Online rent collection
Broker Associate/Investor · Carmel Valley, CA · Member since 2014 · 45 posts · 9 votes
Online rent collection
Most Popular Reply
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 31 posts · 28 votes
8y@Jordan Moorhead So, with all the mentions of Cozy.co I signed up for an account and added a few of my properties for trail run. It is a great platform and is really easy to use. I do however have to rate TenantCloud as a better platform than Cozy.co. TenantCloud does practically everything Cozy.co does, plus more. The graphical user interface for both look very similar...its almost like TenantCloud copied Cozy.co platform and added some additional features to it.
Some highlighted features of TenantCloud are:
- Ability to customize online rental applications
- A File Manager for each property, it categorizes all uploaded receipts and documents for each property
- A Document Template to upload custom lease agreements, house rules, pet rules, and other addendum to the lease.
- Allow tenants to sign lease agreements electronically.
- Receive online ACH payments with TCPayments (Dwolla) - Tenants pay rent online
- Allows you to list multiple owners for a property and enter all detail information about property, such as the purchase price, purchase date, insurance, taxes, down payment, annual interest rate, current loan balance, loan terms, mortgage loan company, amortization schedule, depreciation years/schedule, utility providers, and much more.
- Online rental applications & vendor to screen your applicants
- Built-in renters insurance vendor for when your tenant signs lease
- Auto invoicing and late fees
- Free listing website
- Tenants can submit maintenance request online using a very cool and easy to use interface, of which you can easily assign/forward the maintenance request to one of your service professionals.
The Financial Reports sections has a number of great reports that can be auto generated, such as:
- Depreciation Tracker report that allows you to track annual depreciation for your residential and commercial rental property, which is also used in your tax preparation report.
- Expense report that provides the expenses based on the property or a specific unit. It is available for accrual type accounting only. The report shows all paid expense invoices for all properties and units excluding liabilities (deposit, prepaid rent, pet deposit, etc.). This report can be searched based on owner.
- Monthly Property report shows the property accounting based on each unit. The income and expenses including payment to owner and management fees. This report is designed to be for a property manager in order to deliver to an owner.
- Operating Statement report that shows the invoices of which have been marked “paid” for both income and expenses. The report includes records for all properties and units excluding liabilities categories (deposit, prepaid rent, pet deposit, etc.). The purpose of this report is to monitor cash-flow coming in and out of the rental property.
- Rent Roll report that shows all tenants that have an active lease in each property. The report includes the tenant's name, deposits held, market rent and the balance owed. This report can be searched by property owner or property.
- Tax Preparation Report that shows all income and expenses for a specific period of time. This report is designed to help a landlord file their taxes. The report will include all income as well as expenses, management fees paid, depreciation and interest expense over the set time period. Deposits, Prepaid rent and other liabilities will not be included.
- Tenant Statement report that shows a tenant's accounting based on when it was due. The report includes deposits, prepaid rent and other deposits. It will also include all invoices outstanding to date.
- Provider Statement Report report that shows a vendor's and service professional's accounting based on when it was paid. Report includes all unpaid bills. Any blank or empty amounts in the Paid column are amounts that have not been entered as paid.
There are some other pretty nice features to it that I'm not listing. Its FREE, so it doesn't hurt to sign up for an account and compare it to others such as Cozy.co. Like I said the interfaces are very similar so you won't have much of a learning curve moving from Cozy.co to TenantCloud. I personally also like the Dashboard of TenantCloud better...again more features. I hope this helps. Enjoy.
62 Replies
- Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 31 posts · 28 votes8y
Originally posted by @Edward B.:
Originally posted by @Shiloh Lundahl:
@Edward B. I like that. How many properties do you manage using Rentigo? Also, can you manage it for more that one company that you own? For instance if someone has real estate in different LLCs.
I don't use rentigo. I just looked it up because I am shopping for an online payment solution as well. I have narrowed it down to cozy and tenantcloud, but may take a closer look at this too. They all have their limitations.
@Edward B. I just started using TenantCloud and love the graphical user interface. It uses TCPayments powered by Dwolla, Stripe and PayPal for online payments. I haven't received any online payments from my tenants yet, but will with my upcoming leases. The only drawback with TenantCloud is that it doesn't automatically upload transactions from my bank account. i.e. I would love for it to perform like Quickbooks and automatically download and categorize debits from my bank account...if it did that it would be perfect. Instead, if I spend $50 at Home Depot on something for a property, I have to manually input the expense inside TenantCloud. Other than that, I really like TenantCloud.
- Debary, FL · Member since 2017 · 110 posts · 113 votes8y
Word of warning for those considering PayPal in the US. A transaction will cost you 2.9% of the total payment plus $0.30, and that's assuming they also have a US account. If their account is based internationally (for example you are renting to students) then the fee is 4.4% plus $0.30.
Example: I'm a small-timer. One of my units is $875 a month. If she paid by PayPal I have a fee of $25.68 a month. If I pick it up and take it to the bank I save $308.16 per year and I'll get paid back roughly $0.52 per mile at tax time to go to a nearby town I'd probably need to goto anyway for lunch or something.
But at least it's quick and easy, right? Not so much. Chances are your rent payment will go onto a 21 day hold as part of their security system. That hold can be reduced, but it works best for transactions with tracking numbers. Here, there is nothing to ship so you have to go back into PP and mark it as "processed" and reduce the hold to 7 days. But then the money is in a 0% interest PayPal account. To get it to your bank you can send it on a 1-5 *BUSINESS DAY* trip to a checking or savings account for free, or a 30 minute trip to a debit card for $0.25 until you find that the 30 minute trip is stalled in a 72 hour security review. Yea real fast. A check in the mail is easily faster than all of this.
This is also assuming the system will even let your tenant pay through their system. PP wants to bring order to the chaos of online transactions, nobel pursuit, but it will err on the side of caution. Now the rent's due today, PayPal won't allow your tenant to pay, and now they're calling you to make accommodations because they tried to pay but PayPal won't allow it. What do you do?
PayPal has a lot of benefits, but as a means of collecting rent payments is not one of them.
- Investor · USA · Member since 2015 · 325 posts · 447 votes8yI use Cozy and love it. Very simple and easy to use. The processing time is long but it is a FREE service. I try to use their screening tools. I have buddies that use appfolio and love it, but I can’t justify the cost being this small. The main drawback I would see would be that there isn’t a dashboard that shows all your accounts. I have to go into each property individually and see if folks have paid and when it will hit my bank. It is really simple to use for both the tenant and myself. I really don’t expect anything more for something that can be free.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
I just started using Cozy. I'm doing a trial by using it to manage the rent of a triplex.
So far, so good. All three of my tenants paid AHEAD of time, and I think it's because of the auto-reminder system.
From anyone who has used Cozy in the past - do they improve and update it often? So far it does most of what I want it to.
Kraig
- Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2016 · 56 posts · 20 votes8yHas anyone had any experience with Unit Dash? They seem to be a good free option but hardly get mentioned anywhere. We just bought our first property (5 units) and are looking to start with the best free software. Right now leaning towards Cozy or Unit Dash.
@Kraig Kujawa - Cozy has made a few improvements since I've been using it in that they've added the "Expenses" and "Maintenance Request" sections. I'm hoping they add more to it, but so far those are the things I've seen.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
Originally posted by @Lucas LeBlanc:
Has anyone had any experience with Unit Dash? They seem to be a good free option but hardly get mentioned anywhere.
We just bought our first property (5 units) and are looking to start with the best free software. Right now leaning towards Cozy or Unit Dash.
Lucas, haven't tried Unit Dash. Doing my first month trial with Cozy and so far with my triplex, and so far the user interface for my tenants has been a success. A student, a couple of bartenders, and a family have all logged in, put in their info and paid ahead of time. To me, that is a success. I have also been able to give them a pro-rate credit and it's all sorted out. I'm bullish on it. Maybe we can both navigate it together as Cozy-noobs.
Kraig
- Investor · Franklin, NJ · Member since 2017 · 27 posts · 26 votes8y
I just started using dwel.co to collect rent for my properties. They are relatively new, but their team has been extremely responsive to my feedback, and it's made things a lot simpler for me.
Definitely check out their site!
- 8yMindy JensenPro MemberBiggerPockets Money Podcast Host · Longmont, CO · Member since 2014 · 7k+ posts · 10k+ votes
@Stephen Shelton , one more ding in the Paypal rent collection is your tenant's ability to "dispute" the charge after the fact. Paypal typically sides with the payer rather than the payee. Imagine your tenant disputing that last month's rent.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
Originally posted by @Mindy Jensen:
@Stephen Shelton , one more ding in the Paypal rent collection is your tenant's ability to "dispute" the charge after the fact. Paypal typically sides with the payer rather than the payee. Imagine your tenant disputing that last month's rent.
Whoa, Mindy. That's terrifying. I hadn't thought of that. Good tip.
- Richmond, VA · Member since 2018 · 18 posts · 22 votes8y
If you're looking for something nice for your tenants check out Roof—there's a whole tenant app included that they can use with their roommates, and to pay rent. I'm still only using it on a handful of my units to try it out but so far tenants have told me they love it. Seems relatively new still but they're adding features and improving the app seriously fast.
It does cost $2/tenant (and has no transaction fee for tenants), but their customer support told me recently they'll be including a free option in the next couple weeks where your tenants can just pay a transaction fee instead. - Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 31 posts · 28 votes8y
@Jordan Moorhead So, with all the mentions of Cozy.co I signed up for an account and added a few of my properties for trail run. It is a great platform and is really easy to use. I do however have to rate TenantCloud as a better platform than Cozy.co. TenantCloud does practically everything Cozy.co does, plus more. The graphical user interface for both look very similar...its almost like TenantCloud copied Cozy.co platform and added some additional features to it.
Some highlighted features of TenantCloud are:
- Ability to customize online rental applications
- A File Manager for each property, it categorizes all uploaded receipts and documents for each property
- A Document Template to upload custom lease agreements, house rules, pet rules, and other addendum to the lease.
- Allow tenants to sign lease agreements electronically.
- Receive online ACH payments with TCPayments (Dwolla) - Tenants pay rent online
- Allows you to list multiple owners for a property and enter all detail information about property, such as the purchase price, purchase date, insurance, taxes, down payment, annual interest rate, current loan balance, loan terms, mortgage loan company, amortization schedule, depreciation years/schedule, utility providers, and much more.
- Online rental applications & vendor to screen your applicants
- Built-in renters insurance vendor for when your tenant signs lease
- Auto invoicing and late fees
- Free listing website
- Tenants can submit maintenance request online using a very cool and easy to use interface, of which you can easily assign/forward the maintenance request to one of your service professionals.
The Financial Reports sections has a number of great reports that can be auto generated, such as:
- Depreciation Tracker report that allows you to track annual depreciation for your residential and commercial rental property, which is also used in your tax preparation report.
- Expense report that provides the expenses based on the property or a specific unit. It is available for accrual type accounting only. The report shows all paid expense invoices for all properties and units excluding liabilities (deposit, prepaid rent, pet deposit, etc.). This report can be searched based on owner.
- Monthly Property report shows the property accounting based on each unit. The income and expenses including payment to owner and management fees. This report is designed to be for a property manager in order to deliver to an owner.
- Operating Statement report that shows the invoices of which have been marked “paid” for both income and expenses. The report includes records for all properties and units excluding liabilities categories (deposit, prepaid rent, pet deposit, etc.). The purpose of this report is to monitor cash-flow coming in and out of the rental property.
- Rent Roll report that shows all tenants that have an active lease in each property. The report includes the tenant's name, deposits held, market rent and the balance owed. This report can be searched by property owner or property.
- Tax Preparation Report that shows all income and expenses for a specific period of time. This report is designed to help a landlord file their taxes. The report will include all income as well as expenses, management fees paid, depreciation and interest expense over the set time period. Deposits, Prepaid rent and other liabilities will not be included.
- Tenant Statement report that shows a tenant's accounting based on when it was due. The report includes deposits, prepaid rent and other deposits. It will also include all invoices outstanding to date.
- Provider Statement Report report that shows a vendor's and service professional's accounting based on when it was paid. Report includes all unpaid bills. Any blank or empty amounts in the Paid column are amounts that have not been entered as paid.
There are some other pretty nice features to it that I'm not listing. Its FREE, so it doesn't hurt to sign up for an account and compare it to others such as Cozy.co. Like I said the interfaces are very similar so you won't have much of a learning curve moving from Cozy.co to TenantCloud. I personally also like the Dashboard of TenantCloud better...again more features. I hope this helps. Enjoy.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
Wow, hadn't heard of this one. Is the service also free like Cozy?
Awesome breakdown, btw.
- Orlando, FL · Member since 2018 · 4 posts · 1 vote8y
For PayPal, if they send it Friends&Family rather than Goods&Services, it can't be disputed and I think it's a smaller fee. That is, if your tennants are OK sending it that way. I just had a conversation with someone who started using Venmo for a couple of SFR's they hold and were pleased with the ease of use. If you're just looking for payments and not a full blown platform (TenantCloud looks to be great for that) then Venmo or Zelle should work just fine.
- Vendor · Austin, TX · Member since 2014 · 79 posts · 18 votes8y
@Kraig Kujawa Yes, it's free to sign up and manage 75 units at no cost.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
@Kraig Kujawa Yes, it's free to sign up and manage 75 units at no cost.
And y'all are an Austin startup - awesome. Now if only there was an easy way to transfer my Cozy account. Once you have your tenants up and running, it's hard to have them transition.
Honestly TenantCloud sounds better, more robust, but I'm already setup with Cozy, so transporting everything over seems like a PITA right now. Maybe on my next property I'll use TenantCloud. I didn't know it had all those features though, wish I had known before deciding on Cozy.
Although I will mention I do like Cozy, very easy to use, and if you're not in need of the accounting part than it seems like a good platform. I do my own accounting so that's another reason I'm not concerned with porting my Cozy to TenantCloud.
- MI · Member since 2018 · 59 posts · 78 votes8y
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
@Kraig Kujawa Yes, it's free to sign up and manage 75 units at no cost.
On the pricing page payments are not included with the free account. I consider rent collection a key feature to 'manage' my property, so not sure how it's free?
- Vendor · Austin, TX · Member since 2014 · 79 posts · 18 votes8y
@Jake DeBoer, online payments are included in the free basic plan. You can set up PayPal and Stripe to accept credit card payments.
- MI · Member since 2018 · 59 posts · 78 votes8y
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
@Jake DeBoer, online payments are included in the free basic plan. You can set up PayPal and Stripe to accept credit card payments.
TCPayments have no "transaction fees" but you need to pay $9/mo subscription. PayPal and Stripe have transaction fees:
So again, how is this free?
- 8yGary SigafoosPro MemberCharlotte, NC · Member since 2017 · 7 posts · 0 votes
Hello All - I have a question regarding property management.
We just recently purchased a triplex and the agreement reads that the PM fee is "(b) A fee equal to TEN percent ( 10 %) of gross rental income received on all rental agreements starting in 2nd month, OR $65.00 per month, whichever is greater."
We got the payment today and realized the property manager charged us 65*3 Units versus 10% of gross rent. What is the industry standard. I read this agreement as the PM will be taking take 10% of the gross rent and not 65*3 units since 10% of our gross rent is greater than $65. . Did I interprete this wrong or PM is playing a smart one on me?
Thanks in advance for your input.
- Vendor · Austin, TX · Member since 2014 · 79 posts · 18 votes8y
Originally posted by @Jake DeBoer:
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
@Jake DeBoer, online payments are included in the free basic plan. You can set up PayPal and Stripe to accept credit card payments.
TCPayments have no "transaction fees" but you need to pay $9/mo subscription. PayPal and Stripe have transaction fees:
So again, how is this free?
Jake, you can set up Stripe and pass the fee to tenants. That is how it's free.
- Investor · Orlando · Member since 2016 · 151 posts · 72 votes8y
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
Originally posted by @Jake DeBoer:
Originally posted by @Donna Sommers:
@Jake DeBoer, online payments are included in the free basic plan. You can set up PayPal and Stripe to accept credit card payments.
TCPayments have no "transaction fees" but you need to pay $9/mo subscription. PayPal and Stripe have transaction fees:
So again, how is this free?
Jake, you can set up Stripe and pass the fee to tenants. That is how it's free.
Whoa! That's a big difference. The first thing 90% of my tenants asked when they signed up for Cozy was if it's free. I made sure i put that they had to use my portal as part of the lease, but i feel good about that since it's no extra charge for them if they link their bank account. Passing an extra $9/mo is a tough pill, IMO.
- MI · Member since 2018 · 59 posts · 78 votes8y
@Kraig Kujawa Agreed.
1/ This bait and switch from Tenant Cloud is shady, a company should be clear about pricing upfront. You can't claim your product is free for both landlords and tenants when in fact it's not.
2/ Morally I am not OK passing a charge/fee to my tenant when it's something I am requiring them to use. Especially when they have free options available.
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