offense is a good defense, and the best defense is to use the safest rent collection methods possible (which is not CC payments).
I agree with that the best defense is a good offense, but rent collection method isn't the problem here. Offense should be tenant screening. A scammer can use any number of payment methods to commit fraud on you.
Your original message said you blocked the charge reversal. Then you said a collections agency came after you a year later. The collection is what I meant that you can dispute. Still, I am unclear on if you kept the three months that Cozy collected or did you lose that too?
The collection agency needs to go after the tenant for the money. Since you successfully evicted her, that is sufficient proof to dispute the collection. Of course if you got judgement for the three months rent, the collection agency could argue it is your debt to collect.
I've been using Cozy for 2 years and it's been OK, but I have some concerns:
Because of these limitations I'm considering using a different service, or supplementing with my own application.
I currently use erentpayment.com, however, I am researching moving to Cozy. What I like about erentpayment is the automation for both my tenants and for me, and that I can be passive-aggressive with late fees. (sounds like I can get this with Cozy too) I also like the option for the tenant to opt in and report their payments towards credit history. (looks like I'd give this up.... I just assume all my tenants want to be homeowners some day). With that said, I would love a FREE service. erentpayment charges $3 per transaction (which I split 50/50 with my tenants) What I don't like about erentpayment is that for utility bills I have to ask my tenants to add their portion to their rent payment or pay another way, otherwise they are dinged with another $3 fee. Looks like I could do this for free with Cozy. I watched the intro video to Cozy and it looks really user friendly. But I am wondering how does Cozy make its money? Should I switch?
what you really shouldn't like about erentpayment is how we all got ripped off by using them...
Seems like the experts are all here.... Question for Cozy pros - can I receive say 3 payments for one rental? Each roommate likes to pay separately... Also, can I request one time payments that I setup manually? Or say one of my tenants spends some money on air filters and wants to pay me 30 bucks less for next months rent for example? Is this possible. Thanks all!
I use Cozy for all my rentals, I highly suggest this software, it has made life a lot easier!
Hi @C McKee
Yes, that’s totally possible. Happens all the time.
Do you guys know if Cozy ask you to verify ownership of a unit/property when I sign up as a landlord?
Also, do cozy give you the ability as a landlord to give limited access to property manager?
Thank you for the
@Lucas Hall Does anyone know if Cozy is planning on making an App for IOS?
@Michael Bowser, Cozy is already 100% mobile friendly. Just access it via your mobile browser, and save it to your home screen. You’ll have a little Cozy icon on on your home screen, and you’ll only have to login once every 6 months. No need to download an App
I have used cozy for my properties. The platform is very user friendly but I have not received any leads for my properties. But apart from it everything else is good. There is another platfrom Sandora which is much similar to cozy but it is way more user friendly than cozy. Also I will able to get leads in 24 hours