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.
Investor · Cuyahoga Falls, OH · Member since 2016 · 1 post · 21 votes
10y
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.
I've another Cozy question for any of the pros out there. Any way to maintain a list of "vendors" for the expenses? It seems free text, would be good to have an "acceptable values list" or drop-down. Also, any way we can import expenses or anything from an excel for example?
Investor · Midwest · Member since 2019 · 335 posts · 226 votes
6y
I've been using Cozy for about a year now and it's well worth it. Tenants can submit maintenance request, and rent via one site. I can tack everything easily. When we list a property for rent we use Zillow, and Facebook marketplace. 90% of our tenants over the last year has come via FB marketplace.
I like it. It's a little slow on transferring funds, about 5 days, but if you're not desperate for the money you can see it's coming as you get an e-mail that the transfer has started. They have something new (I suspect it's a bridge loan) that gets the money to you in 3 days for about a $3 charge, so that's something else to consider. If you have sketchy tenants, you might want to have your money faster.
Pretty much my experience too. I have been using them for several years now and have no complaints at all. Use them for rent payments and background checks
I've been using Cozy for a year on 1 property with no issues. I just signed up a second property, getting multiple applicant background checks completed and had no issues getting that up and running and money collected.
The only complaint is I wish I had a better notification that when the lease was up on the first property all the tenant info would disappear and I would have to reinvite them. That just happened and I am playing phone tag trying to get the tenant to re-enroll, which I assume means adding their bank info again?
Rental Property Investor · Hillsboro, OR · Member since 2018 · 117 posts · 64 votes
6y
@Michael Bowser I use Cozy for a property that i'm hacking and it works great. The platform is simple to due and has many cool functions to track any expenses for your property. Its been great so far. Hope this helps.
Denver, CO · Member since 2014 · 7 posts · 5 votes
6y
I've been using Cozy for about 3 years for just 3 units. A few months in, one of the tenants said their checking account had been hacked and refused to use Cozy in the future. Cozy customer service denied that there could have been a security breach. I chose to believe Cozy and continued to use them for the other two units. Last month, a second tenant, using a different bank, had their checking account hacked too. Both are good, long term tenants and sensible people.
Has anyone else had similar problems? The coincidence seems remarkable.
Medford, MA · Member since 2012 · 163 posts · 36 votes
4y
I see cozy is now merged with apartments.com. I don't if that means it is the same service in the apartments.com umbrella or if cozy users have been moved to apartments.com version of the service. How are people feeling about cozy these days? I am in search of a web platform for applications/credit checks, tired of doing paper applications. I already have an electronic payment service.
I see cozy is now merged with apartments.com. I don't if that means it is the same service in the apartments.com umbrella or if cozy users have been moved to apartments.com version of the service. How are people feeling about cozy these days? I am in search of a web platform for applications/credit checks, tired of doing paper applications. I already have an electronic payment service.
I was moved to apartments from cozy. I had 2 rentals, down to 1, and neither me nor my tenants had any issues with the change.
I see cozy is now merged with apartments.com. I don't if that means it is the same service in the apartments.com umbrella or if cozy users have been moved to apartments.com version of the service. How are people feeling about cozy these days? I am in search of a web platform for applications/credit checks, tired of doing paper applications. I already have an electronic payment service.
I used cozy for both applications and electronic payments. Before my listings were transferred to apartments.com, I heard stories about their applications service that led me to build my own applications in Google Forms. I have a separate application for each of my 2 rentals. I think the issue was that apartments.com requires the applicant to purchase a credit check. Since many of my tenants are visiting scholars from abroad, credit checks make no sense. Also, application fees are illegal in Massachusetts. I know there are ways to get around this law but I didn't see the point.
I see cozy is now merged with apartments.com. I don't if that means it is the same service in the apartments.com umbrella or if cozy users have been moved to apartments.com version of the service. How are people feeling about cozy these days? I am in search of a web platform for applications/credit checks, tired of doing paper applications. I already have an electronic payment service.
I used to use Cozy. I didn’t like when they switched to Apartments.com. I would have people apply through Zillow or Apartments.com, use another service for background checks, and then set up payments/complaint reporting in Cozy. I felt like that was too much platform jumping though. I decided to just use Zillow since that’s where most of my applications were coming from. I now use Zillow for applications, background checks, and payments. I just have my tenants email or text me with issues, and store the lease in DocuSign (I.e. I don’t use Zillows leases).
I use Innago for my properties and haven't had any issues. It's also free for landlords so I definitely love that aspect of it. I'd definitely recommend it!